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Cloud
“Why, when we take such care to disguise our true selves from others, would we expect them to be an open book to us?”
Harry Steen, a businessman travelling in Mexico, ducks into an old bookstore to escape a frightening deluge. Inside, he makes a serendipitous discovery: a mid-nineteenth-century account of a sinister storm cloud that plagued an isolated Scottish village and caused many gruesome and unexplainable deaths. Harry knows the village well; he travelled there as a young man to take up a teaching post following the death of his parents. It was there that he met the woman whose love and betrayal have haunted him every day since. Presented with this astonishing record, Harry resolves to seek out the ghosts of his past and return to the very place where he encountered the fathomless depths of his own heart. With Cloud, critically acclaimed Canadian author Eric McCormack has written a masterpiece of literary Gothicism, an intimate and perplexing study of how the past haunts us, and how we remain mysterious to others, and even ourselves.
Harry Steen, a businessman travelling in Mexico, ducks into an old bookstore to escape a frightening deluge. Inside, he makes a serendipitous discovery: a mid-nineteenth-century account of a sinister storm cloud that plagued an isolated Scottish village and caused many gruesome and unexplainable deaths. Harry knows the village well; he travelled there as a young man to take up a teaching post following the death of his parents. It was there that he met the woman whose love and betrayal have haunted him every day since. Presented with this astonishing record, Harry resolves to seek out the ghosts of his past and return to the very place where he encountered the fathomless depths of his own heart. With Cloud, critically acclaimed Canadian author Eric McCormack has written a masterpiece of literary Gothicism, an intimate and perplexing study of how the past haunts us, and how we remain mysterious to others, and even ourselves.
432 pages, Paperback
First published August 19, 2014
8 people are currently reading
350 people want to read
About the author
Eric McCormack
16 books38 followersEric McCormack was born in Scotland, later emigrated to Canada and, since 1970, has been teaching at St. Jerome's University in Waterloo, Ontario. He started out on his career writing short stories which appeared in literary journals including Prism International, West Coast Review, Malahat Review, and The New Quarterly. He has also written poetry over the years. In February 1987 his first book, Inspecting the Vaults was published. This is a collection of nineteen short stories, thirteen of which had been previously published in literary magazines. His first novel, The Paradise Motel, was published in February 1989. Eric McCormack became the focus of considerable media interest and his books were translated into many foreign languages. His next novel, The Mysterium, was released in 1992, and his most recent book, First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women was published in 1997. It was nominated for the Governor General's Award. Eric McCormack also frequently reviews for The Globe and Mail. His works to date have received much critical acclaim.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
September 13, 2014
As Eric McCormack himself says towards the end of his delightful new book, "Book lovers naturally do feel a kind of possessiveness and protectiveness in how they relate to certain authors and books, as though they were pets."
Well, not pets maybe but certainly old friends. McCormack is one of those writers who push every button in me so that his work bypasses all the usual critical barriers and passes directly into my brain.
It's been 10 years since his last book but this one was worth waiting for and one of his best. It's both familiar with his usual collection of one-legged miners, sea travel, its love of strange cases and oddities of all types, its love of books, authors and writing and the weirdness of a writer's life, and its focus on gothic horror and the meaning of stories of romance but it also moves into new areas with a focus on issues of moral responsibility, paternity, ethics in business, science, and scholarship.
The Globe and Mail calls him, "A spellbinder, an ancient mariner with a glittering eye," and they're correct.
I even love his use of quotes, like just before part III, when his protagonist is about to marry and he quotes Albert Camus: "Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal."
Or: Rene Magritte, the surrealist painter, with: "The mind loves the unknown... since the meaning of the mind itself is unknown."
Great stuff! You should read this man, now! - BH.
Well, not pets maybe but certainly old friends. McCormack is one of those writers who push every button in me so that his work bypasses all the usual critical barriers and passes directly into my brain.
It's been 10 years since his last book but this one was worth waiting for and one of his best. It's both familiar with his usual collection of one-legged miners, sea travel, its love of strange cases and oddities of all types, its love of books, authors and writing and the weirdness of a writer's life, and its focus on gothic horror and the meaning of stories of romance but it also moves into new areas with a focus on issues of moral responsibility, paternity, ethics in business, science, and scholarship.
The Globe and Mail calls him, "A spellbinder, an ancient mariner with a glittering eye," and they're correct.
