The Last Days of New Paris
3 journalers for this copy...
"Beauty will be convulsive...."
It's 1941. In the chaos of wartime Marseille, American engineer - and occult disciple - Jack Parsons stumbles onto a clandestine anti-Nazi group, including surrealist theorist André 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.
It's 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.
It's 1941. In the chaos of wartime Marseille, American engineer - and occult disciple - Jack Parsons stumbles onto a clandestine anti-Nazi group, including surrealist theorist André 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.
It's 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.
This book is truly a work of art. I can see myself re-reading it in a few years, next to it a coffee table surrealist art book, a modern history book and a glass of dry wine. It took me a while to take in the universe's premises and laws, but they stand (considerably better than an Eiffel tower missing its lower part). I loved how the final twist/manif was played, I appreciated how the notes and afterword are so much a part of the story (although I have to admit I skimmed through them). On the lookout for more Miéville, as it is such a ride to get lost in somebody else's weird dreams. Surely not a book for everyone - if you go aboard this one, make sure you enjoy the weirdness ahead of you.
Surprise!
Happy reading :)
Happy reading :)
oh gosh, I love China Miéville and thoroughly recommend King Rat and Perdido Street Station, they are absolutely wild and thrilling! Thank you so much for the surprise, lamelemon - multumesc! (sorry I don't have the right accents).
Added photo later: all this surrealism brought to mind the sculptures by Nikola Zaric that are dotted around Lausanne; I particularly like the donkey-man reading in rue Voltaire.
Added photo later: all this surrealism brought to mind the sculptures by Nikola Zaric that are dotted around Lausanne; I particularly like the donkey-man reading in rue Voltaire.
Old Paris, New Paris... in any case a different Paris, one where the imagination of the Surrealists takes on a physical, threatening form, thanks to the invention of a machine that accidentally triggers a kind of Big Bang. The Exquisite Corpses of André Breton and friends come to life, like the Golem.
I was familiar with some of the artworks mentioned; others I had to look up - everything is real, or rather, surreal, and convincingly woven into the cloth of this amazing novella that took me through the streets of my favourite city.
I liked the "interview" with Thibault (personally I don't think I could sit in a chair for so long without taking at least one bathroom break...) and also the detailed list of artworks at the end that had me googling images frantically.
What a wonderful illustrated edition this would make!
I don't have a photo of the Deux Magots, a pivotal location in the narrative, in my collection, but here is one of Prometheus by Ossip Zadkine, which now stands in the square named for Sartre and Beauvoir, right next to the café. I can imagine it as a manif, surrounded by flames.
I was familiar with some of the artworks mentioned; others I had to look up - everything is real, or rather, surreal, and convincingly woven into the cloth of this amazing novella that took me through the streets of my favourite city.
I liked the "interview" with Thibault (personally I don't think I could sit in a chair for so long without taking at least one bathroom break...) and also the detailed list of artworks at the end that had me googling images frantically.
What a wonderful illustrated edition this would make!
I don't have a photo of the Deux Magots, a pivotal location in the narrative, in my collection, but here is one of Prometheus by Ossip Zadkine, which now stands in the square named for Sartre and Beauvoir, right next to the café. I can imagine it as a manif, surrounded by flames.
On its way to the US (not sure of the exact date I posted it, some time early June)
A dance of dreams
on the feet of mice,
that holds up an elephant of chance.
on the feet of mice,
that holds up an elephant of chance.