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Mr. Eternity
A novel of exuberance and ambition, spanning one thousand years of high-seas adventure, environmental and cultural catastrophe, and enduring love.
" Mr. Eternity will be sizzling in my brain for a long time." -Lauren Groff
Key West, 2016. Sea levels are rising, coral reefs are dying. In short, everything is going to hell. It's here that two young filmmakers find something to believe in: an old sailor who calls himself Daniel Defoe and claims to be five hundred and sixty years old.
In fact, old Dan is in the prime of his life -- an incredible, perhaps eternal American life. The story unfolds over the course of a millennium, picking up in the sixteenth century in the Viceroyalty of New Granada and continuing into the twenty-sixth, where, in the future Democratic Federation of Mississippi States, Dan serves as an advisor to the King of St. Louis. Some things remain constant throughout the centuries, and being on the edge of ruin may be one. In 1560, the Spaniards have destroyed the Aztec and Inca civilizations. In 2500, we've destroyed our own: the cities of the Atlantic coast are underwater, the union has fallen apart, and cars, plastics, and air conditioning are relegated to history. But there are other constants too: love, humor, and old Dan himself, always adapting and inspiring others with dreams of a better life.
An ingenious, hilarious, and genre-bending page-turner, Mr. Eternity is multiple novels in one. Together they form an uncommon work -- about our changing planet and its remarkable continuities.
" Mr. Eternity will be sizzling in my brain for a long time." -Lauren Groff
Key West, 2016. Sea levels are rising, coral reefs are dying. In short, everything is going to hell. It's here that two young filmmakers find something to believe in: an old sailor who calls himself Daniel Defoe and claims to be five hundred and sixty years old.
In fact, old Dan is in the prime of his life -- an incredible, perhaps eternal American life. The story unfolds over the course of a millennium, picking up in the sixteenth century in the Viceroyalty of New Granada and continuing into the twenty-sixth, where, in the future Democratic Federation of Mississippi States, Dan serves as an advisor to the King of St. Louis. Some things remain constant throughout the centuries, and being on the edge of ruin may be one. In 1560, the Spaniards have destroyed the Aztec and Inca civilizations. In 2500, we've destroyed our own: the cities of the Atlantic coast are underwater, the union has fallen apart, and cars, plastics, and air conditioning are relegated to history. But there are other constants too: love, humor, and old Dan himself, always adapting and inspiring others with dreams of a better life.
An ingenious, hilarious, and genre-bending page-turner, Mr. Eternity is multiple novels in one. Together they form an uncommon work -- about our changing planet and its remarkable continuities.
272 pages, Paperback
First published August 9, 2016
29 people are currently reading
1297 people want to read
About the author
Aaron Thier
6 books44 followersAaron Thier was born in Baltimore and raised in western Massachusetts. He's the author of THE GHOST APPLE, MR. ETERNITY, and THE WORLD IS A NARROW BRIDGE (forthcoming July 2018).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 61 reviews
December 7, 2016
“I can only note that the past is beautiful because one never realizes an emotion at the time. It expands later, and thus we don't have complete emotions about the present, only about the past.”
----Virginia Woolf
Aaron Thier, an American author, has penned a terrific and gripping tale of evolving American history through thousands of ages in his new book, Mr. Eternity centered around an almost thousand years old ancient mariner who has survived through various civilizations in American history and has witnessed the sociological and environmental changes of the planet, who is actually on a quest to search his lady love.
Synopsis:
Key West, 2016. Sea levels are rising, coral reefs are dying. In short, everything is going to hell. It's here that two young filmmakers find something to believe in: an old sailor who calls himself Daniel Defoe and claims to be five hundred sixty years old.
In fact, old Dan is in the prime of his life. It's an incredible, perhaps eternal American life, which Mr. Eternity imagines over a millennium: a parade of conquistadors and plantation owners, lusty mermaids and dissatisfied princesses, picking up in the sixteenth century in the Vice royalty of New Granada and continuing into the twenty-sixth, where, in the future Democratic Federation of Mississippi States, Dan serves as an adviser to the King of St. Louis. Some things remain constant throughout the centuries, and being on the edge of ruin may be one. In 1560, the Spaniards have destroyed the Aztec and Inca civilizations. In 2500, we've destroyed our own: the cities of the Atlantic coast are underwater, the union has fallen apart, and cars, plastics, and air conditioning are relegated to history. But there are other constants too: love, ingenuity, humor, and old Dan himself, always adapting and inspiring others with dreams of a better life.
An ingenious, hilarious, and genre-bending page-turner, Mr. Eternity is multiple novels in one. Together they form an uncommon work--about our changing planet and its remarkable continuities.
Daniel Defoe, an almost 1000 years old man, who has experienced the inception and destruction of many American civilizations as well as the change in the global environment, narrates various tales through diverse timelines about five different individuals. In the 1500s in Spain, a native Pirahoa girl who after being sold to a Spanish man, starts narrating strange tales from her homeland, and once she finds the man named, Daniel de Fo, she along with Christian religion's conquerors embark upon a journey to find the homeland, El Dorado of that native girl. In the mid 1700s in a Caribbean island, a mulatto man named, John, son of a black slave and her white master, fools the sugar plantation's owner as a gentleman and along with Dr. Dan, he hatches up a plan to dupe and steal from the owner. In the year of 2016 in Kay West, two aspiring filmmakers and drop outs from their university decide to make a documentary on the ancient mariner named, Daniel of 560 years old, who later accompanies the two young men on a treasure hunt. In the 2200s in Boston, a poor young orphan boy named, Jam, deprived of any luxuries in life, is angry with the way the world has turned out to be with global warming, becomes a protege of Old Dan, who reveals and explains him about the socio economical causes of global warming. In the 2500s in St. Louis, a princess named, Jasmine, of a king brings her an ancient slave named, Daniel, who spins tales for her about the lost American civilizations from the beginning of time in the history of America. All the while this old immortal man, Daniel, is looking frantically for the love of his life, a Spanish woman, named, Anna Gloria. But did he find her?
This is a brilliant novel that raises so many modern day questions which, if put into consideration, future generation will have a sustainable life in an environment friendly society, also the past civilizations which were lost or put to an end will be honored. The book teaches the readers to respect the environment and the history and how not to waste the mother nature. Daniel, the immortal man, lives through ups and downs of the American history and environmental changes and reflects everything back whatever went wrong through the passed times and the times yet to come.
The author's writing style is excellent and flawless, although there is not much sentiments to make the readers feel, instead the book is extremely thought provoking and will make the readers ponder about both about the past and the future. The narrative is not that engaging, yet they are slightly striking and distinctive enough to let the readers see the depth beyond the multi person point-of-views. The pace is slow as the descriptions penned by the author are vivid enough to make the readers feel like they are standing right in front of the characters.
The timeline presented by the author are arresting and realistic enough to make the readers sway along with the shifting timeline from the past to the present into the future. The author's depiction about the civilizations and how both nature and superior human beings itself destroyed such inferior and ancient civilizations and did not do anything to protect such heritage is splendid enough for the readers to contemplate. The back drop did not play a huge role in the back, still, the moving time period is enough to bring that captivating feel to the story line.
The characters are well developed, although they did not feel much real enough to comprehend with their demeanor. Since this is not a character-driven tale, so the facts and the story development are the ones that will keep the readers on their edges. Not most readers will find anything appealing to this story, maybe readers who like to enjoy a slow-paced and though provocative will bound to find this book ideal for them.
In a nutshell, the story is unique, fulfilling, poignant and extremely enlightening enough to wonder about the mother nature and the causes of global warming.