I even love his use of quotes, like just before part III, when his protagonist is about to marry and he quotes Albert Camus: "Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal."
Or: Rene Magritte, the surrealist painter, with: "The mind loves the unknown... since the meaning of the mind itself is unknown."
Great stuff! You should read this man, now! - BH.
November 22, 2014
I’m having the hardest time reviewing this book and I know why. I want to categorize it. I’ve all kinds of terms rattling around in my head as I try to write about it but ultimately what I end up with is just thinking out loud on paper.
Everything centres on the narrator of Cloud and this is as it should be as it is essentially his autobiography. Thematically, the novel concerns the nature of memory, to some degree narrative, and also narcissism. The narrator, Harry Steen, is a less than reliable fellow. He’s secretive and self-deceptive though he seems, or at least tells us, he’s quite sincere. He readily admits to his secretiveness – he even explains it as if it is a virtue.
But the question is always there: Can we believe anything about Harry other than his untrustworthiness as a witness?
Harry finds a book in an out-of-the-way bookstore in La Verdad, Mexico. It is a very old, mildewed book with the title, “The Obsidian Cloud: An account of a singular occurrence within living memory over the skies of the town of Duncairn in County of Ayrshire.” The story it tells is bizarre to say the least but what catches Harry’s eye is the reference to Duncairn, Scotland, a place he lived for a brief time in his life, a time that defined him because of a love found and lost and never understood. (Actually, a love misunderstood.)
There is a Dickensian, or at least Victorian quality to Cloud in that it is episodic. Harry’s life takes him around the world. As a young man he begins as a school teacher, becomes a sailor for a time (one that suffers from seasickness), and eventually the head of a Canadian mining company.
Now here’s the thing about Harry: he’s a frustrating ass, so much so you want to kick him in the ass. This is largely due to his secretiveness, his constant caution about how people might react to truth and, because of this caution, his inevitable reluctance to tell it. He is constantly explaining that he isn’t revealing the truth because it’s best for someone else, when in fact it is really because he’s afraid to do so. In most, if not all cases, he eventually finds out that people already knew the truth anyway.
It is also because of his constant focus on himself and how events affect him, his interpreting of the world only to the extent that it relates to him, to see everything in terms of how he feels. And (usually) how he feels is wronged. For much of the book he sees himself as a victim.
This is purposeful on McCormack’s part and in many cases allows for a good deal of humour and makes the story an intriguing, entertaining yarn. But it also leaves the reader feeling a degree of frustration with the narrator because he is such a self-involved ass.
The novel is a mock-heroic one, with a post-modernist sensibility and a few metafictional games thrown in. It is about the dubious nature of perception and memory and, as a consequence, narration.
Despite mounting evidence to the contrary, narrator Harry sees people and situations in ways that suit him and his idea of how the world should be. Yet it is seldom, if ever, an accurate world he imagines. Cloud is a comic novel, though it may not strike readers that way. It’s not comic in the sense of a “fall out of your chair laughing” way. It’s comic in form, in the sense that it is a series of misreadings, misunderstandings, misconstructions of people, situations, and events.
In his novel, McCormack gives us a peculiar variation on the picaresque novel. However, unlike the traditional novel of this type, McCormack’s hero is anything but roguish. (It sometimes seems as if every character is except Harry.) Harry is more coward than rogue.
It’s a peculiar book. But that is par for the course with Eric McCormack. I do know two things, however. First, I want to re-read this book. I liked it and want to get a better grasp of the story I’ve read. The second is simply to rewrite this review sometime because I feel it is a cobbled together series of impressions.
For now, this is the best I could come up with.
Everything centres on the narrator of Cloud and this is as it should be as it is essentially his autobiography. Thematically, the novel concerns the nature of memory, to some degree narrative, and also narcissism. The narrator, Harry Steen, is a less than reliable fellow. He’s secretive and self-deceptive though he seems, or at least tells us, he’s quite sincere. He readily admits to his secretiveness – he even explains it as if it is a virtue.
But the question is always there: Can we believe anything about Harry other than his untrustworthiness as a witness?
Harry finds a book in an out-of-the-way bookstore in La Verdad, Mexico. It is a very old, mildewed book with the title, “The Obsidian Cloud: An account of a singular occurrence within living memory over the skies of the town of Duncairn in County of Ayrshire.” The story it tells is bizarre to say the least but what catches Harry’s eye is the reference to Duncairn, Scotland, a place he lived for a brief time in his life, a time that defined him because of a love found and lost and never understood. (Actually, a love misunderstood.)
