This particular book makes me wish I knew more about art history, and specifically, about surrealism and its place in history before and during WWII. I have done little scraps of research once I discovered the notes at the back of the book, which helped me google some of the relevant pieces of art, but this has only really made me want to learn more. I know there are things I'm only half comprehending because it's not the area of my expertise.
But from what I know, and what I glean, Mieville's doing something very interesting here, playing with an alternate history or alternate world (I say the latter because of the endnote, where the author intrudes as narrator) where a surrealism bomb set off in Paris during the Occupation drastically changes the landscape and inhabitants of the streets. Laid over top of that are some thoughts about art in the service of the state, in the service of revolution, in the service of enjoyment and in service of itself. Or not in service at all, and here is where I wish I knew more about the philosophies underpinning this era, these people, because what I do understand is so intriguing.
The story of New Paris at present (1950) are interspersed with the earlier story of Jack Parsons who gets stuck in Paris on his way to Prague, toting a bomb that can harness ideas and set them free - he was going to animate the Golem of Prague, but when he can't do that, he falls in with the surrealists and becomes intoxicated with the energy of what they're creating, even as he disdains it for creating little real change in the world.
Back in 1950, the rest of the story is that of Thibaut, who joined the Main a plume after his parents were killed, and has an uncanny instinct for what is surrealism and what is not. He loses comrades to the Nazis who control part of Paris, while they are under siege by the manifs that arose in the aftermath of the detonation of Parson's bomb - surrealist artifacts come to life. (There is a French wikipedia page for the real-life/our-world Main a plume, but not an English one, that I can see, but my mediocre French was enough to get the gist of it - it was a real group of surrealists in the absence of some of their most vital members, in Paris during the occupation.)
Thibaut gets along with the manifs when few others can, and the creations the Nazis try to make out of their own art seem to not have the life necessary to take permanent form. Which doesn't stop them from continuing to try, along with the help of a traitor priest eager to turn to the powers of Hell if it means more personal power.
(The digression about the place of Hell in this twist of allegiances was particularly enjoyable.)
Thibaut meets a woman with a camera that seems to have a particular effect on manifs and their kin, who says she's there to document New Paris as its last days descend - it cannot last, she insinuates, and Thibaut feels the balance tilting. They come across an exquisite corpse (which I didn't realize was an art as well as a writing game, silly me) that doesn't like Sam, the woman, but is okay with Thibaut. Together they go further into art, further into Paris, further into peril, and the threat of a new style of art that will obliterate everything before it in pursuit of...?
That's not a question mark because I don't know. It's a question mark because the last section, the last art, was so powerful a metaphor, so unforgiving and merciless of things that should never be forgiven, can never be forgotten, but does it in such a sneaky way, that it had a great impact.
Look, this is a weird book. Mieville's books always are. But it's the exact kind of weird I adore, and the deeper issues that are layered in here have captivated me. I'll see you later - I'm off to explore surrealist art some more.
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