Verdict: Highly intellectual and absorbing tale about the American history and environment.
Courtesy: Thanks to the author, Aaron Thier's publishers for giving me an opportunity to read and review this book.
----Virginia Woolf
Aaron Thier, an American author, has penned a terrific and gripping tale of evolving American history through thousands of ages in his new book, Mr. Eternity centered around an almost thousand years old ancient mariner who has survived through various civilizations in American history and has witnessed the sociological and environmental changes of the planet, who is actually on a quest to search his lady love.
Synopsis:
Key West, 2016. Sea levels are rising, coral reefs are dying. In short, everything is going to hell. It's here that two young filmmakers find something to believe in: an old sailor who calls himself Daniel Defoe and claims to be five hundred sixty years old.
In fact, old Dan is in the prime of his life. It's an incredible, perhaps eternal American life, which Mr. Eternity imagines over a millennium: a parade of conquistadors and plantation owners, lusty mermaids and dissatisfied princesses, picking up in the sixteenth century in the Vice royalty of New Granada and continuing into the twenty-sixth, where, in the future Democratic Federation of Mississippi States, Dan serves as an adviser to the King of St. Louis. Some things remain constant throughout the centuries, and being on the edge of ruin may be one. In 1560, the Spaniards have destroyed the Aztec and Inca civilizations. In 2500, we've destroyed our own: the cities of the Atlantic coast are underwater, the union has fallen apart, and cars, plastics, and air conditioning are relegated to history. But there are other constants too: love, ingenuity, humor, and old Dan himself, always adapting and inspiring others with dreams of a better life.
An ingenious, hilarious, and genre-bending page-turner, Mr. Eternity is multiple novels in one. Together they form an uncommon work--about our changing planet and its remarkable continuities.
Daniel Defoe, an almost 1000 years old man, who has experienced the inception and destruction of many American civilizations as well as the change in the global environment, narrates various tales through diverse timelines about five different individuals. In the 1500s in Spain, a native Pirahoa girl who after being sold to a Spanish man, starts narrating strange tales from her homeland, and once she finds the man named, Daniel de Fo, she along with Christian religion's conquerors embark upon a journey to find the homeland, El Dorado of that native girl. In the mid 1700s in a Caribbean island, a mulatto man named, John, son of a black slave and her white master, fools the sugar plantation's owner as a gentleman and along with Dr. Dan, he hatches up a plan to dupe and steal from the owner. In the year of 2016 in Kay West, two aspiring filmmakers and drop outs from their university decide to make a documentary on the ancient mariner named, Daniel of 560 years old, who later accompanies the two young men on a treasure hunt. In the 2200s in Boston, a poor young orphan boy named, Jam, deprived of any luxuries in life, is angry with the way the world has turned out to be with global warming, becomes a protege of Old Dan, who reveals and explains him about the socio economical causes of global warming. In the 2500s in St. Louis, a princess named, Jasmine, of a king brings her an ancient slave named, Daniel, who spins tales for her about the lost American civilizations from the beginning of time in the history of America. All the while this old immortal man, Daniel, is looking frantically for the love of his life, a Spanish woman, named, Anna Gloria. But did he find her?
This is a brilliant novel that raises so many modern day questions which, if put into consideration, future generation will have a sustainable life in an environment friendly society, also the past civilizations which were lost or put to an end will be honored. The book teaches the readers to respect the environment and the history and how not to waste the mother nature. Daniel, the immortal man, lives through ups and downs of the American history and environmental changes and reflects everything back whatever went wrong through the passed times and the times yet to come.
The author's writing style is excellent and flawless, although there is not much sentiments to make the readers feel, instead the book is extremely thought provoking and will make the readers ponder about both about the past and the future. The narrative is not that engaging, yet they are slightly striking and distinctive enough to let the readers see the depth beyond the multi person point-of-views. The pace is slow as the descriptions penned by the author are vivid enough to make the readers feel like they are standing right in front of the characters.
The timeline presented by the author are arresting and realistic enough to make the readers sway along with the shifting timeline from the past to the present into the future. The author's depiction about the civilizations and how both nature and superior human beings itself destroyed such inferior and ancient civilizations and did not do anything to protect such heritage is splendid enough for the readers to contemplate. The back drop did not play a huge role in the back, still, the moving time period is enough to bring that captivating feel to the story line.
The characters are well developed, although they did not feel much real enough to comprehend with their demeanor. Since this is not a character-driven tale, so the facts and the story development are the ones that will keep the readers on their edges. Not most readers will find anything appealing to this story, maybe readers who like to enjoy a slow-paced and though provocative will bound to find this book ideal for them.
In a nutshell, the story is unique, fulfilling, poignant and extremely enlightening enough to wonder about the mother nature and the causes of global warming.
Verdict: Highly intellectual and absorbing tale about the American history and environment.
Courtesy: Thanks to the author, Aaron Thier's publishers for giving me an opportunity to read and review this book.
November 25, 2015
This book had so much to recommend itself and I tried so, so much to get into it, but it just didn't engage. Imagine if you meet someone and they tell you a great story an you're fascinated, now imagine you've been hanging out with them for a while and all they tell you is stories and you're starting to question whether there is any real substance to this person at al. This was the best way I can describe this book. Daniel Defoe is Mr. Eternity, he ages, but continues to live throughout the centuries and this book vacillates between several different eras, past, present and future. From 1500s to 2500. The world changes and Daniel Defoe observes the changes and then incorporates them into his tales, history (according to the author) being an effort of imagination. Actually, that might be the most interesting aspect of the book, the contemplation of the nature of history as an ever changing, ever evolving/devolving entity that's dependent as much if not more on the storyteller as it is on facts. Had Daniel Defoe had a perfect memory, he might have still gone o with his embellished fairy tale like history, because it's just more fun that way, makes for more entertaining stories. He's the Baron Munchausen of his time and his story does read like a Terry Gilliam film. Entertain this book does. It's so clever and imaginative and original. It's just missing something...like a heart. I'm convinced it's an acquired taste of a read and it'll find its proper adoring audience. Just didn't quite sing for me. Pretty quick read, one evening's worth of time. Thanks Netgalley.
July 19, 2021
A joyously inventive retelling of the Don Quixote story that dances through a thousand years of history, from 1560 to 2500. We meet Daniel Defoe (not THAT Daniel Defoe) in five different time periods - 1560, 1750, 2016, 2200 and 2500. Each period has its own narrator, who gives us a view of the Defoe they know in the context of their own story. In all the stories Defoe is an old sailor with boundless energy and wide-ranging but garbled knowledge, on a quest to find his beloved Anna Gloria (who he's never actually met). In some time periods he's assisted by Quaco, a former slave and shaman. I've only read bits and pieces of Cervantes' book, so I'm sure I missed many allusions, but the obvious ones I caught were always entertaining. (In 2200 he calls himself "Dan Keyshote Knight of the Feverish Courting Place", then falls down laughing.)
The chapters are very short and constantly alternate between time periods, so at first I had a little trouble engaging, but it all clicked by about page 50 and I was in love with the voice, which I can only describe as gleeful. I never came across a simile or metaphor I didn't love. (One of the filmmakers in 2016 Key West says: “If I sat still for too long my mind seemed to shut off, like a Prius.")
Here's a few writing samples:
Having lived over 1000 years, Defoe is full of history lessons, including this one he gives in 2500:
But Defoe's history is balanced out with a more thoughtful note from Princess Jasmine Roulette of St. Louis:
Defoe is also capable of touching insight, as described by Jam, his companion, in 2200: “He told me there was nothing for a man but true love even if it were half imaginary for love itself were a act of imagination.”
