The City & the City

Whoever said that Mieville’s “The City & the City” was probably the most difficult story we will read this semester was not over exaggerating at all. It’s interesting how “The City & the City” opening was similar to the other mystery books we have read, but where it worked for the other books, it failed to do so with this story. The mystery books have all seemed to jump right into the plot without any sense of back story or prologue. In the other mystery novels this sense of immediacy worked and compelled me to read more of the story, but with Mieville’s book it was unsettling and left me feeling confused. The main problem with “The City & the City” jumping into the plot was the fantastical setting. It was very difficult for me to visualize the crime scene when I had no clue where the story was even taking place. At first, I was not sure if the city was a fictional place because the narrator would refer to known countries like Turkey and the United States. The ensuing pages try to establish this fictional city but only make the setting more convoluted by including ideas like the bordering city and the Breach.  Also the use of a different language and slang terminology makes it even harder to comprehend the basis of the story. It was just too hard to decipher a new world, language, and a crime all at one time; it was almost like a sensory overload.