Love Song to Cities

I was reading a book out in the world and an observer asked me what it was. The City We Became, I told her. Then she wanted to know what it was about. “Blah, blah, blah,” I said, ending with, “It’s about New York City.” I have now finished the second, and final, installment in the series by N. K. Jemisin, The World We Make. I must amend my answer. It’s not about New York City. It is a love song to cities.

The premise of the series is that cities, at a certain point in their development, are “born.” They achieve birth by picking residents to be their avatars. New York City is ready to birth and has picked an avatar for each of its five boroughs. One of the boroughs, though, is reluctant to participate (not saying which one.) This throws a wrench in the gears. And, of course, a powerful metaphysical villain is trying to keep the City from birthing. All of this is wrapped up in the most energetic, alive prose I have read in a while.  

Before reading these books, I didn’t know N. K. Jemisin. I found her because my editor for When We Were Murderous Time Traveling Women thought The City We Became would make a good comp for my novel. When I went to the bookstore, I discovered Jemisin was the preeminent fantasy writer of our generation. I was mortified. I could never compare myself to her. She is the only person to ever win three consecutive Best Novel Hugo awards. Then she won another one just for good measure. I mean.

However.

What drew the editor to make the comparison was the prominence of the city itself in the stories. In a way, the central conflict in Murderous Women is Etoile’s relationship with New Orleans. She’s in an ongoing struggle to figure out that relationship. If she can do that, she will have figured out herself.

As I read the books, the current times kept flowing into my brain. The federal government’s “immigration enforcement” is a series of attacks on cities. Not just the physical site of cities. The rhetoric demonizes the diverse, growing edge, chaotic ball of incomparable energy that is a city. I kept returning to the copyright date of the first book (2020) to see how prescient the story was. But then I realized, cities have always been under attack from the moment Thomas Jefferson decided the yeoman farmer should be considered the backbone of this country. No. America’s heart beats in cities. The blood flows through suburbs and outward; it then flows back into the cities. We are one large organism, not separate entities at war. Using hate speech and armed forces to set us at odds is ridiculous.

I celebrate Jemisin’s novels. They have made me even more of an advocate for the story I’ve told. I’m proud to send a love song to cities, mine in particular. Rock on, New Orleans!