While at times this book felt like a joyride to me, it isn't flippant; the worlds it takes place in are grounded in suffering. The storyline in 1560 is narrated by an indigenous woman in New Grenada who was sold to the Spanish colonizers when her parents died:
The story in 1750 is set on a slave plantation in the Caribbean, and the settings in 2200 and 2500 are dystopias that result from climate change. But Defoe is a force for optimism that doesn't leave anyone untouched.
The chapters are very short and constantly alternate between time periods, so at first I had a little trouble engaging, but it all clicked by about page 50 and I was in love with the voice, which I can only describe as gleeful. I never came across a simile or metaphor I didn't love. (One of the filmmakers in 2016 Key West says: “If I sat still for too long my mind seemed to shut off, like a Prius.")
Here's a few writing samples:
Having lived over 1000 years, Defoe is full of history lessons, including this one he gives in 2500:
“The symbolic eclipse of American hegemony came one morning when a group of Comanche terrorists hijacked a spaceship and flew it into the Sears Tower. They hijacked it with nothing more than an eight ounce tube of toothpaste, which is why it was subsequently illegal to bring toothpaste on interstellar flights.”
But Defoe's history is balanced out with a more thoughtful note from Princess Jasmine Roulette of St. Louis:
"I had the revelation that history was only the rabble-house of facts and details from which human beings confabulated a sentimental truth. At the best-case scenario, at its truest and most illustrative, history was an effort of imagination, mostly fictive mostly allegorical, like a story of unrecanted love."
Defoe is also capable of touching insight, as described by Jam, his companion, in 2200: “He told me there was nothing for a man but true love even if it were half imaginary for love itself were a act of imagination.”
While at times this book felt like a joyride to me, it isn't flippant; the worlds it takes place in are grounded in suffering. The storyline in 1560 is narrated by an indigenous woman in New Grenada who was sold to the Spanish colonizers when her parents died:
“I have more and more trouble moving between night and day. I have more and more trouble deciding what I am and what I want. Sometimes I don’t know if I’m speaking Pirahao or Spanish.”
The story in 1750 is set on a slave plantation in the Caribbean, and the settings in 2200 and 2500 are dystopias that result from climate change. But Defoe is a force for optimism that doesn't leave anyone untouched.
November 13, 2015
Great read. If you're a fan of David Mitchell, I think you'll like this a lot.
October 9, 2016
Before I get to my review (but you'll already be able to tell that I'm a big fan of this innovative novel), a shout out to Aaron Thier for winning a 2016 NEA Fellowship. Good to know that others think his is a new voice worth listening to. The fellowship is well-deserved. Can't wait to read his next one.
Okay, now for the review. This novel doesn’t work like most of the books I love--it's not so-called character-driven fiction, the kind of story you lose yourself in. Instead, it's a laugh-out-loud hilarious and at the same time thought-provoking high-speed mash-up of literary parody, history, myth, philosophy, theology, and post-apocalyptic fiction. The novel moves between five first-person narratives, each told with distinctive, period-appropriate grammar, syntax and diction. That of
1) an indigenous South American woman from 1560 who exists in two different realities depending on whether she's using her native language or Spanish (very intriguing, existentially);
2) a mulatto man passing for white on a Bahamian sugar plantation in 1750, whose story is narrated from a reminiscent perspective in an 18th-century prose style (think Daniel Defoe--no coincidence, as you'll see);
3) a feckless 27-year-old narrator in the present, 2016, perhaps a stand-in for the author, who has stumbled into a documentary film project about a supposedly 560-something-year-old man who goes by the name Daniels Defoe;
4) a young man with no education or skills trying to make his way in a world ruined by global warming and economic collapse, his sentences a marvel of run-ons and mixed up grammar that put my students to shame (I actually used a passage for an English Comp grammar lesson!); and finally
5) a princess of the Democratic Federation of Mississippi States, which encompasses what used to be St. Louis and Kansas City and in-between, whose prose is rife with malapropisms, and no wonder, since she was brought up speaking "Modern English," a language just about obsolete in 2500, culled from the pages of half-ruined books in the old city library her father has made his castle.
The book holds my attention with it's wacky details, humor, mixed up history, language play, all of it underpined by "the sorrow of environmental devastation," to use a phrase from Thier's 2016 narrator, which we see unfolding from its beginnings in the era of the Conquistadors on to 2500’s politically fragmented, mostly either underwater or turned-to-desert land area formerly known as the United States. The different sections are connected by the figure of Mr. Eternity, a.k.a. Daniel Defoe, who plays a leading role in each of the five narratives. Old Dan, Dr. Dan, the ancient mariner, as he is variously known, apparently has some deal with the genial devil Quaco (derived perhaps from Melville's Queequeg) that grants him eternal life, whether he wants it or not. Per the usual narrative set-up, all of these characters are seeking something--some combination of riches, freedom, the good life, relief from chemical addictions and/or mental obsessions. And not to leave out true love, Daniel Defoe travels through the ages in search of his beloved--glimpsed but never known--Anna Gloria. And since ultimately, the novel is comedy rather than tragedy ... well no spoilers.
While I still love a well done traditional, character-driven narrative, I find myself increasingly impatient with any kind of narrative ploy—delay tactics, convenient coincidences, improbable blind spots, the neatly sewn up ending, in other words all the distortions that remind me of the author behind a work. You might say I've got conventional-narrative fatigue. And Their's novel is the perfect antidote: not because it isn’t rife with narrative ploys but because Their has turned them on their heads. He holds my interest with clever language, humor, and insight and by letting me in on the joke, which of course is on all of us, on our understanding of history, literature, indeed the whole liberal arts project. Because in the end, this is all we've got--the stories we tell, the stories we have told.
Okay, now for the review. This novel doesn’t work like most of the books I love--it's not so-called character-driven fiction, the kind of story you lose yourself in. Instead, it's a laugh-out-loud hilarious and at the same time thought-provoking high-speed mash-up of literary parody, history, myth, philosophy, theology, and post-apocalyptic fiction. The novel moves between five first-person narratives, each told with distinctive, period-appropriate grammar, syntax and diction. That of
1) an indigenous South American woman from 1560 who exists in two different realities depending on whether she's using her native language or Spanish (very intriguing, existentially);
2) a mulatto man passing for white on a Bahamian sugar plantation in 1750, whose story is narrated from a reminiscent perspective in an 18th-century prose style (think Daniel Defoe--no coincidence, as you'll see);
3) a feckless 27-year-old narrator in the present, 2016, perhaps a stand-in for the author, who has stumbled into a documentary film project about a supposedly 560-something-year-old man who goes by the name Daniels Defoe;
4) a young man with no education or skills trying to make his way in a world ruined by global warming and economic collapse, his sentences a marvel of run-ons and mixed up grammar that put my students to shame (I actually used a passage for an English Comp grammar lesson!); and finally
5) a princess of the Democratic Federation of Mississippi States, which encompasses what used to be St. Louis and Kansas City and in-between, whose prose is rife with malapropisms, and no wonder, since she was brought up speaking "Modern English," a language just about obsolete in 2500, culled from the pages of half-ruined books in the old city library her father has made his castle.