There is a Dickensian, or at least Victorian quality to Cloud in that it is episodic. Harry’s life takes him around the world. As a young man he begins as a school teacher, becomes a sailor for a time (one that suffers from seasickness), and eventually the head of a Canadian mining company.
Now here’s the thing about Harry: he’s a frustrating ass, so much so you want to kick him in the ass. This is largely due to his secretiveness, his constant caution about how people might react to truth and, because of this caution, his inevitable reluctance to tell it. He is constantly explaining that he isn’t revealing the truth because it’s best for someone else, when in fact it is really because he’s afraid to do so. In most, if not all cases, he eventually finds out that people already knew the truth anyway.
It is also because of his constant focus on himself and how events affect him, his interpreting of the world only to the extent that it relates to him, to see everything in terms of how he feels. And (usually) how he feels is wronged. For much of the book he sees himself as a victim.
This is purposeful on McCormack’s part and in many cases allows for a good deal of humour and makes the story an intriguing, entertaining yarn. But it also leaves the reader feeling a degree of frustration with the narrator because he is such a self-involved ass.
The novel is a mock-heroic one, with a post-modernist sensibility and a few metafictional games thrown in. It is about the dubious nature of perception and memory and, as a consequence, narration.
Despite mounting evidence to the contrary, narrator Harry sees people and situations in ways that suit him and his idea of how the world should be. Yet it is seldom, if ever, an accurate world he imagines. Cloud is a comic novel, though it may not strike readers that way. It’s not comic in the sense of a “fall out of your chair laughing” way. It’s comic in form, in the sense that it is a series of misreadings, misunderstandings, misconstructions of people, situations, and events.
In his novel, McCormack gives us a peculiar variation on the picaresque novel. However, unlike the traditional novel of this type, McCormack’s hero is anything but roguish. (It sometimes seems as if every character is except Harry.) Harry is more coward than rogue.
It’s a peculiar book. But that is par for the course with Eric McCormack. I do know two things, however. First, I want to re-read this book. I liked it and want to get a better grasp of the story I’ve read. The second is simply to rewrite this review sometime because I feel it is a cobbled together series of impressions.
For now, this is the best I could come up with.
April 7, 2022
I really wanted to enjoy this book, and for all intents and purposes I should have, but I found
Cloud
disappointing. After reading, and absolutely loving, The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women and The Dutch Wife by Eric McCormack I jumped right into this book fervently expecting likewise; unfortunately, I was left wanting.
Much like his previous novels, in Cloud we are given a protagonist who travels the world meeting interesting characters and hearing strange tales, some of them happening to him directly. Oddly, I neither found his journey or his personality compelling enough. Even stranger, at least a half-dozen of the curious anecdotes we are told of were already given to us in The Dutch Wife. I'm not sure if this was done to relate a shared world in McCormack's fiction or he was just so fascinated by them that he decided to recycle them, but it felt like a bit of a gyp.
There is nothing wrong with the writing in my opinion, but rather the plot. Whereas in his previous novels the characters compelled you to want to know more and go further with them in this case all the meanderings and side-stories felt tiresome. In some ways I think it would have been better served as a shorter novella, with greater concentration on the inside story of 'The Obsidian Cloud', which kicked off the book and was quite engaging. As it was, it was never a book I set down and couldn't wait to pick up again.
Having said all this I do admire that McCormack can weave so many seemingly unrelated lines of thought and interest into a combined piece, and I'm still very hopeful that he is currently working on something new. I still look forward to whatever may come from his pen in the future.
⭐⭐⭐
Much like his previous novels, in Cloud we are given a protagonist who travels the world meeting interesting characters and hearing strange tales, some of them happening to him directly. Oddly, I neither found his journey or his personality compelling enough. Even stranger, at least a half-dozen of the curious anecdotes we are told of were already given to us in The Dutch Wife. I'm not sure if this was done to relate a shared world in McCormack's fiction or he was just so fascinated by them that he decided to recycle them, but it felt like a bit of a gyp.
There is nothing wrong with the writing in my opinion, but rather the plot. Whereas in his previous novels the characters compelled you to want to know more and go further with them in this case all the meanderings and side-stories felt tiresome. In some ways I think it would have been better served as a shorter novella, with greater concentration on the inside story of 'The Obsidian Cloud', which kicked off the book and was quite engaging. As it was, it was never a book I set down and couldn't wait to pick up again.
