I am confident that you will not read another novel like Amy Fusselman’s “Cloud Six” this year.
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Or ever, truth be told.
The protagonists of “Cloud Six” are Mam and Bunko, a married couple with a teenage daughter, Penny. Mam and Bunko love each other, but Bunko has trouble with alcohol and Mam has had about enough of that. She has arranged for a job interview across the country, a chance for a new start. Mam tells Bunko that he’s welcome to join her and Penny in this new life, but he’s got to straighten up and can start by accompanying her on the trip.
Mam and Bunko’s plane crashes, and they wind up not in heaven (Cloud 9, obviously), but a somewhat lower realm (Cloud 6). Cloud 6 is a mix between a dismal waiting room and bizarre dreamscape. Definitely not heaven, not quite hell.
On Cloud 6, Mam and Bunko are initially joined by a fluffy white talking rabbit named Leroy, who later turns into a rabbit skeleton. The ground consists of waving white handkerchiefs that make it difficult to even walk. Larger human skeletons carry guns, and Mam and Bunko spend a decent stretch running from the gunfire. Ostensibly, they are trying to get to a spot where they can see Penny back on Earth along with Mam’s much younger brother Bill, who is now Penny’s guardian, so they can see if she’s OK.
Mam and Bunko are reminiscent of Beckett’s Vladimir and Estragon from “Waiting for Godot,” they are dislocated people who sense that there is something important they must do but cannot quite understand what it is or why.
Meanwhile, on Earth, Penny and Bill are on a kind of road trip to Las Vegas with Mam’s favorite houseplant, Gloria, along for the ride.
Some chapters are told from the point of view of Gloria, who has some frankly heartbreaking insights into the shortcomings of human beings.
Also, periodically we are interrupted by Fusselman’s authorial presence, and then an intern Fusselman hired when she cannot stand to work on her own book.
Other elements are even stranger and would take too long to explain. I hope I’ve made my case that this is an unusual book. You would think it’s just the work of a fevered imagination, except there are also 62 endnotes, real-world sources for what’s referenced in the text.
Fusselman has been relentlessly original ever since her 2001 debut nonfiction book, “The Pharmacist’s Mate,” which juxtaposed a journal of her father’s from when he held that position on a WWII hospital ship along with her attempts to get pregnant.Her other nonfiction work takes the form of inquiries, or perhaps meditations, where an examination of the seemingly mundane reveals hidden wonders and curiosities. “Cloud Six” is working in this mode in novel form, a seemingly crazy fantasy that is perhaps rather close to the lives we live on Earth, where the ground is not made of waving handkerchiefs, but sometimes feels as though it may as well be.
I read “Cloud Six” in the same week the leading developers of artificial intelligence declared their fear that their inventions stand a good chance of killing us all. What could be stranger than that?
Some readers will be frustrated by this book, wanting to know what kind of sense we’re supposed to make of all this, but “Cloud Six” is here to remind us that making sense is perhaps not humankind’s the highest calling of humankind.
It’s our job to live, even when we’re stuck in a place like Cloud Six.
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Book recommendations from the Biblioracle
John Warner tells you what to read based on the last five books you’ve read.
1. “Last One Out” by Jane Harper
2. “The Names” by Florence Knapp
3. “The Last Mandarin” by Louise Penny and Mellissa Fung
4. “We the Women: The Hidden Heroes Who Shaped America” by Norah O’Donnell and Kate Andersen Brower
5. “A Short History of Nearly Everything” by Bill Bryson
— Jo S., Burr Ridge
The hope here is that Jo is not yet acquainted with Jackson Brodie, Kate Atkinson’s indelible character who is introduced to us in “Case Histories.”
1. “What Kind of Paradise” by Janelle Brown
2. “Plainsong” by Kent Haruf
3. “Stoner” by John Williams
4. “Flashlight” by Susan Choi
5. “Cursed Daughters” by Oyinkan Braithwaite
— Susan G., Park Ridge
I’m going modern classic for Susan, who I think will be moved by Richard Yates’ classic, “Revolutionary Road.”
1. “The House Next Door” by Anne Rivers Siddons
2. “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm” by Kate Douglas Wiggin
3. “The Buffalo Hunter Hunter” by Stephen Graham Jones
4. “Hamnet” by Maggie O’Farrell
5. “Theo of Golden” by Allen Levi
— Kim G., Bloomington
Louise Erdrich’s “The Round House” has some challenging dramatic moments, but this list suggests Kim is the right reader for such a book.
Get a reading from the Biblioracle
Send a list of the last five books you’ve read and your hometown to [email protected].
John Warner is the author of books including “More Than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI.” You can find him at biblioracle.com.