Cloud Atlas: Book Review

I hated to leave the world of Cloud Atlas. 6 stories spanning from the mid 19th century to the 24th (?), 5 of which are tied together by one soul (Cavendish is the odd one out, I think *, but his story does connect with Louisa Rey before him, and then Somni-451). That soul is identified for us by a recurring birthmark, comet shaped, which in one story (Louisa Rey's), throbbed when presented with an icon from its past.

The stories flow as water through a multi level waterfall (or drifts across the ages like clouds, as the title implies.... or flies across the sky as a comet). You pick!

The novel draws on philosophies of Eastern (reincarnation and karma) and Western (Nietzsche, in particular), and perhaps others, like Existentialism (a well read author, Mitchell is!). The protagonist in each story has a choice. And perhaps, learn a lesson.

If lessons and multi lives are vehicles for an individual to evolve into the best that they can be then Cloud Atlas seems to be circular. The character should have peaked in Zachry, in the 6th story. But I am thinking linear, chronological (or to quote Spock referring to Khan in 'Wrath of Khan', "He is very intelligent, but his thinking is two dimensional").
Like electrons which dart forth-and-back in an alternating current, the soul's arc seems to peak in Adam's story. He is the one to grow and benefit from all the lives (Nietzsche's eternal recurrence). Does this mean as the circle continues, will Adam's future incarnations, when their time rolls around, again, grow too? Will it eventually peak with Zachry? I suppose the reader will have to answer those questions for themselves.

p.s.: I watched the movie long before I read the book. And I had watched it a few times. Loved it, but it raised a lot of questions. Thankfully the book goes much deeper. As with most, the book is a lot better. The movie made a lot of changes, particularly with the Somni-451 story. Somni's story in the book, darker but better. The movie version- all Hollywood endings (sort of like the original story for 'Pretty Woman' was much darker than the movie with Julia Roberts). The movie muddied the waters regarding the incarnations by using the same actors in the stories. Changes everything. As good as the movie is, the book is better.

*Cavendish said he has a birthmark, but it didn't look much like a comet (more like a turd), it was in a different location on his body (not in the shoulder area, much lower), and he would have been alive during the Louisa Rey years, albeit younger, possibly the same age as Louisa. I did find a theory that the soul split into two at the end of the Frobisher's timeline, but I somehow don't buy into that. Louisa thought that maybe, just maybe, she was Frobisher in a past life (especially after listening to his Cloud Atlas Sextet), but Cavendish expressively pooh-poohed reincarnation outright. (there is SO much to this novel, when, if, I re-read it I will have highlighter and pen in hand).