The uninspired correspondent scratches his scalp, but dandruff and lice, not words, fall onto the blotter.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Perdido Street Station

You haven't read any book like this. It's delightfully genre-bending but it isn't really delightful. You could accurately pin almost any adjective to it but doing so would be doing the novel a disservice. It's just... new. Or at least it's new to me.

Here's a taste:

"He entered. Light seemed to give up the struggle halfway through the thick, soiled windows, leaving the interior in shadows. The walls were unadorned except by dirt. The pub was empty of all but the most dedicated drinkers, shambolic figures huddled over bottles. Several were junkies, several were Remade. Some were both: The Dying Child turned no one away. A group of emaciated young men lay draped across a table twitching in perfect time, strung out on shazbah or dreamshit or very-tea. One woman held her glass in a metal claw that spat steam and dripped oil onto the floorboards. A man in the corner lapped quietly from a bowl of beer, licking the fox's muzzle that had been grafted to his face."


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