Cloud Cuckoo Land

Lovely book that reads like cashew butter. Pretty diverse vignette of characters, but with a definitely through-line. As usual, the inner jacket gives pretty major spoilers, but the details of the story are so emotionally charged, it doesn't really matter if you already know every single plot point and twist--it's just a plain old captivating tale.

My first time reading anything of Doerr's, and I don't know why but I was somewhat resistant to emotionally investing in this book for about the first half, but the characters and their hopeless trials, and their tiny triumphs, eventually won me over.

I love the main thesis of the book. It's kind and pragmatic, while still being foolishly hopeful in a thematically endearing way.

I'm updating my review because I can't stop thinking about this book. It's infected me with a kind of radical, unreasonable hope. Moreso than I thought it could. I'll be speaking to a friend who burdened by doomerism, and realize I'm paraphrasing this book; or I'll be washing the dishes and get choked up out of nowhere, thinking about the thesis and its execution.

It's a long novel but it didn't feel like it was wasting words. It's a few stories told at once about different people living in different places at different times. One thing that links the stories is none of the main characters are satisfied with the hand they were dealt in life, and the stories explore how they deal with that. Some threads (Constantinople) engaged me sooner than others (Argos), but by the end I was interested in everything, and it all came together in a satisfying way.

There also was some queer representation in the novel, and I like that sort of thing.