China Miéville's 20-years-in-the-making novel arrives to a major review in The Guardian
The Rouse, described as a paranormal epic of cold war espionage and family tragedy, is being read as a departure from the 'new weird' label long attached to its author.
China Miéville's new novel, The Rouse, has been reviewed in The Guardian, which calls it a work twenty years in the making. The book is described as a paranormal epic combining cold war espionage with family tragedy.
According to the review, the two decades Miéville spent on the novel also produced six other novels, including The City & the City and The Book of Elsewhere, the latter co-written with Keanu Reeves, alongside two novellas, two series of graphic novels, a children's book, a collection of short stories, and two nonfiction works, one on the October Revolution and one on the Communist Manifesto.
The reviewer argues that The Rouse marks a leap in ambition, moral seriousness and stylistic daring compared with Miéville's earlier fiction, and suggests the author should now be set alongside Roberto Bolaño or Mircea Cărtărescu rather than filed under 'the new weird' or 'speculative fantasy,' the labels usually attached to his work. The novel is described as maximalist, dense and disorienting.
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