Mukesh Kumar Kumar itibaren Birampur, West Bengal 733132, Intia
I really wanted to like this book.
This is the most intrepid book I have read in years. But if my superlatives start to stack, readers may disbelieve how bold and dazzling this novel really is! It is genre-busting, defies singular categorization. However, some characteristics are certain--postmodern, and somewhere on the continuum between anti-utopia and dystopia. It's a hard-boiled noir detective thriller in salty Chandleresque style that also intersects the child of Jung with the nephew of Nietzsche. Let's not stop here--throw in some Huxley and Orwell--but a lot of what I am describing is subsumed in themes and transcended in style, tone, and story. A pastiche. It would be detrimental to disclose almost anything about this novel--the wonder and adventure comes with reading it and discovering every street and corner of the city and the city through the prose. From the first page, you are transported from here--to there. You are steeped in the city (two cities, actually)--somewhere in the purlieu of Eastern Europe. The city of Beszel and the city of Ul Qoma--and, most importantly, the indecipherable place in-between. A strange murder occurs in Beszel and we are introduced to our main protagonist, Inspector Tyador Borlú of the Extreme Crime Squad. Instead of a routine investigation, it becomes the most dangerous and inexplicable crime he has ever encountered. The enigmatic history and the disturbing laws of both cities are revealed through the action of the story--the author jolts you into a new world without *telling* you--it is as if we already know. And, word by word, page by page, we become inundated. We leave our own world--the story is that convincing. Miéville occasionally expands and invents words; frequently, they are fused from a combination of two words, e.g. "grosstopically." The new word not only describes itself without overt explanation (you apprehend them within the context of the story), but it often staggers your mind by defining a new or existing concept that is unequivocally precise and at once comprehensible. It drills into your grey matter instantly--as if it has always been there. I was always saying "ahhhhh" to these new words that were immediately recognizable as limning the sphere of the cities--the ideology, politics, socioeconomics. They serve to deepen your experience of the story and immerse you in the geographical topography, as well as the psychological topography. Familiar words, such as "breach" and "crosshatch," expand and shift into the more psychological regions of your mind. Their meanings intensify and become simultaneously opaque and transparent, masked and exposed. What is withheld moves into focus. The narrative is written with a fine balance of craft and artistry. If you desire a richly absorbing story with poise and punch, journey into The City and The City. Careful--watch your steps.
I had a hard time reading this book. It was pretty depressing. I kept hoping for a sign of hope for the future. Disappointing.
a bit wordy.