The book holds my attention with it's wacky details, humor, mixed up history, language play, all of it underpined by "the sorrow of environmental devastation," to use a phrase from Thier's 2016 narrator, which we see unfolding from its beginnings in the era of the Conquistadors on to 2500’s politically fragmented, mostly either underwater or turned-to-desert land area formerly known as the United States. The different sections are connected by the figure of Mr. Eternity, a.k.a. Daniel Defoe, who plays a leading role in each of the five narratives. Old Dan, Dr. Dan, the ancient mariner, as he is variously known, apparently has some deal with the genial devil Quaco (derived perhaps from Melville's Queequeg) that grants him eternal life, whether he wants it or not. Per the usual narrative set-up, all of these characters are seeking something--some combination of riches, freedom, the good life, relief from chemical addictions and/or mental obsessions. And not to leave out true love, Daniel Defoe travels through the ages in search of his beloved--glimpsed but never known--Anna Gloria. And since ultimately, the novel is comedy rather than tragedy ... well no spoilers.
While I still love a well done traditional, character-driven narrative, I find myself increasingly impatient with any kind of narrative ploy—delay tactics, convenient coincidences, improbable blind spots, the neatly sewn up ending, in other words all the distortions that remind me of the author behind a work. You might say I've got conventional-narrative fatigue. And Their's novel is the perfect antidote: not because it isn’t rife with narrative ploys but because Their has turned them on their heads. He holds my interest with clever language, humor, and insight and by letting me in on the joke, which of course is on all of us, on our understanding of history, literature, indeed the whole liberal arts project. Because in the end, this is all we've got--the stories we tell, the stories we have told.
March 8, 2016
I received an advance copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Full review here - http://readcommendations.com/2016/03/...
Drop everything and grab this book at once. This book is a vortex that will suck you in and grab you tight, and won’t let you go even after you’ve read the last page and put it down. This is a beautiful, epic novel that I’m seriously so excited to tell you all about.
There is just so much substance to this book that it’s difficult to lay it all out for you without giving away spoilers. The gist of it is this: five different people, spread from the 1500s to the 2500s, each gives us a window into their lives, surrounding their meeting of Daniel Defoe (or the ancient mariner), a man who seems constant across the centuries. He cannot die, though we don’t know why, and in every time he searches for his lost love, Anna Gloria, an obsession of his.
Consider this novel as a combination of Cloud Atlas, Station Eleven, and Big Fish. When it comes to the man’s stories, telling fact from fiction is nearly impossible, and the characters themselves don’t know for certain that he is what he says he is, a centuries old man. Everyone always asks him about the past, and the stories he tells are compelling, believable, but also fantastical: does he himself believe what he is telling us, or is he having an extremely senior moment?
The novel also addresses the issue of climate change, and our involvement in global warming. However, the author does not get preachy, which is an incredible feat. Daniel Defoe has seen the Americas before the cities we cling to were even thought up, so for him they are just a blip. It reminds us of the cyclical nature of history, how we are doomed to repeat our mistakes. In fact, sometimes old Dan himself seems to state the future as the past, making us wonder just what he’s seen, if time works for him the way it works for us.Every character is dealing with a changing world, in some way or another.
I could spend hours talking about this book: I want to get all my friends to read it, so we can talk about the complexities, the little details slipped between the pages, the questions the book makes ourselves ask. What is truth? Is History true? Why are we doomed to repeat our mistakes? What is worth valuing in this world?
For fans of David Mitchell, in search for another gorgeous book to devour, Mr. Eternity is beautiful, gripping, and deeply complex. Trust me: you need to read this book as soon as it comes out, on August 9th.
Full review here - http://readcommendations.com/2016/03/...
Drop everything and grab this book at once. This book is a vortex that will suck you in and grab you tight, and won’t let you go even after you’ve read the last page and put it down. This is a beautiful, epic novel that I’m seriously so excited to tell you all about.
There is just so much substance to this book that it’s difficult to lay it all out for you without giving away spoilers. The gist of it is this: five different people, spread from the 1500s to the 2500s, each gives us a window into their lives, surrounding their meeting of Daniel Defoe (or the ancient mariner), a man who seems constant across the centuries. He cannot die, though we don’t know why, and in every time he searches for his lost love, Anna Gloria, an obsession of his.
Consider this novel as a combination of Cloud Atlas, Station Eleven, and Big Fish. When it comes to the man’s stories, telling fact from fiction is nearly impossible, and the characters themselves don’t know for certain that he is what he says he is, a centuries old man. Everyone always asks him about the past, and the stories he tells are compelling, believable, but also fantastical: does he himself believe what he is telling us, or is he having an extremely senior moment?
The novel also addresses the issue of climate change, and our involvement in global warming. However, the author does not get preachy, which is an incredible feat. Daniel Defoe has seen the Americas before the cities we cling to were even thought up, so for him they are just a blip. It reminds us of the cyclical nature of history, how we are doomed to repeat our mistakes. In fact, sometimes old Dan himself seems to state the future as the past, making us wonder just what he’s seen, if time works for him the way it works for us.Every character is dealing with a changing world, in some way or another.
I could spend hours talking about this book: I want to get all my friends to read it, so we can talk about the complexities, the little details slipped between the pages, the questions the book makes ourselves ask. What is truth? Is History true? Why are we doomed to repeat our mistakes? What is worth valuing in this world?
For fans of David Mitchell, in search for another gorgeous book to devour, Mr. Eternity is beautiful, gripping, and deeply complex. Trust me: you need to read this book as soon as it comes out, on August 9th.
December 23, 2017
I could not get into this story at all.
February 25, 2016
Alan Thier's novel Mr Eternity probes the philosophical questions that each generation struggles to answer. What is freedom? What is truth? Can we trust individual or corporate memory? Was there a Utopian age, and can we recreate it? Can--will-- we find our own version of El Dorado? Or the Anna Gloria woman of our dreams? What is the meaning of life? Can we find happiness?
Survivor of 24 shipwrecks, Daniel Defoe/Old Dan/The ancient mariner--his name changing over the centuries--tells stories dredged from his jumbled memories. He has seen the world change and change back again. Myth and history become fused in his memory. Generations of young adults hope he holds answers:
A college drop-out in 2016 wants to make a film on 'the ancient mariner'. At twenty-seven years old, he 'is nothing', popping pills and worrying about global warming and the future. He travels with Dan on a treasure quest.
In 1560 a native Indian Pirahoa girl travels with Daniel de Fo, 100 years old, and the Christian conquistadors who seek El Dorado. Her world is about to collapse.
In 2200 Jam is traveling down the coast from Boston to Florida with Old Dan, 750 years old. Dan seeks his long lost love Anna Gloria. Jam is nineteen, a poor orphan, angry and lusting for the past world of air conditioners and mosquito repellent.
Dr. Dan Defoe was 300 years old in 1750 when John Green meets him in the Bahamas. John was the child of his slave mother and her master. With his death and rebirth Dr. Dan helps him find freedom and love.
In 2500 Jasmine Roulette, the daughter of the King of St Louis and president of the Democratic Federation of Mississippi States, is a powerless political pawn living in decadent luxury. An anachro-feminist and insatiable reader, she is obsessed with the lost American civilization. She was 26 her father when bought an old slave named Daniel Defoe who remembered the glory of the United States.
Daniel Defoe's long life has brought wisdom: kingdoms come and go; civilizations are destroyed. Each generation must learn to let go of what they cannot control and enjoy life, even a life lived when the world is ending. True love should be each man's El Dorado, even only spun from imagination.
I was fascinated by this book. I found each character engaging. Daniel DeFoe shares aspects of the title character in his namesake's novel Robinson Crusoe, surviving shipwrecks and being sold into slavery. The young adult characters voices and perceptions are distinct and clear.
