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The Theory of Clouds

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"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-like retelling of the history of cloud science seduces Virginie inside the web of his obsession. Finally, Kumo is ready to send her off to London to try to obtain "The Abercrombie Protocol." She returns not with "The Protocol," but rather with the story of "The Protocol," and she proceeds to tell it to him in the same passionate style the Kumo has used to relate his stories to her.

This is undoubtedly a strange book. It will most likely not appeal to a wide range of readers. The plot is more a collection of many stories contained within the structure of another story--there is pure genius in the architecture and construction of the overall plot. But there is not the usual single strong driving story line that most readers seek. Also, many readers may be put off by the fact that all the characters in this book remain quite remote. No character is revealed completely in three dimensions; instead we witness each of these characters almost entirely as they engage with their obsessions. Many of the characters' eroticism and sexual passion are also revealed. Stripped of everything but their passions, the author appears to be trying to focus the reader toward some all-encompassing universal concept of passion--passion in all its guises, as it exists in a variety of human beings--in this case, all infatuated with clouds. For me, the overall effect was deliciously cerebral, sensuous, and profoundly psychological.

There is much more to this novel than the stories, the delving into the nature of passion, and whatever accumulated understanding about meteorology that a reader may absorb. The author also has a number of thematic messages about man's ability to domesticate the power of nature to his own ends, but I will leave these for the reader to discover.

The stories, the prose, and the architecture of the novel--all are at once subtle, sensual, and sublime. This novel enchanted me. I easily fell under its spell. I will treasure it and reread it again in a few years. Unfortunately, this is not a book that will have wide appeal, but I found it marvelous, and know that there are other readers out there who will also be overjoyed to find and read this odd little gem. I hope some of you read this review.

A lively blend of fiction and non-fiction translated from the French. This book is a mini-history of the development of early meteorology. Basically it's a series of mini-biographies of the lives of early European cloud scientists. The vignettes are woven around a simple plot: an elderly, wealthy Japanese man is a collector of rare books about clouds. He hires a young woman to catalog his Paris library. That's pretty much the plot. What makes the book fascinating are the bizarre lives that some of these scientists led: apparently cloud-gazing pushes folks over the edge, just as it does our elderly Japanese gentleman. If you generally don't read science books, don't let that stop you. The science in this book is very user-friendly -- no numbers and about the level of a freshman college term paper.

This is a quick read and very disappointing. I am tired of the machinations of authors laboring under the apprehension that they are great literati. What is there to recommend this novel? The characters are never fully developed and the ending is disappointing. I suppose the intelligentsia of New York find this a fabulous novel to rave about, but for those of us looking for a good read this is not it. For those of us looking for great literature, this is not it. There are so many more novels available that are well written and well developed. Most disappointing. I thank my neighbor for lending it to me so that I did not have to purchase it. If it were mine, I would have given it to my parrots to eat... where I send books that are not even worth sending to the GoodWill Store.

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.

I am still uncertain whether this book is merely interesting or whether it's good. Certainly it was uneven, but that could be due to the translation. The good parts (about Japan and WWII, among others) are very good and the weaker portions are just boring, but the melancholy mood Audeguy evokes is lovely. It's a fun read, and worth it for a few hours, but not up on a list of "greats."

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.

That about says it - this was one weird book. Parts were totally captivating, parts were replusive (and I'm not a prude). I'm still scratching my head over this one, trying to decide whether I liked it or not.

If you don't like to experiment with your reading now and then, stay away. If you like the odd, bizarre and 'erotic,' give it a try.

I was intrigued by the title and after reading the book, I have to say it is rather unusual. But I can't shake the feeling that not all the storylines go well together. Most of the sexual references seem to be in it in order to sell the book and really don't help the story at all. Aside from that, the charatercs are all very likeable, even if rather weird. But if you are looking for a book that reflects your own passion for clouds, it falls short. Yet it is a good read.