Looking for Jake

#909
Title: Looking for Jake
Author: China Miéville
Publisher: Del Rey
Year: 2005
320 pages

A collection of short stories that benefit from being read together, in this order, as Miéville uses their relationship to mirror, distort, or amplify aspects of each other. While a couple of the stories founder, perhaps because they are not in Miéville's typical style, most hold up nicely. In his novels, we become familiar with the logic of each setting; here, because the stories are short, the reading experience often is of disorientation. Since most of his protagonists are similarly discombobulated, the existential confusion is heightened.

Buildings and streets play a surprisingly large and active role in many of these pieces, as does the sense that mere anarchy has been loosed upon the world--or, at least, that the world is fraying, and not only does that mean something, but the shape of the threads means something, too. In many cases, characters struggle mightily either to make sense of what they experience, or to push away their understanding.

Best gooey imagery: "The ball room" (a story of an IKEA gone crazy), "Familiar." Creepiest: "Foundation." Most poignant: "Looking for Jake," "Details," "The tain." Least effective: "'Tis the season," "On the way to the front." Most evocative of Poe: "Entry taken from a medical encyclopaedia."

<b>Table of contents</b>
Looking for Jake
Foundation
The ball room
Reports of certain events in London
Familiar
Entry taken from a medical encyclopaedia
Details
Go between    
Different skies
An end to hunger
'Tis the season
Jack    
On the way to the front
The tain