I loved the wacky, mishmash stories Dan tells of the past; they were hilarious, but also chillingly revealing. Thomas Jefferson is remembered as a revolutionary terrorist in the jihad against Great Britain. Dan says he knew a space captain named Robinson Caruso who built farms and cities on Mars.
Daniel explains the collapse of American civilization: it was more economical to allow the destruction of the world than to save it. In the future Georgia becomes the pineapple state, St. Louis is surrounded by arid desert and camels.
Readers who prefer a novel that is plot or character-driven, or following a linear time line, will find this book a challenge. Although it deals with philosophical issues, the issues rise out of the characters struggles.
The theme of the book is eternal, the specific concerns timely.
I received a free ARC through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
Survivor of 24 shipwrecks, Daniel Defoe/Old Dan/The ancient mariner--his name changing over the centuries--tells stories dredged from his jumbled memories. He has seen the world change and change back again. Myth and history become fused in his memory. Generations of young adults hope he holds answers:
A college drop-out in 2016 wants to make a film on 'the ancient mariner'. At twenty-seven years old, he 'is nothing', popping pills and worrying about global warming and the future. He travels with Dan on a treasure quest.
In 1560 a native Indian Pirahoa girl travels with Daniel de Fo, 100 years old, and the Christian conquistadors who seek El Dorado. Her world is about to collapse.
In 2200 Jam is traveling down the coast from Boston to Florida with Old Dan, 750 years old. Dan seeks his long lost love Anna Gloria. Jam is nineteen, a poor orphan, angry and lusting for the past world of air conditioners and mosquito repellent.
Dr. Dan Defoe was 300 years old in 1750 when John Green meets him in the Bahamas. John was the child of his slave mother and her master. With his death and rebirth Dr. Dan helps him find freedom and love.
In 2500 Jasmine Roulette, the daughter of the King of St Louis and president of the Democratic Federation of Mississippi States, is a powerless political pawn living in decadent luxury. An anachro-feminist and insatiable reader, she is obsessed with the lost American civilization. She was 26 her father when bought an old slave named Daniel Defoe who remembered the glory of the United States.
Daniel Defoe's long life has brought wisdom: kingdoms come and go; civilizations are destroyed. Each generation must learn to let go of what they cannot control and enjoy life, even a life lived when the world is ending. True love should be each man's El Dorado, even only spun from imagination.
I was fascinated by this book. I found each character engaging. Daniel DeFoe shares aspects of the title character in his namesake's novel Robinson Crusoe, surviving shipwrecks and being sold into slavery. The young adult characters voices and perceptions are distinct and clear.
I loved the wacky, mishmash stories Dan tells of the past; they were hilarious, but also chillingly revealing. Thomas Jefferson is remembered as a revolutionary terrorist in the jihad against Great Britain. Dan says he knew a space captain named Robinson Caruso who built farms and cities on Mars.
Daniel explains the collapse of American civilization: it was more economical to allow the destruction of the world than to save it. In the future Georgia becomes the pineapple state, St. Louis is surrounded by arid desert and camels.
Readers who prefer a novel that is plot or character-driven, or following a linear time line, will find this book a challenge. Although it deals with philosophical issues, the issues rise out of the characters struggles.
The theme of the book is eternal, the specific concerns timely.
I received a free ARC through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
November 28, 2015
Oh my, there is a lot of story in this story- it is stuffed and bursting. I don't think everyone is going to walk away having read the same book. What do I mean by that?
"This stuff you're telling us," said Azar. "This is like smelling salts for a cynic like me."
There is rich history here, but sifting fact from fiction is difficult because is this just tall tales we're being led to believe? The filmmakers want so badly to believe in the old sailor, he certainly seems convincing, no doubt he is entertaining but honest? Is this man just deranged? And reader, don't feel bad if your brain goes numb. Another reviewer said this book is good for David Mitchel fans and I second that. When I try to read Mitchel I just can't get on the same wavelength, I don't feel smart enough (no, I am not ashamed to admit that) but oh how I hang my head in dumb shame. This book had me playing scenes inside my head and I kept thinking 'this would make a heck of a great movie' much the same I felt with Mitchel. I needed quiet and the right mindset to read on, I couldn't afford distractions- I needed all my brain to be fully engaged.
There was beautiful imagery implanted in my head as I read on. Can I nail down an exact review? No, because I feel seasick and I still don't have my land legs ha ha. It's unique, strange, exotic, bizarrely entertaining but I still can't explain the story to you. I'd be interested in reading other work by this original author.
"This stuff you're telling us," said Azar. "This is like smelling salts for a cynic like me."
There is rich history here, but sifting fact from fiction is difficult because is this just tall tales we're being led to believe? The filmmakers want so badly to believe in the old sailor, he certainly seems convincing, no doubt he is entertaining but honest? Is this man just deranged? And reader, don't feel bad if your brain goes numb. Another reviewer said this book is good for David Mitchel fans and I second that. When I try to read Mitchel I just can't get on the same wavelength, I don't feel smart enough (no, I am not ashamed to admit that) but oh how I hang my head in dumb shame. This book had me playing scenes inside my head and I kept thinking 'this would make a heck of a great movie' much the same I felt with Mitchel. I needed quiet and the right mindset to read on, I couldn't afford distractions- I needed all my brain to be fully engaged.
There was beautiful imagery implanted in my head as I read on. Can I nail down an exact review? No, because I feel seasick and I still don't have my land legs ha ha. It's unique, strange, exotic, bizarrely entertaining but I still can't explain the story to you. I'd be interested in reading other work by this original author.
January 2, 2024
What a wild ride! Made me laugh out loud at times, but also bent my mind and made me think. Good combo!
January 17, 2019
This is an incredible novel, and in my opinion has not received the attention it deserves. It's hard to paraphrase this dizzying journey, but there is something almost Russian in the way this story wants it all. The characters are still sizzling in my brain months after I read it. If you like Salman Rushdie, Gabriel Garcia Marquez or Isabel Allende, then read this book. Incidentally, it also contains (in my humble opinion) the greatest mermaid sex scene in English literature.
July 14, 2023
Edit: after book club this book gained a bit of grace. It’s more fun to think of the ideas in it than to read
This was my least favorite book I’ve read in a long time. I only finished it for the sake of my book club, otherwise I would have put this down less than 50-75 pages in.
I think Thier has some really interesting concepts woven into the book but they aren’t executed in a way that’s engaging to the readers, or really clear enough to get his points across. The 5 different POVs through the centuries took away any kind of idea I had of what was going on and frankly was boring. The ideas that did seem fully fledged out felt a little too on the nose and it just felt…really frustrating. Maybe I’ll change my mind but I’m physically relieved I’m done reading this
This was my least favorite book I’ve read in a long time. I only finished it for the sake of my book club, otherwise I would have put this down less than 50-75 pages in.
I think Thier has some really interesting concepts woven into the book but they aren’t executed in a way that’s engaging to the readers, or really clear enough to get his points across. The 5 different POVs through the centuries took away any kind of idea I had of what was going on and frankly was boring. The ideas that did seem fully fledged out felt a little too on the nose and it just felt…really frustrating. Maybe I’ll change my mind but I’m physically relieved I’m done reading this
May 16, 2018
Something completely different. It had lots of references to American history which confused me with the underlying references to the environment in which humans have abused throughout the centuries. I struggled through the book but finished it - trying the understand what I had just read.
January 2, 2017
What a romp. First off, let me say that this book grew on me. In the beginning, it's a lot to take in, and your mind is kind of overwhelmed with the immensity of it. At times it smacked of an acid trip. It begins as five discrete storylines bound together by the (ostensible) main character, Daniel Defoe, who has been alive for at least 750 years.
