Book Review: “Veniss Underground” by Jeff VanderMeer
Hardcover Versus Trade Paperback?
The strategy behind the re-release of Jeff VanderMeer’s debut novel, Veniss Underground (originally published by a small press in 2003), is unusual, to say the least. While it takes most books a year to reach trade paperback status after being released in hardcover, the hardcover and trade paperback for this novel is being released on the same day (April 11, 2023). There is a fundamental difference between the two editions: the hardcover comes bundled with five additional short stories set in the Veniss Underground universe. The paperback omits these stories, save for a reprinting of the novella “Balzac’s War,” which is also in the hardcover edition. So the reader has a choice to make here: does one pay some extra dough to get some more stories or does one go the budget route and largely just focus on the novel? I can say that I was able to procure a copy of the book in its hardcover edition, and can affirm that the short stories are worth the money. That’s not to be a slight against Picador, the paperback publisher, but the short stories are not merely flotsam and jetsam meant to attract solely the hardcore VanderMeer acolyte. They’re pretty good and, if I can say it, “Balzac’s War” was my least favourite among those additional tales that were gathered here. You get that story anyway in both editions, so you might as well shill for the extra quality. That’s just my opinion though, and if your budget is stretched, the paperback edition might do you just as good.
It is at this point in the review that I normally try to talk about the plot of a book. (This is usually a feature of the second paragraph of all my reviews.) However, this is a book that eschews a coherent plot in favour of an eerie atmosphere. Thus, I can’t tell you what this book is about: you simply can’t put that kind of thing into words. I can quote author Charles Yu, who wrote the foreword to these new editions, who says, “Some books teach you how to read them. … Veniss Underground is not one of those books.” This is a novel that is weird for the sake of being weird, but if that turns you on, you’re going to be knocked out. The story can be read as a part murder mystery (though the murder is perhaps more attempted than anything else) and part revenge story. The novel is split into three parts, each section being narrated by a different character using a different point of view: the first-, second-, and third-person narrative techniques are employed throughout these sections individually. This is essentially a work that reads as though it were transcribed from a dream — or is alternately the work of a raving madman. I don’t mean to sound condescending toward the author by saying that because, in a way, I’m offering a compliment. This is the work of a talented, individual voice — even if it is quite experimental and more so from the type of work that VanderMeer would usually go on to write.
There are subtle winks and nods to the author’s feelings towards his writing in this work of art. Meerkats play a prominent role in the plot of these tales, which may signify the point-of-view of the author: Meerkat and VanderMeer anyone? It’s a clever trick. And I found that the first part of the book, which focuses on a failed artist who then disappears, is the author writing about his own experiences and frustrations of trying to get published while inventing an entirely new genre of science fiction that would come to be known as “New Weird.” You can sense the author’s loneliness in this early work — the work of a pioneer trudging through learning how to write a novel all on his own. Fans of the author will also find much to enjoy as, even 20 years ago, VanderMeer was interested in how biotechnology was being used to uncertain ends and how that might affect natural ecosystems. The author is especially concerned with things going wrong when humans attempt to change elements of other species of animals and the slippery ethical slope that could lead society down. So there’s a lot here for the VanderMeer enthusiast to delight in if you read him solely for the biology component of his work.
As much as Veniss Underground (a play on words relating to the city of Venice and also what you get if you smush the words “vagina” and “penis” together) is a bold and challenging work, this may not be everyone’s cup of tea. After all, this is a much more experimental novel than some of the author’s more recent output, though it shares a kinship with the equally outré Dead Astronauts. That means readers should be prepared for a sometimes-impenetrable text. This is a novel that asks you to simply stew in all of its resplendent sense of the bizarre, for the most part. Still, it’s good for this work to now be available to a much larger audience than its humble small-press origins, and perhaps it may go down as a classic novel by a consummate master of the modern SF form. Veniss Underground is certainly unconventional, and whether that’s for you to enjoy is for you alone to judge. No matter what edition you decide to check out, know that you’re going to be in for a mind-altering ride with nary a streamlined plot to be had. But if you do buy this book — in hardcover or trade paperback — be aware that you’re going to get some mileage out of this one. You just might have to read it twice to understand what’s going on here, which is as much of a thumbs up as I can give Veniss Underground. That is, so long as you’re into that kind of thing.
Jeff VanderMeer’s Veniss Underground will be published by MCD / Farrar, Straus and Giroux (hardcover) and Picador (trade paperback) on April 11, 2023.
Of course, if you like what you see, please recommend this piece (click on the clapping hands icon below) and share it with your followers.
Get in touch: zacharyhoule@rogers.com
