"The Last Days of New Paris" by China Miéville (BR)

[Silvana]

This a 200 page of alternate history but since it's a Mieville book you can expect some bizarre stuff happening ;)

And as usual, the roll call. Who'll join me?

[Sarah]

I’ll be here!

[Silvana]

Sarah wrote: "I’ll be here!"

Buddyyyy 🤗🤗

Kaa expressed interest as well, I think 🤔.

[Jemppu]

Ooh, this sounds fascinating. If only I can find the time!

[Kaa]

Hi, yes, I am planning to join this too! It's been a couple years since I've read Mieville, so I'm interested to see how his writing feels now.

[Silvana]

@Jemppu: it is only a novella *wink

@Kaa: yep this is a 2016 publication, I am also curious. I still have Three Moments of Explosion as well in my shelf. Both are his most recent works I think.

[Paul]

Had this on my shelf for a while ( and have nominated it for group read! ), however I have a few book club reads I'm on for too. I shall deffo try to fit it in!

[Silvana]

10%
I love the imageries so far of the these (view spoiler)[surrealist, bizzare objects - or manifs - came to live and become the enemies of the Nazis.

I like the idea of (admittedly nightmarish) art as not only a form of resistance but resistance itself. (hide spoiler)]

And yes, another bizarre urban fantasy.

[Kaa]

14%. I agree with Silvana about how wonderful the imagery and ideas are. However, I am getting a little tired of (view spoiler)[all of the exposition in this section. It's a short book set in a complicated world, so some level of info-dumping may be necessary, but this is too much telling and not enough showing for me. I want something to actually be happening. (hide spoiler)] Hopefully that will come soon.

This is actually the second urban fantasy with Nazis I've tried recently, and at least so far this one is doing better.

[Silvana]

What was the first, Kaa?

[Kaa]

Silvana wrote: "What was the first, Kaa?"

(view spoiler)[Amberlough - had to dnf that one in part because the role of fascism in the story wasn't working with my mood/current events. (hide spoiler)]

[Silvana]

So, Oleksandr just tipped me that we should check out the notes at the end of the book referencing the manifs in the story.

In my Kindle each description has links to the pages it was referred by, but in the pages themselves I don't see any links to the explanation in end notes. Anyone has the same issue?

[Sarah]

I’m a little behind. I have a copy but haven’t been able to start yet. For some reason my library copy is not a kindle copy so I’m trying To figure out how to read it lol.

[Silvana]

I am now reading with both my Kindle and my phone app so I could immediately highlight and do a web image search.

Some of these images are going to give me nightmares haha

[Silvana]

No worries I am still at 16%. The checking process takes a quite a while.

[Kaa]

Thanks for the heads up, Silvana! I'm at 29%, but now I'm going to have to go back and look at all of the images!

[Silvana]

31%
Did anyone laugh when (view spoiler)[Sam said she's not leaving until she catch all the manifs?

She was playing Pokémon!

And I don't trust her. Fishy. (hide spoiler)]

Notes on the manifs:
I kinda liked the elephant and the aeropittura pics

[Silvana]

41%
The plot is kind of slow, isn't it?

(view spoiler)[and then we have another POV set a decade earlier. I am still getting my bearing here (hide spoiler)]

[Silvana]

54% or chapter 5

This idea of (view spoiler)[pulling out cards and have them come into life reminded me alot of the late 90s anime/manga Cardcaptor Sakura. After the Pokémon nod, now I wonder if Mieville is an anime fan. Or maybe I am just imagining things.

Anywho, the action scenes in chapter five are, I could not get my head around it. (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 7
(view spoiler)[now that we got some idea of what the Nazi was planning, it all just reminded me of Hellboy. Well, Nazi occultism, hell, experiments, all that jazz.

Still looking forward to more revelations from the other POV, which currently reads like the motley crew in Iron Council. Surrealist resistance fighters? Sounds cool (hide spoiler)]

[Sarah]

I am super late to this - I'm sorry! I did borrow the digital copy from my library- tried everything to get it on my kindle, but now I can't even get it onto my computer. I'm going to go to the library and pick up the physical copy today.

I hope you'll still chat with me about it? Is everyone finished?

[Silvana]

Of course Sarah, just start whenever you can.

I happen to finish it last night, I was surprised it ended so fast (even though I know it's a novella) but the percentage in my Kindle is deceiving, since not only there is an extensive list of manifs in the notes, but there is also a long afterword (which is really interesting)

I liked it, though it's not my favorite Mieville book. The world building is fun but the plot and character are just okay. My short review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Sarah]

I got a hard copy today. Started it so far- interesting, but I’m with Kaa, there is a lot of exposition and it’s sort of making me crazy.