But the book's not really about Dan, per se; it's about things that change, and things that stay the same (like Dan himself). In pre-civilization South American jungles or in a dystopian drought-addled future (circa 2500) where the king of the "Reunited States" resides in St. Louis, Dan stays steadfast, searching for something and someone.
About halfway through, I began to tire of the sprawl of it all. The plot bounces around from one time period to the next, and while Thier creatively changes the diction and dialect to reflect the relevant era, it's a bit jarring. The storylines seemed to hang in midair during the middle third of the book.
When I was about to give up hope, Thier pulled it out. The pace quickened again, and the seemingly disparate plot strands began to weave together. What remained at the end was a thoughtful and incisive treatise on what changes are wrought by time and technology—and what matters most. The final chapters absolutely crackle. Stick around till the end for this one.
But the book's not really about Dan, per se; it's about things that change, and things that stay the same (like Dan himself). In pre-civilization South American jungles or in a dystopian drought-addled future (circa 2500) where the king of the "Reunited States" resides in St. Louis, Dan stays steadfast, searching for something and someone.
About halfway through, I began to tire of the sprawl of it all. The plot bounces around from one time period to the next, and while Thier creatively changes the diction and dialect to reflect the relevant era, it's a bit jarring. The storylines seemed to hang in midair during the middle third of the book.
When I was about to give up hope, Thier pulled it out. The pace quickened again, and the seemingly disparate plot strands began to weave together. What remained at the end was a thoughtful and incisive treatise on what changes are wrought by time and technology—and what matters most. The final chapters absolutely crackle. Stick around till the end for this one.
January 31, 2017
Old Dan has lived a life much longer than his memory. The story skips between Dan's relative youth when he accompanied the conquistadors, to his prime in present day Key West being interviewed by documentary film makers, to his elderly period 500 years from now as he traverses what's left of the American continent after a climate disaster. Dan's memory turns his past, and it seems his future, into fables that he tells throughout his life. Narrated by a a series of people Dan meets over the centuries, Mr. Eternity is trippy and humorous while also being pretty sobering.
August 7, 2016
I received an ARC from the publisher through NatGalley for a review.
I was not able to finish the book. I bailed on this. The wrong use of grammar was for me unbearable while reading. Intentionally or not, I could not stick any longer to find out. This was distracting me to much from the story.
I was not able to finish the book. I bailed on this. The wrong use of grammar was for me unbearable while reading. Intentionally or not, I could not stick any longer to find out. This was distracting me to much from the story.
May 2, 2016
see my review at Reading World.
August 13, 2017
A survey of life told in five scenes. Aaron Thier artfully documents society's changes over 1000 years while maintaining a consistent theme, which I'm still trying to digest; complex but rewarding.
January 9, 2017
Mr Eternity is a bizarre book following the life of an immortal Daniel Defoe. It is set in 1560, 2016 and 2500 and shows how climate change destroys life as we know it.
I initially loved this book – its messages on climate change were powerful and having a single person live through these 1000 tumultuous years highlighted the differences/problems with society at each time point. Defoe’s mis-remembering of history also provided many opportunities for amusement and this brought up thought provoking questions about the way we recall past events.
The three eras each had their own specific dialect, which seemed convincing. Some readers may struggle to adapt to the changing tone, but I thought it worked really well. I especially liked the way that the people in the future highlighted how selfishly we treat the Earth’s resources and how good we have it now:
Tell me of New York I said it were a great city once that were plain. He said yes okay well there was Hurricane Devaun and the later the sea come up also there was drought everywhere too many people too many factors everyone in New York starved it were beyond belief. I said he did not understand me I did not mean stories like that but stories of the very good days when every man were a king with air condition Ferrari electronic lights ice cream toothpaste footballs steamy media.
In many ways Mr Eternity reminded me of books by David Mitchell – especially Ghostwritten. They share the same writing quality and insightful observations of humanity. The only real difference is that Thier’s books don’t contain any Japanese influence, concentrating instead on Western mythology.
Unfortunately the book failed to carry it’s impressive power through to the second half. It seemed to repeat itself and it had no plot to pull all the threads together. I longed for something to make me care about Defoe, or any of the other characters. Instead the reader remains a passive observer of the destruction, feeling no emotion at the terrible things happening everywhere.
Overall this book has much to recommend it. I’m sure that many people will love it, especially those who don’t need a strong plot, and I hope that the messages about our current abuse of the world are heard by a wide audience.
I initially loved this book – its messages on climate change were powerful and having a single person live through these 1000 tumultuous years highlighted the differences/problems with society at each time point. Defoe’s mis-remembering of history also provided many opportunities for amusement and this brought up thought provoking questions about the way we recall past events.
The three eras each had their own specific dialect, which seemed convincing. Some readers may struggle to adapt to the changing tone, but I thought it worked really well. I especially liked the way that the people in the future highlighted how selfishly we treat the Earth’s resources and how good we have it now:
Tell me of New York I said it were a great city once that were plain. He said yes okay well there was Hurricane Devaun and the later the sea come up also there was drought everywhere too many people too many factors everyone in New York starved it were beyond belief. I said he did not understand me I did not mean stories like that but stories of the very good days when every man were a king with air condition Ferrari electronic lights ice cream toothpaste footballs steamy media.
In many ways Mr Eternity reminded me of books by David Mitchell – especially Ghostwritten. They share the same writing quality and insightful observations of humanity. The only real difference is that Thier’s books don’t contain any Japanese influence, concentrating instead on Western mythology.
Unfortunately the book failed to carry it’s impressive power through to the second half. It seemed to repeat itself and it had no plot to pull all the threads together. I longed for something to make me care about Defoe, or any of the other characters. Instead the reader remains a passive observer of the destruction, feeling no emotion at the terrible things happening everywhere.
Overall this book has much to recommend it. I’m sure that many people will love it, especially those who don’t need a strong plot, and I hope that the messages about our current abuse of the world are heard by a wide audience.
August 16, 2021
I suspect that this very strange novel is over my head. Short chapters, narrated in first person by various odd characters, are set all over the Americas, alternating among the years 2016, 1560, 2200, 1750, and 2500. Each of those sets of chapters has a more or less continuous narrative (which, as they are told in short chapters separated by four chapters from other periods, are a little hard to follow), but the only thing that they have in common (or at least so it seems to me) is that a man born in about 1450 named Daniel Defoe (with various spellings of his name) appears in each chapter. Adding to the confusion: a few other characters, such as Defoe’s friend Quaco and the kitten Christopher Smart, pop up in various time settings. Aside from recognizing it as partly a satire about the devastating consequences of climate change, I don’t really get this. The very last page, though, suggests (PERHAPS [I wrote the rest of this response before I got there]) that this might be read as a parallel to the adventures of Candide (another strange novel written in the 1750s--at about the time of the earliest setting of this novel), and that, as the characters in that novel conclude, whatever injustice, insanity, and suffering humans encounter wherever and whenever, we must live as best we can in the present moment. Or, as one character puts it in the very last sentence of this novel, “There’s a whole alarming future in which to do all kinds of worrying, but we don’t have to worry about that.” Perhaps this author should have named his “Mr. Eternity” Voltaire rather than Daniel Defoe, although the author does not include Candide among the list of books in the acknowledgments that he says inspired him, although Don Quixote is, and there are references (and parallels) to it throughout the novel.
August 11, 2016
Disclaimers: We received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley courtesy of the publisher (Bloomsbury) There may be some things you consider to be spoilers ahead. You have been warned.
