I was six chapters into Miéville’s novel, and I didn’t like it. The premise was hard to wrap my brain around. When I finally did wrap my brain around it, it required such suspension of disbelief that I found it stupid. I took a deep breath and let his China tell me his tale, and I found it to be a truly interesting and thought-provoking concept wrapped in a somewhat lackluster murder mystery.
The core of The City & The City is… well, the two cities. Besźel and Ul Qoma physically occupy the same location, but years of mandatory training enforced by strict law have allowed the citizens of both cities to “unsee” their neighbors. If they aren’t in an area zoned for their city, they are forbidden to acknowledge the people of the other city. If they do acknowledge them or enter into the other city illegally, they are in violation, and a group called Breach takes them away forever.
Our protagonist, Inspector Tyador Borlú, is investigating the death of a student, Mahalia Geary, which will take him into the neighboring city of Ul Qoma, lead him to investigate rumors of a third city between the two, and eventually to investigate Breach itself.
The premise is intriguing enough to push this one up in my ratings, even though, much like some of the characters, I got lost in what city I was in at times. Who are we unseeing today? Who knows. Enjoy the ride. The idea was apparently an analogy for the homeless and how we have taught ourselves not to see them. If you scoff, think about the last time you pulled up to a red light with a person holding a sign. Did your eyes meet or did you “unsee” them? Overlay that over an entire culture; an entire city. Clever.
The mystery itself feels very much like a traditional detective story in the way it’s written, except it lacked some punch. There are some wild things that happen in the novel, mostly at the conclusion, but everything in between mainly consists of Borlú talking to people to gather more clues and working his way to the conclusion. There isn’t a ton of action in this novel, so don’t go in with the wrong idea.
It’s an interesting idea that works very well as a mystery novel, even though it requires a healthy amount of suspension of disbelief. I listened to it as an audiobook, but if I had to do it again, I’d read a physical copy so I could better keep track of locations and people.