THIS CENSUS-TAKER is a novella by China Mieville. I do like a novella. I’ve been saying for years that I think the novella is where the rich vein currently lies, and this book doesn’t contradict me. It’s a finely-tooled story of, in its most prosaic sense, a grim childhood in a post-(near)apocalypse landscape. It’s also, in a way, a rumination on childhood fantasy, and also a consideration of the nature of power. The language is frequently eccentric, but never ever sloppy. Mieville doesn’t do drunken reels — every one of those steps is intended and exact. In other writers, it may come off as mannered, but Mieville gathers his tools for each book with extreme care. There’s a fuzzy nature to much of it, in plot and motive and world, but to me it’s the exact fuzzy nature of childhood memory: looking at the past through the thick, fogged glass of imperfect recall. To some degree, the book is about a world that’s forgetting and the things that are remembered, too. Strongly recommended. I read the whole thing in a single sitting.
THIS CENSUS-TAKER, China Mieville (link)
