The Joy of Reading
At the thematic center of this complex and convoluted narrative is a celebration of the act of reading books. This theme does not even wait for the actual narrative text to commence: it is dedicated to all librarians of the past, the present, and the future. Once the narrative does commence, libraries as an actual location as well as a philosophical concept become essential to the working out of the multi-layered plot. The author has himself described the structure of the book during interviews as really being not just a single novel, but five novels within one. In addition, the entire story is centered upon the discovery of a long-lost ancient Greek manuscript.
Connectivity
A seven-year gap separates Doerr’s previous novel—the Pulitzer Prize-winning All the Light We Cannot See—from this follow-up and it seems especially fitting, though hardly planned, that it would be published while the Covid pandemic was still raging across America like wildfire among some while virtually untouched among others. The story takes place across vast expanse of time and space from the first century Greek text that stimulates everything through 15th century Europe, 20th century America and into the distant future of long-term space travel in the next century. All these times and places feature individual connected by that manuscript. The power of a single book to connect readers across the continuum of time and space is thematically explored as one of the more unique quirks of human existence. But just like getting vaccinated or not getting vaccinated against a devastating plague has the power to disrupt human connectivity, so is reading also seemingly a no-brainer which is often willfully rejected with the consequences of thwarting its ability to help humans connect.
The Road to Utopia
The title of the book derives from a place found in a comedy by Aristophanes titled The Birds. Its satirical point made in that play has since transformed the term into a metaphor for any mode of thought that is oblivious to the factual undermining of its utopian ideal. Things seem perfect to the person living in Cloud Cuckoo Land while to everyone not living there the imperfections are jaw-droppingly obvious. The novel explores the larger psychology of why writers have persistently throughout the centuries pursued the idea of creating a perfect state and ideal living condition for all when the least little bit of human experience is enough to inform them that is road is destined to lead to failure. Those five different novels in one (the five different perspectives in time and place represented by the narrative protagonists) are all integrated into story that seeks to offer an optimistic view of the future of humanity that doesn’t set itself up for failure through expectations of a perfect utopian ideal.