Having said all this I do admire that McCormack can weave so many seemingly unrelated lines of thought and interest into a combined piece, and I'm still very hopeful that he is currently working on something new. I still look forward to whatever may come from his pen in the future.
⭐⭐⭐
October 17, 2014
'Cloud' was the first book I've read by Eric McCormack, and is also the first book that I haven't been able to put down in a very long time. This book is essentially a series of highly-engaging short stories compiled and centralized around one connecting figure-our main dude, Harry Steen. The reader has no idea where McCormack will take Harry next, from the eerie, windy uplands of Scotland to the remote, lush descriptions of Fiji, I found this book captivating from start to finish. The characters of Cloud are fully realized, diverse, and action-oriented, which left me wondering about their motivations behind their actions. The ending of the book was not as innovative as the main body, but was ultimately satisfying. I recommend Cloud to anyone who's sick of boring books!
December 20, 2014
The author recycles some material from previous books, but this is not a criticism; in fact it works well, making the reader a part of the story, in the same way that when reading the sequel to a favourite book, you smile when a character alludes to something that happened in the previous volume. Harry's discovery, that the narrative he had created about his past and believed all his life was not true, struck a chord. How can we know what really happened? Does it matter? Or should we just get on with life?
June 16, 2017
Took forever to get through and I still can't figure out why I kept reading....ugh.
July 14, 2023
C’est un livre intéressant mais malheureusement, on passe à côté de l’histoire. Le personnage principal, Harry, est difficile à cerner : on ne sait pas si c’est parce qu’il manque de profondeur ou au contraire, parce qu’il n’en a pas. Les personnages secondaires et les voyages d’Harry sont intéressants, et c’est ce qui raccroche le lecteur à l’intrigue. L’écriture est agréable, mais j’ai du du mal à percevoir le but de l’histoire… La quête que devrait susciter le livre n’est là que de manière sporadique. Dommage, ce livre avait beaucoup de potentiel.
October 27, 2018
Sometimes as an expat, I need books from home. Or an author from home. I met Eric McCormack at a literary festival when I was in University. His books are odd. A great odd. I like Odd. Normalcy with a slice of strange to make you think, then think again.
"Cloud" was a book of stories within a book about a book. Books about books are my favourites!!
I like a book that can go full circle in a way that is true and can keep me guessing and thinking.
I liked the ending.
"Cloud" was a book of stories within a book about a book. Books about books are my favourites!!
I like a book that can go full circle in a way that is true and can keep me guessing and thinking.
I liked the ending.
January 3, 2021
If you are a McCormack fan (why else would you be reading this) you will most probably know that his novels are not so much unified narratives as a collection of incidents and anecdotes strung on a thin narrative thread. Such is this work- the characters are vivid at times but paper thin , the overall plot is not exactly a surprise. Enjoy this book for the stories and images- they are the real treasures.
October 31, 2021
This was just a big collection of weird stuff that happened to this one guy. None of it really felt connected, and the mystery about the book he found at the beginning was all in the background and the investigating of it done by some third party. It was a huge slog and I'm surprised I finished it at all.
August 7, 2017
Enjoyable read. It seemed like a bunch of interesting but unrelated stories. I was expecting it to all come together at the end, but it didn't. At least not for me. I found the ending unsatisfying and now think it was a good read without a plot.
July 16, 2018
A classic 3.5 rating, but erred for a 4, since 3.5 isn't an option, as i am writing this review several months after reading it, and still have a vivid picture of the setting of the book, and a good memory of the story - despite it moving across time and continents.
November 11, 2016
Ce livre dans le livre n'est finalement qu'un fil rouge dans la narration de la vie du personnage principal. Larmes, amours, voyages sont au rendez-vous ! C'est agréable et prenant à lire.
October 4, 2018
UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH
ZERO STARS
ZERO STARS
October 23, 2019
sûrement 5 etoiles et sans la moindre hésitation !
October 12, 2021
Lire suggéré par l'émission la grande librairie. On se laisse bercer aux multiples aventures et mésaventures de notre narrateur. Une enquête sur un livre ancien et l’histoire de la vie du narrateur. Un livre qui fait voyager et découvrir d’autres horizons.
Ce roman est déconcertant, j’ai beaucoup aimé!
