I just put down China Mieville's new book, "The City & The City," and I don't plan to pick it up again. I got about 50 pages into it before I had to give up. I hated it.
But please buy it anyway.
You see, this guy is a genius. The scope of his imagination is all-but infinite, as he revealed to the world in 2000 in a book called "Perdido Street Station." Every page seethed and dripped with odd, cluttered details; his characters were real, whether they walked on two legs, or four, or floated as liquid in tubs. They lived in a city called New Crobuzon, which was a haggis of medieval dirt, alchemy, twisted romance, and steampunk sci-fi.
I loved it, and I loved his two subsequent novels in the series, "The Scar" and "Iron Council."
And then he changed gears, and wrote a young adult novel that was sort-of, kind-of similar, but not really. "Un Dun Lun" was a fantasy that involved far more elements of our real world, only mixed them up with fantastic, sometimes troubling result (I remember my daughter telling me about a talking milk carton that wasn't so nice).
Now, he's changed gears again, with his latest novel throwing out all of the presumptions of his earlier works, and giving us a detective drama set in some odd Eastern European city. Then exact where and when of it is hard to decipher, and the characters are deeply damaged; there's a backstory that lays heavy on the plot, just as the city of New Crobuzon infused every plot device in "Perdido."
It just didn't work for me. I couldn't connect with the characters, or even easily follow what was going on. More importantly, I didn't care, and after 50 pages, I think I should be at least somewhat engaged in a story line. I wasn't, so I chucked it, hardcover and all, into the recycle bin.
But please buy it anyway.
I have the utmost respect for an author -- or any artist -- who is willing to throw away the easy conventions of success, and embrace new, untested models. Think of the mass of musicians who keep coming out with what's effectively the same songs, over and over, or the directors who "specialize" in repeating car stunts in one action movie after another. There's lots of money in sticking to form and producing version x in a predictable, safe, never-ending series.
Mieville is different.
While he's been categorized into a literary movement called The New Weird, his latest book proves that he doesn’t want to be labeled. He has the guts and the creativity to invent something different, and for that, he deserves our support. We should want to take risks with artists who are wildly inventive, dedicated, and unique.
I gave up on "The City & The City." But please buy it anyway.