Why we chose it: Immortality is something that intrigues us and this book seemed like it would provide us with an original take on it.
Review: We finished Mr. Eternity the other night and we can easily say we have absolutely no idea what happened. We're confused and happy to be so because Mr. Eternity is one of those books that leaves you not just with new characters and worlds implanted in your brain, but with questions about almost everything.
This book is philosophical, it questions serious topics facing us such as global warming and equality, but because of the different time periods available to us in the novel it manages to question the cycle of humanity. It's longevity and it's repetition. It questions whether modern civilizations ever actually learn anything from those before. The ancient civilizations.
It's extremely important to note that we aren't usually a fan of books that tackle broad concepts in such an expansive way. Especially not if such concepts are shown to us through five separate lives with the titular character being woven throughout.
Let's start in the middle, in the time period we ourselves inhabit. 2016. There is a guy or rather there are two guys. Aspiring film-makers, college drop outs, whatever label you want to call them. They're human beings intrigued with a guy who claims to be immortal. Over five hundred years old. An old mariner who has a ship. A ship that no longer sails on sea. Both these guys are cynical and disbelieving. In an age of technology and recordings to believe the tales of a man who can confuse fiction and fact is difficult. Azar, one of these film-makers we speak of wants to be less cynical and we think that's one of the most interesting things about the 2016 chapters. Even though the seas are rising and there is the threat of global warming constantly lurking sometimes to escape reality one must simply inhabit or believe in the reality of another.
In 1560 there is a girl of contradictions, that's how we viewed her. A Pirahoa girl who speaks Spanish and spins as many tales and Daniel de Fo. She speaks of a place called El Dorado. A place where many strange and wonderful things that can even grow back feet come from, but these things don't exist in Spanish. She both hates and loves this place. This girl is called Maria or that is what she's called in Spanish. She is a very clever girl and from her we see Mr. Eternity as a man who is seen to commit heresy. In the 1560 chapters we learn of religion and an era of Conquistadors. It's fascinating and kind of terrible because to speak against God or to even have people believe you speak against God is a dangerous thing in such a time.
The 1560 chapters and the 2016 chapters hold much in common. With the masses utterly disbelieving in things they can't understand or see while at the same time being able to believe in things we also can't see or understand we learn quite quickly that human nature an belief is odd and individual.
1750 is a time of slavery and much chaos for some. There are crimes that are legal depending on skin colour and class and there is John Green a son of a slave and said slave's master. 1750 and John Green tells a story of love a freedom - both things possessed by few. Throughout the world's history there are times when people must fight for the freedom a great deal of us in 2016 are born with. In 1750 John Green meets a man named Dr. Dan. Dr. Dan has experienced slavery and freedom and love and loss. It's something that's very hard to discuss and analyse.
We suppose the best way to discuss what's given to us in the 1750 chapters is to compare to what we read in the 2500 chapters.
Over seven hundred years later and there is a world that at first glance is completely different to what has been before, but when a closer look is taken we noticed that in fact not very much is different from any of the other time periods in this book. Yes, there is a King in St. Louis and the seas have risen to heights never reached before, but there is still such a massive difference between the classes. Slaves are once again something common and women are still seen as something lesser. Political pawns for King's and business. We get told all this through Jasmine St. Roulette. The daughter of the King.
What was most interesting about her chapters aside from her personality was how Daniel Defoe could link civilizations existing more than seven hundred years apart. We clearly saw how humanity repeats itself so easily. Despite the fact that the surroundings change.
There is another time of 2200 where Old Dan and Jam travel down a rapidly changed world, but we saw how humans often wish for something they once took for granted. The 2200 chapters were our least favourite and we don't really have much else to say about them.
What we do have to say though is how there was always an extremely distinctive voice for the character who featured in each time period. The voices that were so distinctive that we could easily know who was talking and from where they were talking from. The formation of sentences and the tense, it was all very cleverly used so the book would not suffer the problem many books that are told from multiple perspectives do.
To conclude, Mr. Eternity is a vast novel that is so full of information and story it can sometimes be overpowering. It is, however definitely worth the read despite the occasional confusion.
Ok! Wow. Thank you so much for reading this review and make sure to let us know what you think in the comments.
Find more reviews on our blog http://www.arkonandannie.wordpress.com
Why we chose it: Immortality is something that intrigues us and this book seemed like it would provide us with an original take on it.
Review: We finished Mr. Eternity the other night and we can easily say we have absolutely no idea what happened. We're confused and happy to be so because Mr. Eternity is one of those books that leaves you not just with new characters and worlds implanted in your brain, but with questions about almost everything.
This book is philosophical, it questions serious topics facing us such as global warming and equality, but because of the different time periods available to us in the novel it manages to question the cycle of humanity. It's longevity and it's repetition. It questions whether modern civilizations ever actually learn anything from those before. The ancient civilizations.
It's extremely important to note that we aren't usually a fan of books that tackle broad concepts in such an expansive way. Especially not if such concepts are shown to us through five separate lives with the titular character being woven throughout.
Let's start in the middle, in the time period we ourselves inhabit. 2016. There is a guy or rather there are two guys. Aspiring film-makers, college drop outs, whatever label you want to call them. They're human beings intrigued with a guy who claims to be immortal. Over five hundred years old. An old mariner who has a ship. A ship that no longer sails on sea. Both these guys are cynical and disbelieving. In an age of technology and recordings to believe the tales of a man who can confuse fiction and fact is difficult. Azar, one of these film-makers we speak of wants to be less cynical and we think that's one of the most interesting things about the 2016 chapters. Even though the seas are rising and there is the threat of global warming constantly lurking sometimes to escape reality one must simply inhabit or believe in the reality of another.
In 1560 there is a girl of contradictions, that's how we viewed her. A Pirahoa girl who speaks Spanish and spins as many tales and Daniel de Fo. She speaks of a place called El Dorado. A place where many strange and wonderful things that can even grow back feet come from, but these things don't exist in Spanish. She both hates and loves this place. This girl is called Maria or that is what she's called in Spanish. She is a very clever girl and from her we see Mr. Eternity as a man who is seen to commit heresy. In the 1560 chapters we learn of religion and an era of Conquistadors. It's fascinating and kind of terrible because to speak against God or to even have people believe you speak against God is a dangerous thing in such a time.
The 1560 chapters and the 2016 chapters hold much in common. With the masses utterly disbelieving in things they can't understand or see while at the same time being able to believe in things we also can't see or understand we learn quite quickly that human nature an belief is odd and individual.
1750 is a time of slavery and much chaos for some. There are crimes that are legal depending on skin colour and class and there is John Green a son of a slave and said slave's master. 1750 and John Green tells a story of love a freedom - both things possessed by few. Throughout the world's history there are times when people must fight for the freedom a great deal of us in 2016 are born with. In 1750 John Green meets a man named Dr. Dan. Dr. Dan has experienced slavery and freedom and love and loss. It's something that's very hard to discuss and analyse.
We suppose the best way to discuss what's given to us in the 1750 chapters is to compare to what we read in the 2500 chapters.
Over seven hundred years later and there is a world that at first glance is completely different to what has been before, but when a closer look is taken we noticed that in fact not very much is different from any of the other time periods in this book. Yes, there is a King in St. Louis and the seas have risen to heights never reached before, but there is still such a massive difference between the classes. Slaves are once again something common and women are still seen as something lesser. Political pawns for King's and business. We get told all this through Jasmine St. Roulette. The daughter of the King.
What was most interesting about her chapters aside from her personality was how Daniel Defoe could link civilizations existing more than seven hundred years apart. We clearly saw how humanity repeats itself so easily. Despite the fact that the surroundings change.