Ce roman est déconcertant, j’ai beaucoup aimé!
April 28, 2016
This is a peculiar novel. Its blending of magic realism and Gothicism just doesn’t appeal to me.
Harry Steen finds an old book in a bookstore in Mexico; its title refers to an isolated village in Scotland where he lived briefly and where something happened which “would complicate the entire course of [his] life thereafter” (57). That book inspires him to chronicle his life from an impoverished childhood in the slums of Glasgow to his financially secure life in Canada as a successful businessman.
The Wikipedia entry on McCormack states, “McCormack's heroes tend to have an academic/bookish bent, been born in Scotland, and have settled in the same part of Canada that he did. They also travel extensively, often by ship, and meet eccentric fellow travelers who relate to them their life stories and interests.” This is certainly the case with this novel’s protagonist. After graduating from university, he sails to Africa and South America but eventually settles in Camberloo, which seems to be a bizarre blending of Cambridge and Waterloo, two cities in southern Ontario where the author lived. In his travels Harry meets many odd fellows.
It is the number of strange fellows which stretches credulity. There’s Jacob Nelson, a violinist with exhibitionist tendencies; Charles Dupont who becomes involved in horrific surgical/anthropological experiments; and Gordon Smith, a wealthy entrepreneur who enjoyed exotic sexual customs on remote tropical islands. Each of these men has considerable influence on Harry’s life.
Harry is not a likeable character. He is so self-centred and seems to feel himself hard done by, a wronged victim. He admits that he spent his life blaming someone else for his “self-serving behaviour over the years” (384). It is difficult to feel much for someone so self-involved. Every time he drinks he repeats his story of a love lost and becomes maudlin. Yet everything falls into his lap: jobs, sexual encounters, marriage, and wealth. Women are constantly throwing themselves at him as if he were irresistible when there is little attractiveness in his personality.
According to the Wikipedia entry, another characteristic of McCormack’s writing is the use of coincidence, with characters often meeting in unusual circumstances years after they have parted.
Again, this is the case in this novel. Chance and coincidence are found in real life, but the amount of coincidence in the book is problematic.
Apparently, McCormack is also known for self-references and those are found here as well. McCormack’s books include Inspecting the Vaults, The Paradise Motel, The Mysterium, First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women, and The Dutch Wife. In the novel, the titles in a ship’s library include Inspecting the Faults, The Paladine Hotel, The Wysterium, Last Blast of the Cornet, and A Dutch Life (155). What is the purpose of parodying one’s own titles?
According to the flyleaf, the book is about the “nature of love” and there are statements on that topic like, “’We all wish love would be eternal and exclusive . . . But it rarely seems to be the case’” (146) and “’first love is often a kind of self-love, a delight in the idea of being in love’” (383). At the end of the book, a cloud is lifted and Harry sees how he was wrong about love, but there are no new insights on the subject.
This book will undoubtedly appeal to certain readers, but it failed to be compelling for me. It is not a difficult read by any means, but it lacks focus. There are so many tangents – do we really need to know the life stories of patients in a psychiatric institution specializing “’in artists and academics who’ve somehow gone wrong’” (374)? At one point, the narrator comments, “Book lovers naturally do feel a kind of possessiveness and protectiveness in how they relate to certain authors and books, as though they were pets” (413). This book is not one of my pets!
Please check out my reader's blog (http://schatjesshelves.blogspot.ca/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski).
Harry Steen finds an old book in a bookstore in Mexico; its title refers to an isolated village in Scotland where he lived briefly and where something happened which “would complicate the entire course of [his] life thereafter” (57). That book inspires him to chronicle his life from an impoverished childhood in the slums of Glasgow to his financially secure life in Canada as a successful businessman.
The Wikipedia entry on McCormack states, “McCormack's heroes tend to have an academic/bookish bent, been born in Scotland, and have settled in the same part of Canada that he did. They also travel extensively, often by ship, and meet eccentric fellow travelers who relate to them their life stories and interests.” This is certainly the case with this novel’s protagonist. After graduating from university, he sails to Africa and South America but eventually settles in Camberloo, which seems to be a bizarre blending of Cambridge and Waterloo, two cities in southern Ontario where the author lived. In his travels Harry meets many odd fellows.
It is the number of strange fellows which stretches credulity. There’s Jacob Nelson, a violinist with exhibitionist tendencies; Charles Dupont who becomes involved in horrific surgical/anthropological experiments; and Gordon Smith, a wealthy entrepreneur who enjoyed exotic sexual customs on remote tropical islands. Each of these men has considerable influence on Harry’s life.
