Name: Jan Jackson's review of This Census-taker by China Miéville
Item: This Census-taker
Rating: 4
Author: Jan Jackson

China Miéville

"After his mother goes missing, a boy is left alone in a remote house on a hilltop with his increasingly deranged father. When an odd man knocks on his door, the boy senses that his days of isolation are over. But will this stranger at last trigger the doom the boy has feared or will he somehow save the boy from the worst?"--

A Novella

This Census-taker

Sarah Sammis

Another goodie from Mr Mieville. Wonderful prose, and very interesting take on being a child, on who we are, and what our perceptions do to reality. And what a census taker - in Mieville’s world - can be tasked to take care of. At the end, you find yourself impressed, in awe, and still looking for answers. Because Mieville likes his holes. Both physical, and experiential. 

Jan Jackson

Ryan Mateyk

Brilliant writing, a bizarre story (not a negative!) but ultimately I felt like this didn't do much for me. This was my first China Mieville read and I will definitely be trying something else of his out. Long live weird!

Brett Seybert

The Hope Is So:

Books Often Offer Kindred

Interests. Savor. 

Glean. Read. Ever After, This. 



Emmett

This was baffling and mysterious and these impressions lasted even after the conclusion of the story. The unique narrative perspective furthered the atmosphere to intriguing effect and I fairly liked the way it was handled which left the reader interested yet dissatisfied. It withheld more often than it gave, and delineated contour lines while blurring geographical definition. The plot becomes all there is, really, something ill-defined and potent for in its very vagueness. Is it an allegory? An anecdote? A half-coloured short-story (this is a novella, I note) which does not fulfill its genre's promises of concise completion? What are these keys? What is the narrator's line of work? Was the crime really committed? What is a census-taker? This is a child's world, where terrible truths are matters of perception rather than fact, returning us to a world where facts evade access. The cover is apt: dark shadows not-quite-mountains swathed by pale smoke, more shapes than solid objects. I'm not quite sure how much I understood and what, at all, to make of it - if there is, at all, something there to plumb. At the very least this demonstrates Mieville is capable of surprises beyond 'usual' fantasy. In this he turns from writing about ancient myths and powers vividly present, to erase particularities, to unhinge the landmarks of the real, in something that hovers between nowhere and anywhere.

Nadine 

Maybe I’m not intellectual enough but this one went over my head! Beautiful bits of writing but an incoherent story without any resolution just lots of hints of PTSD violence & fear.

In a remote house on a hilltop, a lonely boy witnesses a traumatic event. He tries - and fails - to flee. Left alone with his increasingly deranged parent, he dreams of safety, of joining the other children in the town below, of escape. When at last a stranger knocks at his door, the boy senses that his days of isolation might be over. But by what authority does this man keep the meticulous records he carries? What is the purpose behind his questions? Is he friend? Enemy? Or something else altogether? A novella filled with beauty, terror and strangeness, This Census-Taker is a poignant and riveting exploration of memory and identity.

This Census-Taker

Jessica Smith

This Census-Taker did not start well. The beginning is slow, confusing, and nauseatingly gruesome. There came a point, though – once the narrative had actually caught up to the scene which opened the novel – where the haunting, gloomy atmosphere took over and I came to welcome the confusion.

The novella raises many questions, hardly any of which are answered by the conclusion. It's set in a small, macabre town, impoverished and largely isolated from the outside world. The narrator's father makes a habit of bashing animals to death and throwing them down a hole, for reasons which are never exactly explained to the reader, but can be guessed. He seems to progress to killing people; he seems to progress to killing the narrator's mother. The town has no real policemen, and the volunteers who stand in for them are friends with the narrator's dad and tell the boy that he must have imagined the whole thing. The story continues on.

In summary, this is a dark, atmospheric tale that you should only read if you can handle your questions going unanswered. That said, it's not too bad.