There is another time of 2200 where Old Dan and Jam travel down a rapidly changed world, but we saw how humans often wish for something they once took for granted. The 2200 chapters were our least favourite and we don't really have much else to say about them.
What we do have to say though is how there was always an extremely distinctive voice for the character who featured in each time period. The voices that were so distinctive that we could easily know who was talking and from where they were talking from. The formation of sentences and the tense, it was all very cleverly used so the book would not suffer the problem many books that are told from multiple perspectives do.
To conclude, Mr. Eternity is a vast novel that is so full of information and story it can sometimes be overpowering. It is, however definitely worth the read despite the occasional confusion.
Ok! Wow. Thank you so much for reading this review and make sure to let us know what you think in the comments.
Find more reviews on our blog http://www.arkonandannie.wordpress.com
April 8, 2020
Can only describe this enjoyable book from what must be it’s pitch: in a world besieged by climate change, Don Quixote wanders into the novel Cloud Atlas. It’s a deeply imagined book, detailed and precise, while also being funny and subverting — for me anyway— the idea of the “man who lives forever what advice will he have for the world” trope. The language and voices here are different enough to keep the page turning without being confusing at all and the story has enough storms of insight into living, memory, faith, climate change, and love to be more than its parts.
November 2, 2025
Who knew? If you take American history and shake it up in an old jar until the fragments come out all mixed up, it's really funny, and approximately as true as what we get taught in school.
Mr. Eternity's American history is almost as pointless and brutal as the official version, but the jokes are way better.
Recommended companion reading: 'Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes' by Daniel L. Everett.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...
Mr. Eternity's American history is almost as pointless and brutal as the official version, but the jokes are way better.
Recommended companion reading: 'Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes' by Daniel L. Everett.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...
September 30, 2016
So cleverly written, time-bending and mind-bending, a sharp satire, commentary and elegy on the state of our eternally shrinking planet. Yes, while it’s true that I want to love Aaron Their’s Mr. Eternity, and shower him with praise for reminding me of how difficult it is to read Pynchon, I confess to falling off his grid of characters and plotlines (as if plot really counts here). The novel is deceptively short, but remarkably dense as it slips and zips from century to century, voice to voice, and I suppose that’s its magic, meant to be taken in big gulps and digested quickly.
A more careful reading than I could muster will surely yield far more treasures (and islands) than I could find. But here are a few samples:
1560 (Xiako/Maria) Here is the city where I was born, and here are the people with whom I once belonged, but I have forgotten how to see them. I can see part of them, but I can’t see them whole. An old woman is a strip of cotton cloth and a yellow incisor. A hungry boy us an eyebrow and a shoulder blade. I do not think of my childhood, although I think of it continuously. . .
Jump to the year 2500: (Edward Halloween) …Texas? It was a contested Mexican province right across the border from Arkansas, and there was constant strife between the illegal American immigrants and the native Mexicans. The Americans were eight feet tall and they were so fat that they couldn’t make love to one another, so they died out in the end and the immigration problem was solved. The Mexicans wee only three feet tall, but they were much more cunning and hardworking. It was just another strange border story.”
back to 2016: Key West (filmmaker): “There were tourist buzzing all around us. There was a man smoking a cigarette and breathing oxygen through a tube. There were strangler figs and old mahogany trees. There were palm trees clattering in the breeze like always. We were tourists ourselves. We were in the United State of American, and the world was getting hotter and hotter and more and more crowded.”
and full circle from beginning to end, 2016: Our story is very simple. It’s a subplot. It’s a story told again and again, so many times it doesn’t need to be told at all. It only needs to be gestured at while the main plot moves forward. In our story, there’s no room for class tensions. There’s no room for worry about what comes next. We just fall in love, that’s our story. In the foreground the grand narrative is being told, conquests and wars and politics and whatever else. . . there’s a whole alarming future in which to do all kinds of worrying, but we don’t have to worry about that.”
A more careful reading than I could muster will surely yield far more treasures (and islands) than I could find. But here are a few samples:
1560 (Xiako/Maria) Here is the city where I was born, and here are the people with whom I once belonged, but I have forgotten how to see them. I can see part of them, but I can’t see them whole. An old woman is a strip of cotton cloth and a yellow incisor. A hungry boy us an eyebrow and a shoulder blade. I do not think of my childhood, although I think of it continuously. . .
Jump to the year 2500: (Edward Halloween) …Texas? It was a contested Mexican province right across the border from Arkansas, and there was constant strife between the illegal American immigrants and the native Mexicans. The Americans were eight feet tall and they were so fat that they couldn’t make love to one another, so they died out in the end and the immigration problem was solved. The Mexicans wee only three feet tall, but they were much more cunning and hardworking. It was just another strange border story.”
back to 2016: Key West (filmmaker): “There were tourist buzzing all around us. There was a man smoking a cigarette and breathing oxygen through a tube. There were strangler figs and old mahogany trees. There were palm trees clattering in the breeze like always. We were tourists ourselves. We were in the United State of American, and the world was getting hotter and hotter and more and more crowded.”
and full circle from beginning to end, 2016: Our story is very simple. It’s a subplot. It’s a story told again and again, so many times it doesn’t need to be told at all. It only needs to be gestured at while the main plot moves forward. In our story, there’s no room for class tensions. There’s no room for worry about what comes next. We just fall in love, that’s our story. In the foreground the grand narrative is being told, conquests and wars and politics and whatever else. . . there’s a whole alarming future in which to do all kinds of worrying, but we don’t have to worry about that.”
October 15, 2017
This is a super fun read and strange as heck. The glimpses into the future of The Reunited States of America (cashew wine, senators named Anthony Fucking Corvette, and The Great Wall of Florida) are all very entertaining, as is the evolved dialect of those times. I wish the story itself were more gripping as I found myself pushing forward not because I cared about the characters but because Thier's use of language is so intoxicating.
October 24, 2019
This is one of those novels that I'd love to have read in an English class because I could have written a couple of papers that would have sounded quite pretentious. "The Dafoe character represents the eternal fallible nature of man." blah blah blah. As just a work of fiction, it is OK, but I'm not convinced that it makes whatever point the author is trying to make. (Not that I would have let my English teacher know that.) Certainly different, so maybe worth the read.
June 12, 2017
This was a book club pick and that's the only reason I finished it, otherwise I would have quit 3 chapters in. I did give it 2 stars because 3/4 of the way through, the pace started to pick up and I became mildly interested in making it to the conclusion. It was too little too late though. I didn't really like any of the characters or care about their journeys. It just wasn't my cup of tea.
August 6, 2023
this book is terrible
No plot. No point. Confusing writing style. Bad grammar. My worst reading experience ever. I had to finish to see if there was any point. He tries to explain his point which makes it even worse. This is a book that didn't need to be published. Vanity project is the only reason not skill or story telling. Skip. This. Book.
No plot. No point. Confusing writing style. Bad grammar. My worst reading experience ever. I had to finish to see if there was any point. He tries to explain his point which makes it even worse. This is a book that didn't need to be published. Vanity project is the only reason not skill or story telling. Skip. This. Book.
October 16, 2017
I wanted to love this book so much--I just don't have quite the turn of mind that would find all the twists and turns amusing. The book tackles a serious topic--climate change--in a unique way. An epic, for the right reader.
September 17, 2019
Very quirky tales set in the past, present and future. We see the ruination caused by these civilizations. This unusual story is often funny in its imagery and actual narrative but is so packed with esoteric references, it is not an easy read.
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