The novel “The Squares of the City” by John Brunner was published for the first time in 1965.
Boyd Haklyut went to Ciudad de Vados, the capital city of a South American nation, where he was hired as an expert in urban planning. The city has seen considerable growth over the years and this made it chaotic. Haklyut was instructed to find the necessary solutions to improve the flux of city traffic.
When Haklyut arrives in Ciudad de Vados, he realizes that there are many more problems than he expected. He knew he would find a nation not exactly democratic but didn’t think he’d end up in the middle of a power struggle. Doing his job becomes more and more difficult as the contenders face off move after move.
The plot of “The Squares of the City” is based on a real chess game played by Wilhelm Steinitz and Mikhail Chigorin in Havana in 1892. The characters represent the various pieces and are indicated at the end of the novel for those who want to try to recognize them while reading it. The importance of the game of chess is also shown by its explicit presence in the story.
“The Squares of the City” is conventionally considered a science fiction novel of the social subgenre but even at the time when it was written it only loosely belonged to it. In fact, beyond the presence of certain elements such as the use of subliminal messages, it’s more like a thriller with strong social and political components.
The novel’s plot reproduces the moves of the chess game played by Wilhelm Steinitz and Mikhail Chigorin. However, such between moves John Brunner provides us through the experience of the protagonist Boyd Haklyut a series of analyzes of the situation in Ciudad de Vados.
The most memorable works by John Brunner are focused on anticipating problems whose seriousness manifested in the following years. “The Squares of the City” is part of that group of works tackling social and political issues that were already very hot at the time but also others that became increasingly important over time.
Shortly after his arrival in Ciudad de Vados, Boyd Haklyut discovers that the situation in the local society isn’t very stable. President Vados uses television as a means to control the population. In “The Squares of the City” subliminal messages are placed into programs to strengthen his control but it’s a problem that in general has been much discussed in recent decades.
A plot that reflects a chess game means that there are very intense moments in which the contenders make their moves alternated with periods of reflection. In the novel, these correspond to Boyd Haklyut’s attempts to understand the local situation. Initially, he’s only interested in doing his job but gets caught up in the clash of power so he must try to understand who are the people who matter, what they want and their motivations.
This plot development is a problem for its pace. The moments that correspond to the moves of the game are of action, generally violent. The rest of the story is made up primarily of dialogues between Boyd Haklyut and other characters and his reflections on what he discovered.
The story is told in the first person by Boyd Haklyut but John Brunner gives some development for other characters through what is said about them during conversations with the protagonist. In the end, they’re mostly pieces in the chess game but at least for some of them there’s some depth.
Due to the structure of the story, it may be hard for many readers. I found it very interesting from an intellectual point of view but frankly not very exciting. It’s the kind of story that I think should be read slowly, paying attention to details and to the themes analyzed.
In the end, “The Squares of the City” is a very special novel and may especially chess fans can like it. It’s strongly idea-based so it can be appreciated especially by readers interested in social and political issues, regardless of the fact that it’s labeled as fiction.
