The Last Days of New Paris — China Miéville

The Last Days of New Paris tells the story of a defeated Paris, a decade after World War Two. Various factions — including some from Hell — have formed to help, fight, or at least navigate the ruling Nazis. However, all of their lives have been made more complicated by the fact that the city has been walled and is seemingly inescapable. The reason for the walls is the explosion of an S(urrealist)-Bomb and the subsequent rise of manifs, works of art, usually Surrealist of course, that have come alive and are hungry for destruction and the absurd.

The book mostly follows the Main à Plume resistance member Thibault, and narrates his story — always in present tense — in a Surrealist-fitting dreamlike tone which constantly blurs what is real and what is imagined. This, combined with the constant references to Modernist art and artists (from the most well-known to the most obscure), might slow down the reading, but creates a fantastically compelling and rich, albeit dark and grim, dystopia.

And though confusing at times (even most of the time), the book rises a point that has left me thinking since: is play (a Surrealist obsession and a large source for its creations) resistance? We know art can be engaged (and in the story it is literally engaged in the battle for the city), and that it can be play. But isn’t play — the act to amuse yourself just for the sake of it — in the face of the darkest of times, the greatest act of resistance? Can it be effective? Does it matter? It might be an interesting question for days to come.