Harry is not a likeable character. He is so self-centred and seems to feel himself hard done by, a wronged victim. He admits that he spent his life blaming someone else for his “self-serving behaviour over the years” (384). It is difficult to feel much for someone so self-involved. Every time he drinks he repeats his story of a love lost and becomes maudlin. Yet everything falls into his lap: jobs, sexual encounters, marriage, and wealth. Women are constantly throwing themselves at him as if he were irresistible when there is little attractiveness in his personality.
According to the Wikipedia entry, another characteristic of McCormack’s writing is the use of coincidence, with characters often meeting in unusual circumstances years after they have parted.
Again, this is the case in this novel. Chance and coincidence are found in real life, but the amount of coincidence in the book is problematic.
Apparently, McCormack is also known for self-references and those are found here as well. McCormack’s books include Inspecting the Vaults, The Paradise Motel, The Mysterium, First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women, and The Dutch Wife. In the novel, the titles in a ship’s library include Inspecting the Faults, The Paladine Hotel, The Wysterium, Last Blast of the Cornet, and A Dutch Life (155). What is the purpose of parodying one’s own titles?
According to the flyleaf, the book is about the “nature of love” and there are statements on that topic like, “’We all wish love would be eternal and exclusive . . . But it rarely seems to be the case’” (146) and “’first love is often a kind of self-love, a delight in the idea of being in love’” (383). At the end of the book, a cloud is lifted and Harry sees how he was wrong about love, but there are no new insights on the subject.
This book will undoubtedly appeal to certain readers, but it failed to be compelling for me. It is not a difficult read by any means, but it lacks focus. There are so many tangents – do we really need to know the life stories of patients in a psychiatric institution specializing “’in artists and academics who’ve somehow gone wrong’” (374)? At one point, the narrator comments, “Book lovers naturally do feel a kind of possessiveness and protectiveness in how they relate to certain authors and books, as though they were pets” (413). This book is not one of my pets!
Please check out my reader's blog (http://schatjesshelves.blogspot.ca/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski).
November 24, 2014
My usual genre is historical romance so keep that in mind.
The beginning pulled me in fast and furious. It then settled into a steady pace. It was kind of like accelerating down a mountain and then driving across the mid-west of the US (which is flat). There were regular changes of scenery so it was never boring but I struggled to keep reading; I must conclude I’m a book-reading induced adrenalin junkie.
Cloud is written in first person and, therefore, read like an autobiography with his complete thoughts about his life experiences and the affects. I found it difficult to place the time period. At first it seemed like it was set after WWII but there was a reference to a woman wearing “jeans” (which at that time were work clothes and called dungarees) and another where a book was placed in a “plastic” bag. Maybe I’m being too exact.
Harry is introspective and his experiences take advantage of that. He learns from them and forms ideological preferences. If I think I’ve had a varied life with all the places I’ve lived, he’s an encyclopedia of knowledge. He suffers a broken heart early on and that taints his relationships. Unfortunately he denies himself full happiness all his life because of it which illustrates how destructive it is to avoid love because one has been hurt before.
I was always comfortable with the author's prose. He is descriptive without being verbose and I was right inside Harry's head reacting to his experiences right along with him.
The beginning pulled me in fast and furious. It then settled into a steady pace. It was kind of like accelerating down a mountain and then driving across the mid-west of the US (which is flat). There were regular changes of scenery so it was never boring but I struggled to keep reading; I must conclude I’m a book-reading induced adrenalin junkie.
Cloud is written in first person and, therefore, read like an autobiography with his complete thoughts about his life experiences and the affects. I found it difficult to place the time period. At first it seemed like it was set after WWII but there was a reference to a woman wearing “jeans” (which at that time were work clothes and called dungarees) and another where a book was placed in a “plastic” bag. Maybe I’m being too exact.
Harry is introspective and his experiences take advantage of that. He learns from them and forms ideological preferences. If I think I’ve had a varied life with all the places I’ve lived, he’s an encyclopedia of knowledge. He suffers a broken heart early on and that taints his relationships. Unfortunately he denies himself full happiness all his life because of it which illustrates how destructive it is to avoid love because one has been hurt before.
