I have just finished reading the truly lovely novel The Theory of Clouds by Stephane Audeguy and while I'm looking forward to writing a positive review of it, there's one aspect of the book that puzzles me to no end. Mostly it is about Akira Kumo, a Hiroshima survivor who completely reinvented himself after the bombing and became world famous fashion designer. His profession plays very little (almost nil) in the plot as it is largely about his collection of books, pamphlets, letters, etc. on the history of meteorology and the librarian, Virginie Latour, whom he hires to catalog it. Kumo has been a collector of different things all his life and likes to talk about his interests and so from the beginning, the book seems to about his latest collection, the history behind meteorology and some personal revelations that Kumo suffers at the same time Latour comes into his life. He starts off by telling her about Luke Howard, the man who "named the clouds" and is one very interesting historic figure. I thought Kumo and Latour were interesting, the historical bits about Howard were fascinating and the whole book seemed destined to be a very elegantly written look at history and truth.

And then Virginie Latour goes home after her first day at work and commences to enjoy her once a week ritual that stretches back to her childhood where she gets naked and has a few special moments alone.

This is where I got very confused.

Next we learn a bit more about Kumo's background in Japan and Virginie returns to work and we hear more about Luke Howard. That section is followed by the story of Carmichael, a fictional character who painted landscapes of the sky and was obsessed with clouds. Then we bounce back into Kumo's earlier life and find out he liked to spend a lot of time with prostitutes; lots and lots of time.

I have no idea what this information was supposed to mean or how it helped the book but there it is.

Then back to more discussion of history as the Virginie and Kumo go through his collection. The book takes its big plot turn when Kumo reveals the existence of a mysterious book written in the early 20th century by one of the greatest meteorologists of all time (he's fictional). No one knows what "The Abercrombie Protocol" says because the family has kept it secret for decades. But with the death of Richard Abercrombie's daughter there is a hope that his grandson will be willing to sell. Virginie is off to London to make a deal.

But of course first she has to have really great sex with the Abercrombie heir.

More history from Kumo, more insight into who Abercrombie was and the other meteorologist who was his great rival and then - amazingly Virginie gets to see the book. And then we learn alot about Richard Abercrombie and all of his travels.

Oh yeah and sex; Richard had lots of sex all over the world.

Okay you can see where I'm going with this. I just don't know what to do with a novel - especially a very literary type novel- that seems to be about one thing and suddenly diverts into sex. The sex had nothing to do with so much of this book. There was no relationship building here, or jealousy or embarrassment. No one was falling in or out of love. It's about clouds and people who pursue clouds and about truth and denying truth and being obsessed by truth or lies. There are a lot of big important themes going on in this book and I loved all that but I just don't know what to do about the sex.

Was it supposed to symbolize something? Is it always supposed to symbolize something? I don't know why it is in this book. It's not like it makes the book something other than what it is - but I think I'm missing something. Maybe it is supposed to make the book something else. I mean on the one hand you are reading about Lewis Fry Richardson and his posting to the Eskdalemuir Observatory in 1914 and that's very interesting. Then Audeguy tells us that Richardson's wife gotpregnat by another man because she and Lewis could not genetically have a child. Is this true? I have no idea but also - what does it have to do with this story? I go careening off wondering how Stella could "endure the colonel's amorous attentions on a number of occasions" but the author is already going someplace else. He's at the invention of the first computer in 1946 and Virginie is getting laid in a major way and the thread of the story I've been following unravels a bit because I just can't figure out what is most important: the science or the sex.

This is not the first book that has confused me by suddenly including sex in the plot for no reason other than to show that yes, people have sex. I just can't figure out why authors include it arbitrarily. Is it supposed to show the characters are human? Or in the case of Kumo and his prostitutes - should this be showing me that he suffers from emotional distance due to the war? Because the thing is, the stories Audeguy has Kumo tell are already revealing all of that; the beautiful blending of truth and fiction are already making me care far more about clouds and cloud gazers then I thought I would.

I don't need Virginie having a go with a guy she just met on a couch to tell me about her; I already "get" her from her interactions with Kumo.

Sex does belong in some stories; it was a big part of Jane Mendelsohn's Innocence and it made a lot of sense in that novel; it belonged there. But sometimes I can't help but think that authors get scared and think they need sex to make us understand or make us empathize with their characters. Either that, or I just don't get it; I don't understand sex nearly as much as I thought I did.

[Post title a quote from book, picture of Luke Howard, artwork by a Hiroshima survivor.]