Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doer

What’s the longest you’ve taken to finish a book?  Anthony Doer’s Cloud Cuckoo Land took me more than 4 months to finish.  I wanted to really understand.  It is about the quest for fantasylands or heaven by all of us.  This book could be seen as a collection of short stories with each character narrating (Anna, Omeir, Zeno, Seymour, and Konstance) a different time (15th C, the 1950s, Korean War, 2020, and the future) and place (Constantinople, Idaho, and Outer Space) in a connected story.  What links all the people, places, and time periods is Antonius Diogenes writes a story (Cloud Cuckoo Land) around the first century C.E. narrated by Aethon. He longs to be turned into a bird so that he can fly to a utopian paradise.  The different people, time periods, and places were all a bit overwhelming to me.  Then one of the people in Bookclub said to watch for the owl and it would all start connecting.  She was right!  Another said to watch for the librarians and what they recommend to the characters as well as what the characters find in libraries.  This really does make sense!  And yet another said to pay attention to the healing power of storytelling, not just for those they read the story to but also the storyteller themselves!  The best lessons are learned through the sharing of stories and experiences.  I am so thankful not just for books but also bookclubs and buddy reads so we can share.  

If you approach the story chronologically it starts with sisters Anna and Maria who work as seamstresses in the house of Nicholas Kalaphates in Constantinople.  Anna finds a copy of Cloud Cuckoo Land.  During that same time period.  Omeir is a village boy conscripted with his beloved oxen into the army.  He and Anna meet and lead quite the life.  

Then in the 1940s, we meet Zeno as a child. He learns Greek.  Later he lives in  Idaho, octogenarian Zeno, who learned Greek as a prisoner of war.  Later in life, he starts translating Cloud Cuckoo Land.  A group of children at the library become mesmerized by the story and work on a play adaptation of Aethon’s story.  

Also in Idaho in the latter part of Zeno’s is a child, Seymour. He probably has Aspergers as he can’t tolerate loud sounds, is antisocial, and lacks simple common sense but is a genius.  The world overwhelms him but an amenable owl befriends him and becomes his “trusty friend”.  In adolescence, he becomes an eco-warrior due to the land around him being developed and the owl losing its home.  

Lastly, we have the interstellar ship Argos in which a child, Konstance lives.  She becomes quarantined and lives alone in a vault.  Looking for answers about her Dad she starts copying on scraps of protein powder sacking the story of Aethon as told to her by her father.