1/8/13: Surprising but I saw the movie and loved it. Yay! 
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 "One model of time: an infinite matryoshka doll of painted moments, each "shell" (the present) encased inside a nest of "shells" (previous presents) I call the actual past but which we perceive as the virtual past. The doll of "now" likewise encases a nest of presents yet to be, which I call the actual future but which we perceive as the virtual future" [pg. 393] 
 Michael Chabon's blurb for this book properly refers to Cloud Atlas as a novel as series of nested dolls. We get six different stories told in ascending order and then descending order (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1), each of these stories connected to one another in some way. 
 It's terrific. Part of the joy comes from the structure of the book and how Mitchell weaves these stories together. Another part of the joy comes from how different the styles/genres are for each story and how good Mitchell is at each one. 
 It isn't just a gimmick either. Cloud Atlas will leave you with plenty to think about, especially when it comes to what Mitchell has to say about humanity. This is a Novel with a capital N.