 |
| Hardcover, 205 pages Published 2016 Acquired December 2018 Read January 2019 |
I liked the idea of this book-- surrealist artwork come to life in a Paris where World War II and the Nazi occupation continued into the 1950s-- more than I enjoyed reading it. I'm not sure why. I really liked how the other Miéville novella I've read was told, even when I didn't know what was going on, but this one never grabbed me, even among the great imagery. Maybe you need to be more up on Surrealism than I am?
I did really like the afterword (it had a good, spooky nineteenth-century sf vibe, though then it would have been a foreword), and the climax of the book was clever, pitting Surrealist art against fascist. It is perfectly suited to be a novella; this is the kind of idea that wouldn't work as a novel or a short story, I suspect. Miéville explores a number of twists and turns of the central concept, but it doesn't outstay its welcome.
No comments:
Post a Comment