Angela Hicks Hicks itibaren 40034 Famaticcia BO, İtalya
Not my favorite Miéville by any means. It's a murder mystery and a detective story set in a distinctly odd set of places. The story and the primary character are engaging enough, but I was hoping for more weirdness to bubble up throughout. Instead the reader is immersed in the nuts and bolts of how one uses "unseeing" to navigate through Besźel or Ul Quoma, two very different cities that share the same space. Perhaps it's my age showing, but I imagine these two cities as a topological transformation of East and West Berlin before the Wall went down. Instead of two areas separated by a wall, the two are physically merged and psychically (not in a paranormal or supernatural sense) separate. Usually Miéville sprinkles his books liberally with fascinating concepts, often tossed off with short mentions or brief descriptions, that let us glimpse a world much stranger than our own. In this book, the strangeness that I look for is fixed tightly to the one conceit.
I read this book because it was Jane Eyre's favorite. (not that I was particularly thrilled by her story unless I pretend that Mr. Rochester bears an uncanny resemblance to Orson Welles.) My appreciation of Jane Eyre is besides the point, I like getting book recommendations from characters in other books. That is all. I thought that this book would bear the same stuffiness and intelligence as the books it is usually classified with: Classic English Literature, Stuff You Read for School. In this respect, Gulliver's Travels failed. The story is rife with Toilet Humor and the Silliness of Gulliver's third journey was probably beyond my comprehension. Pissing on the Liliputian Queen's apartment to put out a fire = WIN. Let's just say that casting Jack Black for the newest remake is probably the most inspired casting decision of the 21st century.
This is a quick easy book that you can read in a day or two. If you are looking for a literary masterpiece, look elsewhere. But this isn't the point of the book. It is written from a normal, faithful, amazing young lady who happened to have her arm bitten off by a shark. Honest and heartfelt. Watching the movie tonight.
October 2011 book club Laurie Thompson