It isn't my favorite book for several reasons. But I'm glad you recommended it. I think we have many tastes in common and just because we disagree about The City and the City, doesn't mean my time was wasted. I'd like to read at least one of Mieville's other books to find out if I like his stuff. I read some of the interview at the back of my copy and it sounds like his writings are varied. Another author I've read, Michael Chabon, also has a varied body of work. My favorite, Gentlemen of the Road, is his least popular according to reviews I've read. Go figure.
As to The City and the City, I found it a strange combination of genres: part detective story, part police procedural, part sci-fi/ fantasy, part origin story (the two cities and The Cleavage which created them). What I didn't like is none of the various genres were explored or filled out enough for my tastes. I found myself wanting to know more about The Cleavage and how Beszel and Ul Qoma came to be even though the rest of the Earth is "normal". I suppose there was enough procedural content, but how did Breach relate to the rest of the world? Did citizens of other countries ever get "disappeared", either on purpose or in error? What would happen then? I also found myself frustrated Mieville chose to make Beszel and Ul Qoma into police states rather than explore the other weirdness which could be possible if you could disappear from one city and arrive in another "displaced" by some weird fracture in the universe. He hinted each city had different foreign allies and trading partners, it would have been an interesting thing to read about how foreign affairs were handled. Then there's the whole thing of Beszel and Ul Qoma being "just cities", what about the country they belong to?