The City & The City (Book Review)

The City and The City by China Miéville (Published by Macmillan, May 15, 2009)

"He walked with equipoise, possibly in either city. Schrödinger's pedestrian."

- China Miéville, The City & The City

The City and The City follows Inspector Tyador Borlú of the Besźel Extreme Crime Squad as he tries to solve the homicide of a young woman whose lifeless body was left in the seedy underbelly of the fictional city of Besźel. As he and his partner in the Besźel Policzai, Officer Lizybet Corwi, begin to pull on the string and unravel the mystery, they stumble on a myriad of conspiracies and myths, not only of their city, but of the city in which they share “grosstopical” real estate, Ul Qoma. The case forces Inspector Borlú to “cross the border” into Ul Qoma, the city he is - by law - supposed to “unsee,” and work with his counterpart, Detective Qussim Dhatt of the Ul Qoma Murder Squad. Together, the two Detectives descend into the murky underworld of deceptive foreign University students and their cagey Professors, disenfranchised nationalists and idealistic “unificationists,” two factions hell bent on seeing these two cities become one, and powerful tenebrous hands manipulating all sides. Borlú is fully aware this case may very well be the one that costs him and his partners their jobs, but much worse… exposing the secrets and truths of the cities may trigger the ever-present looming power of Breach, whom, at every turn, await and threaten to swoop in and snatch Borlú and his associates into the shadows between the city and the city from which it silently surveils.

Written by author China Miéville and published by Macmillan on May 15, 2009, The City & The City is the first book by China Miéville that I have read, so I did not go in as a reader who is familiar with his style of prose. What immediately stood out in my initial read through were the characters, both main and minor. Miéville did a masterful job of making his characters intriguing and well rounded, giving them each their own voice, while also avoiding falling into the pitfalls of detective tropes readers expect to find when reading detective mystery/police procedurals. What I mean by that is that when you read their dialogue you do not have to question who is speaking. Borlú is pensive and reserved, his speech calm and calculated, Dhatt is somewhat boorish (but not in an imbecilic way), and Corwi is smooth yet cautiously naive. They each have their ideals and principles, and they stick to them. Even as they face the unknown, it is those principles that keep them anchored to the earth. Spending time with these characters as they lived their lives in this dysfunctional functional world, with citizens of a man-made society that only makes sense to them and the hands who designed it, is what kept me turning the page. I also found the instances of suspense enthralling. Particularly, the climax that leads into the final act of the story. The way it unfolds had my heart racing and my blood pressure rising which is what great Police and Detective Procedurals do. 

Unfortunately that is where the excitement of the novel ended. There are two major elements that didn’t work for me: the mechanics of The City & The City and the murder mystery. On its face the murder mystery is pretty straight forward and that to me was a letdown. Miéville did an excellent job of building up so many mysteries (what I like to refer to as the spinning plates) only for the truth to be some mustache-twirly-villain-of-the-week reveal. It was so… I don’t know… pedestrian? I can’t describe what I mean any further without spoiling the plot of the book. It is too thin of a tightrope to walk. That being said, that is not what really hurt my experience with the book. It is the fact that I did not understand how the mechanics of The City and The City worked. I had to look it up on reddit and when I read a novel, any genre, I do not want to have to do that, nor should I have to, to understand it. This is not to say Miéville didn’t set up the rules of this fictional world correctly. I am saying that I - as a reader - did not understand it. 

Essentially from what I glean, think of New York City. Now think of Los Angeles. Now move Los Angeles from the west coast and plop it down on New York City so they share the same space. Now, if you were in New York City, even though you are also in Los Angeles (remember Los Angeles now occupies the same space) and you see the landmark buildings, Capitol Records, the Staples Center, The Chinese Theatre, and the people of LA on the streets when you’re walking, etc, you have to train your brain to “unsee” the buildings, the people, their cars, even their pets. And in order to crossover to LA from New York, you have to go to get the proper permits and permission, go to Penn Station, walk through a terminal and come back out of Penn Station back in New York, only you are now technically in Los Angeles. Failure to do any of this can trigger Breach. Did you understand that? I barely do, but that is how it works. And to be honest I’m about 59% sure I’m right.

And that is my main issue with the novel. If this was supposed to be a social commentary about the fatuousness that is classism and border division, it did not work on that level, especially the ending being what it was. I think the book may have worked better for me if the focus was on the dismantling of that infrastructure instead of the murder mystery. Because what is also strange is that the book is set in our reality. The United States of America, England, Japan, Australia, these countries as we know them all exist. This prompts two questions in my mind:

1. Where exactly in Europe the story of The City and The City is supposed to take place and...

2. None of these countries look at Besźel and Ul Qoma and go “No. No. No. This must be some kind of human rights violation. For the sake of those citizens - and humanity - we have a moral obligation to intervene”? 

One of the most well known idioms in existence is “never judge a book by its cover.” I have to regrettably admit that I did. On the cover of my copy of The City and The City, there is a quote from the Los Angeles Times that reads:

“If Phillip K. Dick and Raymond Chandler’s love child were raised by Franz Kafka, the writing that emerged might resemble… The City & The City.”

I enjoy Kafka, I can see flashes of Phillip K. Dick, sure, and though there are some instances within Raymond Chandler’s detective novels that do feel dated, the mysteries he weaves are undoubtedly done so seamlessly. The novel is dedicated to China Miéville’s mother Claudia Lightfoot who was a fan of crime and mystery novels. China Miéville, it is said, wrote The City & The City for her, however, she was terminally ill and unfortunately passed away before the book was even published. I’m sure she would’ve loved this novel. However, for me (and I feel I must continue to emphasis the me aspect of this), the mystery reveal and twist of The City & The City just didn’t land… with me. Perhaps, and I mean this sincerely, that is my fault for expecting it to feel like Dick, Chandler, and Kafka rolled into one.

Literature is art and art as we know is subjective. My experiences and opinions are my own, as yours should be. There is no denying China Miéville is a literary auteur. If you love to read and want to read something out of the ordinary, The City & The City is just that. You will not feel like you wasted your time. Miéville’s writing style is undeniably unique and his characters feel so real you can grab their hands and take their pulse. That is exactly what readers should want. Yes, the novel would’ve appealed to me more if it would’ve explored the social aspect of the fictional cities, you know, made this the main subject instead of a backdrop, one of many plot elements (spinning plates) within a murder mystery police procedural. However, this does, in no way, sway me from reading anymore of Miéville’s work. On the contrary, knowing what I know now, and finally understanding Miéville’s writing style, I will feel more prepared going into his other works, and perhaps my next Miéville experience will be much more positive.