I did not get Open City

I don’t get it!

That was my reaction after I got to the last line of Teju Cole’s Open City. What I felt cannot honestly be described as disappointment. Disappointment means that hopes had been risen to a certain degree and therefore had to come down. What I felt was a flat confusion. Confusion because there must have been something I had missed. Surely the book should have left me lonesome for Julius, the focus of the book and in whose eyes we see it. What I felt was a mild degree of good riddance.

I say mild because Julius had his good points. The man had diverse interests! He is a psychiatrist who loves classical music, is well read enough that he can spot when someone misquotes another and even appreciates art. Of course this got me thinking about all those Unsubs on Criminal Minds. Julius seems like he would make a perfect Unsub. I digress. It goes without saying that Julius held some degree of intrigue. Cole is clever in this way in that we get bits and pieces of Julius is as the book progresses. Bits like his name, profession, his heritage, relationship status don’t come out all at once. Cole makes you work for them.

And work is what reading Open City felt like. After the first 15 pages, my eyes were glazed over with boredom. Like I was going through one of those readings I have to read for class even when I don’t really get what their point is –anyone who has read scholarly articles knows the feeling. In fact it started to feel like I was going to sit an exam after reading it. So I took a break for several weeks. Last week I had to take a 13-hour road trip. I forgot to carry a hard copy book so I went to the library on my phone, checked recent reads, and there it was, staring at me with its bright yellow cover, taunting me for failing to complete it. I don’t like to lose so I took the challenge up and soldiered on.

Thankfully, the plot, though calling that seems like overstating it, picked up a little. It picked up mainly because I got to get out of Julius’ head, where most of the book takes place, and meet other people. Snap shots of his past also added life to the book. In fact I looked out for the parts when he went back to his childhood. I remain curious about his parents and grandmother so I guess the book will stay with me in that regard.

I earlier said calling the events of Open City a plot is overstating things because plot usually suggests intrigue. That is why it makes sense to call it plotting when people are planning something fishy. The events of the book were more like a telling of observations, conversations, sights, sounds laced with themes of racism, politics and what not.

This is not what I expected from a book which has got rave reviews and a few awards under its belt. I did not go in with high expectations as I always try to do when reading a book that everyone has been talking about, yet what I got is still not what I expected.

That said, there is no denying the fact that Cole has a way with words. His prose in some places is almost poetic even. However, as a person who loves to enjoy words and have them make me laugh, cry, feel sad, terrified, anything, Open City fell very short. Four days later and I still don’t know how to feel about it.