6
OCTOBER 13�20, 2021
FROM THE SHELF
CHECKING OUT THE
WORLD OF BOOKS
‘Cloud Cuckoo Land’ by Anthony Doerr
Follow-up to his Pulitzer
winner book is bigger
and more ambitious
By Chris Hewitt
Star Tribune
T
hink of Anthony Doerr’s new novel
as “All the Plot Connections You
Cannot See.”
Like Doerr’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “All
the Light You Cannot See,” his “Cloud
Cuckoo Land” ($30) includes two charac-
ters — on opposite sides of a war, divided
by a fortress wall — whose separate
stories gradually join. Instead of World
War II, this battle is the 1453 siege of
Constantinople and the pair are Omeir, a
boy born into poverty, and Anna, resident
of a convent whose sisters struggle to
fi nish a tapestry that illuminates an epic
tale while she becomes obsessed with an
ancient codex.
Bibliophilia is a central motif of “Cloud
Cuckoo Land” (which is dedicated to
librarians), along with gray owls, the perils
of translating literature and climate crisis.
A 21st-century man named Zeno labors
over a translation of Antonius Diogenes’
mythic “Cloud Cuckoo Land.” Anna be-
comes the guardian of that ancient text.
Children in a present-day library in Idaho
create a play that contains elements
of “Cloud Cuckoo Land.” A boy named
Seymour orients his life around a guru’s
dangerous words. Konstance, traveling
to another planet in the future, becomes
fascinated by glimpses of a mysterious
manuscript.
Like “All the Light You Cannot See”
— or “A Prayer for Owen Meany,” a more
skillful novel it occasionally recalls — the
distinct stories all wind around each other
at the end. But “Cloud” is a more ambi-
tious book than “Light” and it experiences
more growing pains as it grows and
grows across 626 pages.
Whereas Doerr’s previous novel was
so enthralling that we didn’t mind shifting
between its equally fascinating protago-
nists, “Cloud” wants us to be charmed
by half a dozen main characters. I wasn’t
Scribner
and, as a result, chunks of the novel —
the Konstance parts, mostly — had me
wishing that Doerr would get back to the
more captivating people.
Doerr also misses an opportunity with
the children who are creating the play.
Zeno — who, like Diogenes’ protagonist,
Aethon, isn’t sure he can complete the
task he has set himself — ultimately
realizes that the kids’ unfettered imagina-
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tions can free him from self-doubt. But
Doerr, perhaps aware that he’s already
invented more characters than any book
not by James Michener can accommo-
date, doesn’t tell us much about those
lively children.
Doerr has not lost the gift for making
us love his characters, though. Elderly
Zeno, who views his entire life as a series
of missed opportunities, becomes the
kind of hero we need now, the kind who
plants seeds of trees he hopes others
will enjoy.
Omeir, born with a cleft palate that
earns him early scorn but may destine
him for greatness, is so modestly lovable
that, even as you sense his story about
to blend with Anna’s, you’ll want to slow
down to enjoy every suspenseful word.
With apologies to Sir Mix-a-Lot, it’s
hard to argue with the logic of a minor
“Cuckoo” character who is glimpsed wear-
ing a shirt that says, “I Like Big Books and
I Cannot Lie.” Doerr’s excesses are part of
this novel’s big-hearted, sprawling appeal.
At its best, this big book is not unlike what
Anna experiences when she encounters a
box containing folios from a manuscript:
“Open the box, walk the lines of sen-
tences: the singer steps out, and breathes
a world of color and noise into the space
inside your head.”
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