The City and the City

#809
Title: The City and the City
Author: China Miéville
Publisher: Del Rey
Year: 2009
312 pages

Audiobook.

So I was teaching a big lecture class on human trafficking today and a student made an observation about walking around in one's life and seeing but not seeing other people. I asked, "How many of you have read Miéville's The City and the City? Not a one raised a hand. I am almost recovered from my shock. 170 university students and none had read this? It's enough to make a person wish she still taught literature.

Yes, I see 9/11 in it. Yes, I see Borges. Yes, I think of Robbe-Grillet's Topology of a Phantom City. Yes, I see an okay detective story. But what I most see, and what carries this, is the enormous sparkle of its world-building, and how the world(s) created resonate with our lived experience of not seeing poverty, not seeing crime, not seeing other cultures, not seeing women, the ways we share a sidewalk while pretending we don't interact with each other. Plot aside, I found this novel playful and great sociocultural and linguistic fun. More, please.