Chrystal Giordano

Amanda S

Colin O'Brien

Steven O'Toole

In a remote house on a hilltop, a lonely boy witnesses a traumatic event. He tries - and fails - to flee. Left alone with his increasingly deranged parent, he dreams of safety, of joining the other children in the town below, of escape.When at last a stranger knocks at his door, the boy senses that his days of isolation might be over.But by what authority does this man keep the meticulous records he carries? What is the purpose behind his questions? Is he friend? Enemy? Or something else altogether?A novella filled with beauty, terror and strangeness, This Census-Taker is a poignant and riveting exploration of memory and identity.

Julia A.

Moray Lyle McIntosh

For readers of George Saunders, Kelly Link, David Mitchell, and Karen Russell, This Census-Taker is a stunning, uncanny, and profoundly moving novella from multiple-award-winning and bestselling author China Miéville. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR In a remote house on a hilltop, a lonely boy witnesses a profoundly traumatic event. He tries—and fails—to flee. Left alone with his increasingly deranged parent, he dreams of safety, of joining the other children in the town below, of escape. When at last a stranger knocks at his door, the boy senses that his days of isolation might be over. But by what authority does this man keep the meticulous records he carries? What is the purpose behind his questions? Is he friend? Enemy? Or something else altogether? Filled with beauty, terror, and strangeness, This Census-Taker is a poignant and riveting exploration of memory and identity. Praise for This Census-Taker “China Miéville is a magician . . . who can both blow your mind with ideas as big as the universe and break your heart with language so precise and polished, it’s like he’s writing with diamonds.”—NPR “The book haunts the reader; what actually happened seems always just out of reach, glimpsed in shadow as it rounds a corner ahead of our vision.”—Los Angeles Review of Books “[Mieville’s] been compared to Karen Russell and George Saunders, and rightfully so.”—The Huffington Post “Marvellous.”—The Guardian “Lingers in the mind like an unsettling dream.”—Financial Times “A thought-provoking fairy tale for adults . . . [This Census-Taker] resembles the narrative style, quirkiness, and plotting found in the works of Karen Russell, Aimee Bender, or Steven Millhauser.”—Booklist “Brief and dreamlike . . . a deceptively simple story whose plot could be taken as a symbolic representation of an aspect of humanity as big as an entire society and as small as a single soul.”—Kirkus Reviews

A Novel

Hanna

sara louise

Nico J

Christina Hufford

Leafling

China Mieville

For readers of George Saunders, Kelly Link, David Mitchell, and Karen Russell, This Census-Taker is a stunning, uncanny, and profoundly moving novella from multiple-award-winning and bestselling author China Miéville. In a remote house on a hilltop, a lonely boy witnesses a profoundly traumatic event. He tries--and fails--to flee. Left alone with his increasingly deranged parent, he dreams of safety, of joining the other children in the town below, of escape. When at last a stranger knocks at his door, the boy senses that his days of isolation might be over. But by what authority does this man keep the meticulous records he carries? What is the purpose behind his questions? Is he friend? Enemy? Or something else altogether? Filled with beauty, terror, and strangeness, This Census-Taker is a poignant and riveting exploration of memory and identity. Praise for This Census-Taker "China Miéville is a magician . . . who can both blow your mind with ideas as big as the universe and break your heart with language so precise and polished, it's like he's writing with diamonds."--NPR "The book haunts the reader; what actually happened seems always just out of reach, glimpsed in shadow as it rounds a corner ahead of our vision."--Los Angeles Review of Books "[Mieville's] been compared to Karen Russell and George Saunders, and rightfully so."--The Huffington Post "Marvellous."--The Guardian "Lingers in the mind like an unsettling dream."--Financial Times "A thought-provoking fairy tale for adults . . . [This Census-Taker] resembles the narrative style, quirkiness, and plotting found in the works of Karen Russell, Aimee Bender, or Steven Millhauser."--Booklist "Brief and dreamlike . . . a deceptively simple story whose plot could be taken as a symbolic representation of an aspect of humanity as big as an entire society and as small as a single soul."--Kirkus Reviews From the Hardcover edition.

Sarah Sammis &
This Census-taker by China Miéville

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Sarah Sammis &This Census-taker by China Miéville

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This Census-taker by China Miéville