Angel Shawver Shawver itibaren Gangapur Baras, Uttar Pradesh, Hindistan itibaren Gangapur Baras, Uttar Pradesh, Hindistan

A hybrid murder mystery and speculative fiction story, The City & The City is about two cities that occupy the same geographical space. The story is told in the traditional 1st-person POV detective-story style. The people of the two cities are conditioned from birth to 'unsee' their next door neighbours, and their behaviours are kept in check by a seemingly omnibenevolent force. I had a few problems with it. Firstly, the prose. I had the same problem in Embassytown, namely that it felt stilted and found myself re-reading many sentences. The dialogue was particularly guilty of this, and I have to wonder if it was intentionally structured this way because of the 1st-person POV narrative. The story itself is pretty good; it drags a bit in the beginning. But I gave it five stars because the concept itself trumps all other facets of the novel. I know from experience with Embassytown that Mieville likes to immerse (terrible pun, sorry) you in his worlds without much explanation, so I didn't think i'd be surprised by anything. However, from what i'd heard about this book, I was expecting some science fictional elements, but they weren't there. Easy fix: suspend my disbelief in a different way. Get abstract. The whole premise of two cities overlapping each other; but not actually seeing the other, became metaphorical. And it could be flexibly interpreted in any way you like: socially, politically, philosophically. Racial tensions? Class distinctions? Fascism and totalitarianism? Res cogitas and res extensa? You name it, you can interpret it that way. The one interpretation I was focusing on (and failed miserably, by the way) was a political one. I found out while reading this that Mieville is socialist, so I found myself looking for the parallels, and Israel was the one that came to mind. It wasn't entirely unsuccessful, but I don't think that this was any kind of allegory. That's what makes the novel so damn good. It's ambiguous enough to elude solid interpretation. (Probably this is why everyone keeps calling it Kafkaesque) As a side note: learning that one of his main interests in politics made me take note that his golden lines--the real quotable nuggets--were generally politically oriented. Doesn't matter to me. It doesn't seem like he's preaching and he's writing damn good fiction. I can't wait to sink my teeth into some more. China and I are going to become good friends this year.