On a side note- and my memory is fuzzy on this so I might be totally off base and feel free to correct me, but historically, didn’t France surrender to Germany in WWII because they did not want Paris bombed? Does anyone think Mieville is playing with that idea?

It’s hard to tell because right now I really have no clue what’s going on.

[Silvana]

Sarah wrote: "I got a hard copy today. Started it so far- interesting, but I’m with Kaa, there is a lot of exposition and it’s sort of making me crazy.

On a side note- and my memory is fuzzy on this so I might ..."

It's alt history so yeah he completely made things up after the invasion started.

[Sarah]

Well I was just thinking- the French loved Paris so much they gave themselves over to save it- in this Nazi occupied France, Paris’s beauty/art is itself a defense against the Nazis. I don’t know- just a thought. It’s a cool idea even if surrealism isn’t something I know much about.

[Silvana]

Yep I liked the idea of art as a form of resistance. Now I am reminded of battle of Hogwarts when McGonagall animated the knights statues to defend the school, such a cool scene. (view spoiler)[But in New Paris, the Nazi-fighting manifs were independent, which was even cooler. (hide spoiler)]

[Sarah]

Ugh- sorry. Getting back to this one now. My copy of Wanderers came in a week late and totally derailed me (I had expected to get it on 7/1). Usually I can read more than one book at a time, but it was really hard to put down!

I finally finished chapter one today and I’m having a hard time following the narrative- they seem like just little snapshots, Thibault here, Thibault there... did you have this issue Silvana? It’s hard for me to see the larger overall picture here.

[Sarah]

Okay- read through chapter three and it seems like it’s more cohesive and I’m following the narrative much better.

I read the afterword at the back- what a bizarre story!

[Silvana]

Hi Sarah, I too was still looking for my bearing halfway through the book.

Around that point (view spoiler)[I think there will be a change of POV in a different period, like a flashback. (hide spoiler)]

[Sarah]

Okay- I finished today. I'm not in love with it. There were some really great parts in the middle where I felt like the narrative was flowing smoothly and I understood everything that was going on.

Then it derailed again toward the end and I felt lost again. Or maybe not even lost but there was just a big disconnect with me and the story.

I think there were some great ideas in here as Silvana said (view spoiler)[art as a form of resistance, the manifs coming to life and operating independently. I like the revelation at the end where Sam was an agent of hell.. and that she was also an enemy of the Nazis... The Hitler manif was kind of weird... he was going to leave behind an empty world I guess? I'll have to think on it some more.

But I think there were too many characters to keep track of in such a short book. And they all suffered a little for it. The plot was slow, and the action scenes were hard to follow. (hide spoiler)]

[Silvana]

Yeah I agree, I rarely say this but the book could use more pages and it being a novella could be kind of counterproductive for some readers.

Having said that, I am excited to read another Mieville book soon! Currently I am working my way to read all his works.

[Sarah]

Which one are you reading next?

[Silvana]

Sarah wrote: "Which one are you reading next?"

Three Moments of an Explosion, which is a short story collection, so that's gonna be a first. I don't think I've read a short story from him, ever.

[Sarah]

I bet it will be great. Sort of like a sampling of all the brilliant bizarre without a lot of commitment. Lol

[Oleksandr]

I finished it some time ago, but only now managed to get to this thread.

I am not very knowledgeable on surrealist movement, only mayor artists. So, I guess I'd liked it more in case I knew more. It is interesting to counterbalance it to And the Show Went On: Cultural Life in Nazi-Occupied Paris - a non-fic on the culture live in the real occupied Paris, for it depicts quite a different city

[Silvana]

Ooh that looks fascinating. Thanks, Oleksandr.

[Oleksandr]

Silvana wrote: "Ooh that looks fascinating. Thanks, Oleksandr."

I would like to note that the above mentioned non-fic is not chiefly about surrealists, more night clubs, theaters etc. It is interesting, just not in line with the discussed novella

[Kaa]

I also had mixed feelings after I finally finished this. I think I would have appreciated it more if I knew more about the Surrealists, but also it didn't seem like Mieville was entirely sure what tone he was going for here? At times, I thought he was trying to create the same sort of weird feeling I get looking at surrealist art, but then he'd detour off into overly detailed exposition or an action scene, which despite the manifs often felt like generic monster-fighting. It was a super cool idea, but I just wanted something more in the execution.

[Oleksandr]

Kaa wrote: "It was a super cool idea, but I just wanted something more in the execution. ."

I think the main problem is concisely given in the epigraph at the start of the book:

“One overhears many reactions to surrealist art, but the most pathetic of all is from those who ask, ‘What am I supposed to see and feel from this?’ In other words, ‘What does papa say I may think and feel about this?’ ”

I agree that it doesn't feel as a surrealist's story for me but with surrealism opinions can/must differ I guess