This Census-Taker

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For readers of George Saunders, Kelly Link, and Karen Russell, This Census Taker is the poignant and uncanny new novella from award winning and bestselling author China Mi ville After witnessing a profoundly traumatic event, a boy is left alone in a remote house on a hilltop with his increasingly deranged parent When a stranger knocks on his door, the boy senses that his days of isolation are over but by what authority does this man keep the meticulous records he carries Is he the boy s friend His enemy Or something altogether other Best Read Books This Census-Taker By China Miéville – kino-fada.fr I knew that, by whatever means he d killed it, it was not to eat I wanted to cry I stood still He had it by the neck Its brown body was bigger than a baby s Its shovel head lolled and its nasty hook beak twitched open and closed to snap faintly with each of my father s steps The bird s broad feet dangled on the ground and bounced on stones as if it were trying to claw itself incompetently to a stop There have been wars Civilization has fallen backwards and stalled in place People are I knew that, by whatever means he d killed it, it was not to eat I wanted to cry I stood still He had it by the neck Its brown body was bigger than a baby s Its shovel head lolled and its nasty hook beak twitched open and closed to snap faintly with each of my father s steps The bird s broad feet dangled on the ground and bounced on stones as if it were tryi...That s the last one of the Hugo finalist novellas I had set out to read The author describes his genre as weird fiction, and I won t argue here This is a strange book that leaves way too many open questions, and refuses to fit into any single genre And these are things I normally like I really admire books that manage to pull it off, but this one didn t do it, at least not for me The writing is beautiful, and there are elements ...Creepy, weird little book.China Mieville is self described as a writer in the new weird genre, and so he is living up to his name Readers who enjoyed his The City the City andEmbassytown will know what I mean and he is following along this path in his 2016 publication Mieville has also stated that he wants to write a novel in every genre and this may be his Kafka entry, as this blends elements of surrealism and absurdity into a complicated narrative set in imagery that seems to be Creepy, weird little book.China Mieville is self described as a writer in the new weird genre, and so he is living up to his name Readers who enjoyed his The City the City andEmbassytown will know what I mean and he is following along this path in his 2016 publication Mieville has also stated that he wants to write a novel in e...You ll write it not because there s no possibility it ll be found but because it costs too much to not write itChina Mi ville, This Census TakerLORD, if you were to record iniquities, Lord, who could remain standingPsalms 130 3 International Standard Version I would probably consider this to be a bridge novella, spanning the gap somewhere between the shores of novel and novella a scandal with gravity, perhaps It weighs in at just a quinternion over 200 pages in a 5.75 x 7.5You ll write it not because there s no possibility it ll be found but because it costs too much to not write itChina Mi ville, This Census TakerLORD, if you were to record iniquities, Lord, who could remain standingPsalms 130 3 International Standard Version I would probably consider this to be a bridge novella, spanning the gap somewhere between the shores of novel and novella a scandal with gravity, per...4ish stars For a horror novella, there s not much horror At least not that we get any explicit glimpses of Just lots of creepiness.This is brilliantly written as the memoir of sorts of well this guy Who s writing different books or something And maybe he s being guarded And he writes about his experiences as a kid I guess And his dad may or may not have killed his mom And there are, like, these magic keys And then this mysterious dude comes So basically it s hard to know what 4ish stars For a horror novella, there s not much horror At least not that we get any explicit glimpses of Just lots of creepiness.This is brilliantly written as the memoir of sorts of well this guy Who s writing different books or something And maybe he s being guarded And he writes about his experiences as a kid I guess And his dad may or may not have killed his mom And there are, like, these magic keys And then this mysterious dude comes So basically it s hard to know what actually happens when our narrator isn t quite sure himself He s remembering his experiences as a child, so not only are his memories bound to have grown hazy over the years, but it s hard for us to know how much of the memories are accurate and how much of them are figments of a deeply traumatized child s imagin...One of my Hugo Award nominees, novella, 2016 ____A boy runs screaming into a village, having witnessed something horrible.Years later, the narrator tells us, he is imprisoned, under guard, allowed to write this book in a solitary