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Loading... The Last Days of New Parisby China Miéville
  
No current Talk conversations about this book. this is just lovely, if you surrender to it. Paris in and after the Second World War, as alternate universes are created, and collapse, in a street war between Nazi and resistance forces using art against the enemy. culture as a no man's land, where art and cultural ideas have the power to wound. i had to go away and reread a lot of surrealist manifestos and look at a whole lot of art afterwards, but how can that be a bad thing? (  ) macha | Nov 29, 2022 |  I loved this book so much that, after listening to the audiobook, I read the Kindle version. (  ) NancyinA2 | Feb 3, 2022 | So I finished reading China Miéville's The Last Days in New Paris... Yes, for a 176 page book, I read it slowly. I prefer to chew on things I enjoy, swill it around my mouth, savor it for a moment, rather than wolf it down like some greasy Big Mac. The writing is inconsistent. I did Haruki Murakami a grave disservice earlier comparing Miéville's surrealistic prose to his. Murakami can maintain a dreamy prose for pages and chapters, while Miéville returns to a more prosaic, blunt style. I still gave it 5 stars on Goodreads despite its consistency. Goodreads didn't allow for 4.5, and China's first foray into a dreamy, odd, surrealistic solipsism was better than that. It deserves a read for people who enjoy Murakami or Umberto Eco at their surrealist finest. It wrapped up well, as well as one of Murakami's cats slipping off into the night. One moment there, the next moment gone, but mighty nice fish you had there and thanks for the company. ( ) Tayledras | Nov 16, 2021 | So I finished reading China Miéville's The Last Days in New Paris... Yes, for a 176 page book, I read it slowly. I prefer to chew on things I enjoy, swill it around my mouth, savor it for a moment, rather than wolf it down like some greasy Big Mac. The writing is inconsistent. I did Haruki Murakami a grave disservice earlier comparing Miéville's surrealistic prose to his. Murakami can maintain a dreamy prose for pages and chapters, while Miéville returns to a more prosaic, blunt style. I still gave it 5 stars on Goodreads despite its consistency. Goodreads didn't allow for 4.5, and China's first foray into a dreamy, odd, surrealistic solipsism was better than that. It deserves a read for people who enjoy Murakami or Umberto Eco at their surrealist finest. It wrapped up well, as well as one of Murakami's cats slipping off into the night. One moment there, the next moment gone, but mighty nice fish you had there and thanks for the company. ( ) Tayledras | Nov 16, 2021 | Plot: 1950 in Paris. The resistance against the Nazis is on-going, as neither the Nazis nor the Parisians can really leave the city as Paris is home to the manifs, manifestations of surrealist art that roam the streets. Thibaut would like to get out, though, and so he joins forces with Sam, an American photographer who hopes to capture the city with its manifs. But Sam is in a precarious position, too. The Last Days of New Paris is yet another, completely different thing. I'm in awe of what Miéville always comes up with and how his books barely resemble each other. In any case, it's an engaging novella that doubles as a love-letter to surrealism. Read more on my blog: https://kalafudra.com/2019/10/28/the-last-days-of-new-paris-china-mieville/ (  ) kalafudra | Jun 11, 2021 | no reviews | add a review
Has as a commentary on the text
"A thriller of war that never was--of survival in an impossible city--of surreal cataclysm. In The Last Days of New Paris, China Mieville entwines true historical events and people with his daring, uniquely imaginative brand of fiction, reconfiguring history and art into something new. "Beauty will be convulsive." 1941. In the chaos of wartime Marseille, American engineer--and occult disciple--Jack Parsons stumbles onto a clandestine anti-Nazi group, including Surrealist theorist Andre Breton. In the strange games of the dissident diplomats, exiled revolutionaries, and avant-garde artists, Parsons finds and channels hope. But what he unwittingly unleashes is the power of dreams and nightmares, changing the war and the world forever. 1950. A lone Surrealist fighter, Thibaut, walks a new, hallucinogenic Paris, where Nazis and the Resistance are trapped in unending conflict, and the streets are stalked by living images and texts--and by the forces of Hell. To escape the city, he must join forces with Sam, an American photographer intent on recording the ruins, and make common cause with a powerful, enigmatic figure of chance and rebellion: the exquisite corpse. But Sam is being hunted. And new secrets will emerge that will test all their loyalties--to each other, to Paris old and new, and to reality itself. Praise for China Mieville "[Mieville's] wit dazzles, his humour is lively, and the pure vitality of his imagination is astonishing."--Ursula K. Le Guin, The Guardian, on Three Moments of an Explosion "Dark and thought-provoking."--The San Diego Union-Tribune, on The City & The City "Richly conceived."--The New York Times Book Review, on Embassytown "Mieville more than delivers."--San Francisco Chronicle, on Kraken "Compulsively readable."--The Washington Post Book World, on Perdido Street Station"--
"From the bestselling and award-winning master of sci fi, fantasy, and speculative fiction: a Surrealist bomb transfigures war-torn Paris into a phantasmagoric dreamscape, unleashing a race of nightmarish creatures"-- No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.914 — Literature English {except North American} English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3.5)
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