I haven’t done much writing about novel length work in quite a while so I think I better lay out some ground rules and expectations before diving in to my thoughts on THE CITY WE BECAME by N.K. Jemisin. You can find those in a post I’ve made here. Call it my recommendations policy. Of particular importance: I don’t think I get super spoilerly in this recommendation at all, but as with probably any and every recommendation it’s best to assume there may be spoilers below. Now, on with the recommendation for this wonderful book!
A few years back I had the great fortune to read Daniel José Older’s collection of connected short stories, SALSA NOCTURNA, and later his book HALF-RESURRECTION BLUES. One of the things I most enjoyed about those books was how, as I described it at the time, the city of New York, it’s people, and neighbourhoods were themselves, collectively, an integral character to the story. They were probably the first books I had read wherein a city came alive on the page; where the story was seeped in the living, breathing reality of the place, as opposed to a city simply being a backdrop setting that added, at most, only a hint of flavour.
Since reading those books I have always appreciated any book that could bring a city to life on the page like that. Few do. In her newest book, THE CITY WE BECAME, N.K. Jemisin not only brings New York City to life on the page the way the best books bring their setting to life, she literally brings New York City to life. Oh, and each of its boroughs as well. Indeed, THE CITY WE BECAME is the story of the birth of New York City as an actual being, in the form of it and its boroughs’ avatars. And it is the story of the other-dimensional cosmic horrors that are quite opposed to New York surviving the birthing process.
While anyone should be able to appreciate and enjoy the heck out of this book, Jemisin’s craft is impeccable and delightful as always, I suspect it will land especially well for anyone who has ever loved a city, especially, of course, if that city is New York. I myself have only been to New York once, and I did not fall in love with it, though I liked it well enough and have always found the love of New Yorkers for their city to be quite infectious. I have fallen in love in very brief flings with Paris and Kyoto though, and I have a deep love for the only big city that was ever my big city, Busan, and I think one bit of fun readers of Jemisin’s book who have ever loved a big city will have is imagining what the living avatar of their city would be like. If you don’t happen to currently live in the city you love you maybe should also be prepared to miss it a little more than usual when reading THE CITY WE BECAME.
Other things you should be prepared for: the fact that THE CITY WE BECAME will land very hard at times if you happen to be reading this recommendation (and then hopefully the book) round about the time I’m writing it, smack dab in the middle of 2020. There are scenes in this book that might feel prescient (such as a white woman calling police on and lying about men of colour in Central Park) but sadly aren’t. No, they’re simply a reflection of the kind of racism and bigotry that is all too common and always has been, whether you heard about it or thought about it before recently or not (speaking to you here, fellow white people…this has always been old news to everyone else).
Much like with her work on the FAR SECTOR Green Lantern comic, (which is also about a city and deals with racism and power and cosmic weirdness) Jemisin is pulling no punches in holding up a mirror to the world we live in and the ugly parts of it and that means that some scenes may well feel very, very close to home. It is fair to say that some folks may not want to read about fighting such forces in fiction when they are fighting that fight in real life everyday, so it’s something to think about before diving in, but I found the book cathartic in that regard, not draining, so take that for what it’s worth.
If you’ve been a fan of N.K. Jemisin’s work for awhile now this next bit of why I love and recommend this book shouldn’t surprise you: she creates such a nuanced tapestry with her world and characters that embraces and refuses to shy away from the idea that life is, indeed, complicated. You would be harder pressed to find a better cast of nuanced, three-dimensional characters all of whom have their own internal and external lives to contend with.
Our heroes do not all get along all the time. Things are not always neat and tidy. For example, one of our protagonists, Brooklyn Thomason, is introduced in a way that I suspect will make most of us readers lover her and her cool confidence. But when another of our heroes, the queer Lenape woman Bronca Siwanoy, meets her both Brooklyn and us readers must contend with the fact that rapper “MC FREE” turned council woman Brooklyn Thomason isn’t and hasn’t been a hero to everyone in her path through life. Indeed pretty much all of the protagonists in the story, like all people in the this thing we try to get through called life, are quite capable of causing, and often have caused, harm.
On the other side of the coin, Jemisin is not content to give us basic villains. These are people and entities with reasons, often understandable ones even, for what they do. And that is something I find so incredibly key to the story and larger picture Jemisin is giving us here. It harkens back, for me, to a concept I first personally came to realize and express back in my early days in that city I love. Understanding does not equal acceptance.
Back then I was, admittedly, too often too brash and bold and convinced of right and wrong, but I came to believe, and still do, in the importance of that concept. People would often tell me, when I would get quite firm in my beliefs that something was wrong, that I ‘just didn’t understand’ and I would come to retort ‘Oh, I understand, I just don’t agree’.
Jemisin will not let you not understand the antagonists of THE CITY WE BECAME. Much to her credit, and to the novel’s power, she is not making things that easy for us. No, the really important opposition to our protags are as nuanced and complicated and endowed with their own lives and cares as they are. Indeed, you may well find yourself cheering for them at times, making excuses for them. Heck, they have excuses. There are reasons they are the way they are. Reasons we can understand.
Which makes it all a little bit more scary, and maybe a little bit more sad. But you can understand, and not agree. Acknowledging someone’s pain is not ignoring the pain they cause. And while we may hope for them to be better and do better and join us in a better place, we don’t let them drag us and others down with them.
Obviously after reading all that it should be pretty clear I’m a big fan of THE CITY WE BECAME. If you already love other stories from Jemisin then I believe you’ll find something new and fascinating and fun and scary here that will knock your socks off. If you haven’t read N.K. Jemisin before, well, you’ll still get all and probably, after you finish, a great desire to go dive into her older books. Trust me, you’re unlikely to be disappointed there either!