Book Review: The Last Days of New Paris by China Mieville

I've had The Last Days of New Paris on my to-read list for a while. I'm a fan of China Mieville and enjoyed many of his books, particularly The City and The City and The Scar. This is a novella, so it's much shorter than before and I decided to go ahead and just dive right into it.

Read on for my spoiler-free review.

Overall Impression

Mieville is known for producing weird fiction and this is no exception. Combining Nazi occupied Paris with the Surrealist art movement, he has created a nightmarish setting where art and devils clash. A somewhat convoluted plot leads to some intense story telling as characters struggle against each other and the Surreal and infernal all at once. It's a pretty interesting story, even if not my favorite of his.

Plot

The plot of this book starts off a bit slow, with a lot of meandering. Chapters flip back and forth between 1950, where Thibaut and Sam navigate the Surrealist New Paris, and 1941, where ambitious artists, dissatisfied with the war, meet and chat and play, all before the S-Blast changes the world. This is further complicated by the fact that in the initial chapters for 1950, we get to follow Thibaut as he wanders, remembers events of several months past, and also remembers events from his childhood. The rapid time jumps can be disorienting and it doesn't help that you're never sure if Mieville is using metaphors to describe the setting or if it is just some surrealist art. Despite all this, the novella is fairly short and focused so the initial confusion fades away as you get into some of the action and understand how things work.

Characters

We mainly follow Thibaut, a young Main à plume, in his resistance of the Nazis in Paris alongside the surreal manifestation that he has some uncanny connection with. He is joined by Sam, an enigmatic photographer. We don't quite know her plans or purpose and that drives some of the mystery. There are also some characters in 1941, but they seem very secondary. It really is mainly the story of Thibaut and the city of New Paris, which like many of Mieville's stories is almost a character unto itself.

Setting / World Building

Exquisite Corpse by André Breton, 

Jacqueline Lamba, and Yves Tanguy, 1938

Mieville has always excelled at creating fascinating, genre-defying settings and he manages again with The Last Days of New Paris. Some mysterious event has happened that has turned Paris into a place where Surrealist art can manifest itself and walk around. These "manifs" wander about and can attack people and are frequently part of the resistance against the Nazis. The Nazis have tried producing their own manifs and even beyond that they have some diabolical pact that allows them to summon demons from Hell into Paris. So not only do you have people fighting people, you also have people fighting devils, people fighting art, and art fighting devils. Suffice to say, Paris is not a safe place for anyone.

Final Thoughts

This was quite an interesting ride. I was not too familiar with Surrealist art, but gained a deeper appreciation of it thanks to this novella. I also appreciated its length since a much longer novel would have been exhausting with all the craziness that takes place. The characters were decent, but the main selling point was New Paris and the unique setting were art and devils roam the streets alongside Nazis and resistance fighters. While not my favorite Mieville story, this is in line with the weird fiction he is known for.