Cloud Cuckoo Land
Cloud Cuckoo Land
By: Anthony Doerr
[Nominated for ‘Best Fiction’ category of the 2021 Goodreads Choice Awards Reading Challenge]
“A book is a resting place for the memories of people who have lived before. A way for the memory to stay fixed after the soul has traveled on.”
I loved Anthony Doerr’s book All the Light We Cannot See.
But I have to be honest… the title of this book didn’t really intrigue me. All I could think of was Jack Nicholson and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Was this book about crazy people?
My commitment to finish the book wavered once I began reading.
The book has over 600 pages— though with all the title pages and empty pages it’s not quite that long. It also feels pretty disjointed to begin with. There are several characters in different places and different time periods. There is the thread of an old manuscript in bits and pieces here and there.
I worried it would be impossible to keep track of everything.
So I’m going to help you out!
First of all… don’t read an ebook. You’re going to want a physical copy that you can flip back easily.
Second- here is the basic plot of the book and a cast of characters to help you keep it in order.
Summary and Characters
Cloud Cuckoo Land is the name of a humorous (I think…) story of “A man transformed into a donkey, then a fish, then a crow, journeying across earth, ocean, and stars to find a land without suffering, only to choose to return home in the end.”
The protagonist of Cloud Cuckoo Land— this story within a story— is Aethon. He is seeking a paradisaical city in the clouds called Cloud Cuckoo Land where there is no pain or grief. But is the end-product worth what he would have to give up to get it?
Anthony Diogenes (real author, fictional story) gives this story to his dying niece. We follow the journey of this story as it is passed on verbally and through old, weather and time-beaten copies. It is what connects every character in this story.
Konstance: A teenage girl years in the future trapped in a vault on a spaceship (Argos) traveling to a new planet because Earth is deteriorating. A sickness has suddenly been taking over the people in the spaceship and Konstance is quarantined in a special chamber with only the AI system (Sybil) as a companion and her virtual reality set that allows her to access a virtual library with books on every subject imaginable, and an atlas that allows her to travel the world virtually. Her father has verbally passed on the story of Cloud Cuckoo Land and she is spending her time discovering what really happened on Earth and what’s currently going on with Argos now.
Zeno: A gay elderly man in present day Lakeport, Idaho helping five kids re-enact the story of Cloud Cuckoo Land in the town library. When he was younger he spent time as a POW in Korea and learned the original Greek language from a fellow British POW, Rex. Carrying on the flame of Rex’s passion for old manuscripts, Zeno works on translating an old and mostly illegible copy of Cloud Cuckoo Land that was discovered. Now as the children prepare to put on their play, a man comes into the library with a bomb.
Seymour: An (autistic?) teenage environmental activist in present day Lakeport, Idaho planning to bomb the library because it is close to his target— a realty company bulldozing forest area to build more homes. Son of a single mom who has to spend all of her time working to make ends meet, Seymour spends most of his time in the library learning all kinds of Greek mythology and facts about nature and animals. Eventually he becomes sucked into a dark web group of activists that he hopes to join up with once he proves himself with a grand action to save the planet.
Anna: An orphaned young girl in the walled city of Constantinople in the 1400s living with her sister as embroideresses. She is a curious girl and as her city faces a life-threatening siege from enemy forces, she and a friend discover a building with old manuscripts. Her curiosity and insatiable desire to learn to read them gets her in to trouble but also saves her. She manages to keep one copy which just so happens to be an old and damaged manuscript of Cloud Cuckoo Land.
Omeir: A boy in Bulgaria in the 1400s, born with a cleft palate, making a life with his family who has been driven out of their village because of superstitions surrounding his deformity. When the sieging forces advancing upon Constantinople come across their farm and his strong oxen team, Omeir is conscripted to join the army. A nature and animal loving boy, he is far from passionate about this new task. Eventually he meets Anna with her copy of Cloud Cuckoo Land and the book becomes an integral part of their family. He has taken it upon himself to preserve it.
My Thoughts
My original feelings toward the book was negative. I felt like it was going to be a slog to the end. I thought it would take me forever to finish.
My feelings did change.
It took me awhile to get into it, but I found myself enjoying picking it up each day and it read faster than I anticipated. I wasn’t a fan of the formatting of the book and the disjointedness, but I like the concept of this story weaving itself into so many lives. The power of the story of hoping for something better that sustains people through hard times that endures through the ages through storms, wars, and temporary abandonment.
I still don’t like the title ‘Cloud Cuckoo Land.’ It doesn’t sound as magical as, say, Terabithia, and it doesn’t roll off the tongue very gracefully. I think it was supposed to be a comical story but I wouldn’t say that was obvious. Since the tones of the characters’ stories were dark, it was hard to feel the joy or humor coming across through the Cloud Cuckoo Land excerpts.
I also didn’t really like the ending in Konstance’s storyline. I felt like it left too much unexplained.
It falls into the Fiction genre, so it’s not necessarily going to be suspenseful or mysterious. It’s not Fantasy so it’s not going to be some epic adventure. It’s not Romance so it’s not going to describe a deep love story.
I would describe it as contemplative.
What connects these characters are loss and hardships where they hope for something better, something more. It makes you reflect on hope, story, contentment, and memory.
Doerr has written this as somewhat of an anthem for books— the history and stories that carry through the ages— and librarians— the people who help preserve and share them with people who wouldn’t otherwise have access.
I’m not sure it’s one I would reread. I’m not sure it’s a must-read book. But I did enjoy it and I’m not disappointed for having done so.
I think it’s a book that, if read properly could make you think for awhile, but it could also leave you wondering ‘That’s it?’
Maybe you should read it and consider my book club suggestions below to give you something to think about!
[If you like books that incorporate Greek mythology, try Alex Michaelides thriller, The Maidens]
Book Club Discussion
It seems like this would make a good book club book for those who do that. Here are a few things you may find interesting to discuss with your group.
There is a theme of ‘owls’ that runs through a few of the storylines. What significance does this have?
Is there any significance to the specific animals the man changed into— donkey, fish, crow? (i.e. donkeys are associated with stubborness and a limited fear response; fish are social animals living in groups that might conform; crows can be seen as aggressive and quarrelsome yet intelligent)
What was each character losing? How did they react to that loss? Constructively or destructively?
What was each character hoping for? Did they get what they wanted or did they realize what they already had was enough?
What are your speculations on Argos? Why do you think Doerr left it open-ended?
Is Cloud Cuckoo Land supposed to be a metaphor for heaven or something else?
The first librarian at the library in Alexandria was Zenodotus. Are there any other interesting correlations with the other characters’ names?
What significant purposes do libraries serve today? Do you partake of their value?
Consider these two quotes. How do they influence each character’s life and how do you apply it to your own life?
“The things that look fixed in the world— mountains, wealth, empires— their permanence is only an illusion. We believe they will last, but that is only because of the brevity of our own lives.”
“Why is it so hard to transcend the identities assigned to us when we were young?”
How do we preserve our memories and how important is it to us? Should it be important?
Do technological advancements hurt or help our ability to value and preserve meaningful memories? Consider heritage, physical deterioration, and virtual manipulation.
What stories have impacted your life?
The end of Cloud Cuckoo Land was too damaged so Zeno and the kids wrote their own ending. How would a different ending have changed your perception of the story?
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