I was always comfortable with the author's prose. He is descriptive without being verbose and I was right inside Harry's head reacting to his experiences right along with him.
January 6, 2017
Awful. What a terrible inclusion in Canadian writing. The main character had absolutely no development and was so unrelateable I could hardly keep on keeping on. Only for the sake of others was I determined to finish this atrocious novel. It's not even worth the paper it's printed on.
IT HAD NO DAMN PLOT. No point at all. The main character does the exact same thing in every new place and uses the exact same words and whines about the exact same things. The mystery of the Obsidian Cloud isn't really a mystery. What was going to prove to be the interesting part of this book the author didn't even close off at the end.
Also....."Camberloo"?!?!? What. The. Fuck. Why bother trying to throw off anyone who know anything about geography in southern Ontario. It was just a meshing of Waterloo and Cambridge. At least pick a real place next time rather than embarrass yourself.
If that wasn't all, its also written in the dreaded first person. Save yourselves the time. Pick up something else.
IT HAD NO DAMN PLOT. No point at all. The main character does the exact same thing in every new place and uses the exact same words and whines about the exact same things. The mystery of the Obsidian Cloud isn't really a mystery. What was going to prove to be the interesting part of this book the author didn't even close off at the end.
Also....."Camberloo"?!?!? What. The. Fuck. Why bother trying to throw off anyone who know anything about geography in southern Ontario. It was just a meshing of Waterloo and Cambridge. At least pick a real place next time rather than embarrass yourself.
If that wasn't all, its also written in the dreaded first person. Save yourselves the time. Pick up something else.
December 23, 2015
I didn't particularly enjoy reading this book. It seemed to change direction with no commonality between themes. It's true that everything pulled together at the end but I didn't feel comfortable floundering around until I was pulled out at the very last. I was disappointed to find out that the mysterious book had virtually nothing to do with the story especially since this mystery was what drew me into reading the story in the first place. I also didn't find the language very compelling. In my opinion it was written in a journalistic style that gave too many facts without creating significant images. Although he said Scotland was beautiful, he didn't help me see it. Why did I give it 3? I suppose because it was easy to read.
February 7, 2017
un bon début. Mais je trouve que le roman se transforme ensuite en une sorte de "Dynastie", et je ne sais pas trop ce que l'auteur a voulu faire. J'ai trouvé la seconde moitié du livre un peu ennuyeuse.
August 31, 2014
I won this book from Goodreads First Reads, thank you Penguin Canada!
What a story. There is a little bit of everything in this book! It starts out with the main character, Harry, finding a book that mentions a town he had lived in previously. Harry then sets out to find out the mysterious beginnings of this book. Also, the story of Harry's life is told, through his travels to Scottland, Africa, South America and finally, Canada. So, there's a mystery, love story, travel adventure, all nicely told in 'Cloud'.
What a story. There is a little bit of everything in this book! It starts out with the main character, Harry, finding a book that mentions a town he had lived in previously. Harry then sets out to find out the mysterious beginnings of this book. Also, the story of Harry's life is told, through his travels to Scottland, Africa, South America and finally, Canada. So, there's a mystery, love story, travel adventure, all nicely told in 'Cloud'.
October 14, 2014
An unusual story, which is basically an autobiography of the fictional main character. As an adult he finds a book in a Mexican bookstore based on an incident in a town from his early life in Scotland. This find leads him to reflect on his life, which is a very unique one. I thought that his travels, acquaintances, and choices in life made a very compelling read.
July 29, 2015
I read his book The Dutch Wife first (which I LOVED) and was excited to read another of by this author until I realized that there were too many recycled ideas in Cloud. That being said, I do love the style in which McCormack writes.
June 22, 2024
à partir d’un livre trouvé au fin fond du Mexique, retour sur la vie du héros et de ses choix, au gré des événements… qui le ramènent à un acte fondateur, quand il a quitté un petit village d’Ecosse suite à une déception amoureuse. Agréable, se lit bien, mais sans émotion.
November 19, 2014
ridiculous
January 25, 2015
Weird. Probably filled with important messages and morals, but weird is the main feeling I'm left with.
February 6, 2015
Me likey! Very imaginative and compelling to read. There was no way to guess the ending.
March 5, 2015
A haunting journey through one man's life and all the people who intersect it. Well structured, satisfying and unsettling.
July 22, 2015
A pleasingly Gothic romp following our main character from childhood onwards around the world. Very readable with occasional dark twists.
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