The Theory of Clouds

by Stéphane Audeguy

Book Overview

Akira Kumo miraculously survived the mushroom cloud over Hiroshima. Now an eccentric couturier living in Paris, he has the world's largest collection of literature on clouds and meteorology, which he... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0151014280
• ISBN13: 9780151014286
• Release Date: September 2007
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Abstract work of art with "theoretical" look at the human condition

This was a beautiful story, but it is not for your average reader. This is mainly because it is a very abstract story, and looks at the human condition almost from an observer's point of view (like clouds themselves). It is a removed story, and it takes some effort to get into the characters, except maybe the driving characters, Kumo and Virginie. There is very little dialogue, yet is full of beautiful prose. It would make a beautiful film for cinematography, and seeing that Audeguy has studied and teaches cinema, I wonder if he has wishes to see it become a film. As I said it has little dialogue, so it would need an exceptionally talented scriptwriter. Getting back to the book, for an English translation from French, I must say it was done near seamlessly. It doesn't seem like it has been authored in another language at all. With other translated books I have read, translations are usually rougher. But not this one. Finally, this book is very historical with a scientific bent. If these things appeal to you, you should read this book. Truly original, there isn't really anything similar to "The Theory of Clouds", as it's truly one of a kind.

The Theory of Clouds

Have you ever gazed up into the sky and let your mind wonder and think about the clouds floating by? 200 years ago people first began to do so with a scientific perspective, classifying and naming. Each cloud is unique, ever changing, yet somehow the same. Clouds are made of water and so are human bodies, we die and evaporate and condense into clouds. Clouds can be peaceful, or fearsome such as a nuclear mushroom cloud. The themes of water and clouds intermingle in this story about the history of meteorology and the quest for a manuscript called the "Abercrombie Protocol"; it is a story about the search for love, and how all things are connected. This is a many layered book and it certainly challenges the minds eye to see connections and meanings - yet it is also enjoyable as a story, it tracks multiple lives and generations revealing commonalities and patterns re-appearing, not unlike how patterns in clouds can cross space and time, like fractals. Although 266 pages it reads very quickly, I finished in about half the time I normally would for a book this length. Winner of a prize from the French Academy. Recommended.

very French

If you take your intellectualism very seriously, this is not the book for you. But I liked it and thought it was funny and cute. It's also nice to read a thin book for a change. I think the book is more about the joy of storytelling than anything else. But it does explore psychology and philosophy to some extent too. You will get a nice taste of heightened aesthetic spirituality and down and dirty (but tasteful) sexuality all blended together. It's a book about clouds that's a little like clouds. I would have liked a better ending, but it was a fun read, so who cares? Also the book would be NC-17 if it were made into a movie, so don't give it to your grandma (unless she likes that kind of thing).

Masterful, lush, and thoroughly unconventional

"In the early years of the nineteenth century, Kumo told Virginie, a number of unheralded and seemingly ordinary men across Europe began gazing up at clouds in a way that was serious and respectful yet also filled with longing. They looked at clouds as if they were in love with them." So begins the third paragraph in Stéphane Audeguy's incredible début novel "The Theory of Clouds." The novel received the 2005 prize Maurice Genevoix of the French Academy and has only recently become available in the a exquisite English translation by Timothy Bent. "The Theory of Clouds" is a masterful, lush, and thoroughly unconventional historical novel about clouds and the men who have devoted their life to studying them over the course of the past two centuries. In particular, it is about the passionate fanaticism that lies just under the surface of an obsession. I fell in love with the oddness and quiet allure of this work. The author weaves honest meteorological biography together with an equal quantity of fiction and, through a process akin to alchemy, comes up with something that feels more real than the truth. The novel begins in the present day with the famous eccentric Japanese couturier Akira Kumo, owner and chief creative designer for a great clothing design house in Paris. Ten years earlier, Kumo had a life-altering event. When it resolved, he found that he had become obsessed with clouds. He started collecting every book he could get his hands on--in all the languages that he could read--concerning the subject. By the beginning of the novel, he has amassed a world-class collection consisting of "every single work devoted to clouds and more generally to meteorology written over the course of the last three centuries." But Kumo was missing one legendary book, "The Abercrombie Protocol," a lone manuscript of fundamental importance to the history of meteorology. Unfortunately "The Protocol" has remained outside his grasp. The manuscript remains concealed by the author's family. Nobody outside the family has ever seen it. Kumo will do almost anything to be able to purchase this manuscript, or at least know what it contains. To this end, he hires a librarian, Virginie, ostensibly to catalogue his collection. However, instead of putting her to work, Kumo starts telling her the stories that make up the history of meteorology--stories about the many famous men who have been in love with clouds. The tales begin in the early 19th-century with Luke Howard, the British Quaker who first came up with the idea of giving clouds names like cirrus, stratus, and cumulus. They continue right up to the present day, each story getting darker and more irrational. Many are drawn from real historical figures. Others are the author's own creations. Some contain a strong undercurrent of eroticism, but these are not there for prurient interest; rather they appear to be included by the author to add synergy into these tales of passion. Eventually, Kumo's Scheherazade-li