room.There is something, he tells us, that his manager told him You never put anything down except to be read Every word ever written is written to be read, and if some go unread that s only chance, failure, they re like grubs that die without changing.So my One of my Hugo Award nominees, novella, 2016 ____A boy runs screaming into a village, having witnessed something horrible.Years later, the narrator tells us, he is imprisoned, under guard, allowed to write this book in a solitary room.There is something, he tells us, that his manager told him You never put anything down except to be read Every word ever written is written to be read, and if some go unread that s only chance, failure, they re like grubs that die without changing.So my first is a book of numbers It s lists and calculations and, for efficiency, I write it using ciphers This first book s for everyone, though almost no one wants it or would know how to read it.The third of my three books is for me You ll keep one, is what he told me, for you alone to read But you ll never be sure that no one else will read them that s the risk and that s how the third ...I can t say that I m completely satisfied with this novella, but I can say that I m haunted by it I m haunted by all the little details that make up this world so much like our own, the hints of wars and magics and strange chemicals and vials and keys that provide people with purpose and a way out or through the labyrinths of their lives Not to mention a very Schrodinger s Cat view of reality, where murderers are and are not, where the murdered is and is not, where, perhaps, everything is I can t say that I m completely satisfied with this novella, but I can say that I m haunted by it I m haunted by all the little details that make up this world so much like our own, the hints of wars and magics and strange chemicals and vials and keys that provide people with purpose and a way out or through the labyrinths of their lives Not to mention a very Schrodinger s Cat view of reality, where murderers are and are not, where the murdered is and is not, where, perhaps, everything is rewritten and only census takers can determine the correct average.Not that I m truly ...4.5 starsI have not read enough China Mieville This one is a fairly brief novella which is set in a post apocalyptic society, although that part is much understated and you pick it up from clues along the way The beginning of the Guardian review sets the scene very well Any story that, on its very first page, redefines its protagonist from third to first person, flips forward in time to offer a view of him from elsewhere, makes a subtle alteration of tense, and announces that the character s 4.5 starsI have not read enough China Mieville This one is a fairly brief novella which is set in a post apocalyptic society, although that part is much understated and you pick it up from clues along the way The beginning of the Guardian review sets the scene very well Any story that, on its very first page, redefines its protagonist from third to first person, flips forward in time to offer a view ...Wow I really seem to be in the minority here, people loved this book Me Not so much I ll write why as soon as I ve gotten over my disappointment It just seemed so promising. Disclaimer I may be unnecessarily hard on this book, but that is only because of its lost potential and my belief that the author is one of the most essential writers of this era. There s no denying China Mi ville is an extraordinary, challenging writer I ve personally had a slightly mixed bag experience with his Wow I really seem to be in the minority here, people loved this book Me Not...3.5 stars.It s not the epic novel China Mi ville s readers have been anxiously awaiting since 2010 s Embassytown That will come with 2016 s The Last Days of New Paris But his novella This Census Taker proves that the New Weird superstar has not lost the ability to captivate and unnerve As with all of Mi ville s work, it begins with a city, sprawling incongruously up the slopes of a pair of steep hills or perhaps small mountain peaks , the gap between spanned by a bridge Near the top of 3.5 stars.It s not the epic novel China Mi ville s readers have been anxiously awaiting since 2010 s Embassytown That will come with 2016 s The Last Days of New Paris But his novella This Census Taker proves that the New Weird superstar has not lost the ability to captivate and unnerve As with all of Mi ville s work, it begins with a city, sprawling incongruously up the slopes of a pair of steep hills or perhaps small mountain peaks , the gap between spanned by a bridge Near the top of one peak, in one of the city s less desirable neighborhoods, a boy lives with his parents The story that unfolds will be narrated by the man the boy will become, looking back on a frightening and formative time in his life, still groping for understanding.The boy s mother spends her days gardening, and going on sojourns into the lower city, where the boy accompanies her while she co...

This Census-Taker
  • English
  • 03 January 2019
  • Hardcover
  • 210 pages
  • 1101967323
  • China Miéville
  • This Census-Taker