Open City - a novel

Teju Cole

The ending of some chapters are cryptic and seem disconnected with the paragraph that ends each text.  It is a leading, yet also a pervasive style of Cole’s that he continually prods us on with mystical enumerations and almost prodigal ideas that at once seem disjointed, yet then come together at some point.  When they do collide, they are powerful and leave quite the impression.  He is leading us to a place of openness, that is true, but an understanding that the world is not exactly set in stone.

His mention of the “open city” was one of contrition by the Belgium people, that when they were attacked by the Nazis, they declared their city Brussels an “Open City”, meaning that there was no need to attack or destroy, but in a contrite way would provide open access to whatever the new German regime needed.  The city was then spared of atrocities and physical destruction, and many old world edifices and architecture remained.

Attempting to make sense of the complex world of Europe, Arab, Palestine, Jew, and the American view of it all, Cole deftly handles political positions and opinions by portraying great characters that embody those different worlds, and hands over treatment of their various viewpoints in graphic and rhetorical ways that undeniably make sense of it, without being preachy or heavyhanded.  His use of the experiential viewpoint of the Doctor in the story creates a wonderful platform for petri-dishing the various universes he encounters.  Yet at the same time the central character of Julius has his own definitive view, and does not simply buffer what everyone says to him and hold these opinions as blameless and dispassionate.  Rather, he fairly dissects the arguments and the dispositions that he encounters with grace, yet with disagreement at time, including his own dissection of art.  The fairness of Julius is never in question, and I have quite the great estimation of him half way through the book.  But I’ve only read half, so I’ll write again on this after I finish.

   

So far, as a fellow writer, I am astonished that Cole has been able to sustain my attention, and as intense an interest in the work, with as little action or plot or even relationships that he has developed in the story.  If one was to look at the outward plotting of the book in a linear fashion: doctor lives in the city, feels the need to take a visit to find his mother in Brussels, encounters friends of differing persuasions there, admires art work along the way: this would read in a very dull fashion indeed.  But it is anything but dull.  His insights so far into the soul of culture are worth the visit to this text alone.  More later.

Picture credit and link to PBS website with an interview with Mr. Cole: http://tinyurl.com/72ph73f