Kevin's Watch

This is Mieville's new novella. His stuff is always somewhere on the weird continuum (between "only a little weird" and "OMG that man is having sex with a giant bug "), so that didn't surprise me. What I'm wondering is whether I misinterpreted something toward the end of the book.

I'll spoiler my question and leave this here, in case someone else ever decides to read the book...

Spoiler

I got the feeling that the main character's mother was the person who had his logbook previously. He says he had never paid attention to what his mother's handwriting looked like, so it seems possible that it had belonged to her -- that he was taking over her job as an apprentice census-taker. Yes? No?

I've always enjoyed Mieville's work, and have read everything except King Rat. It's genuinelly weird without sacrificing entertainment. How did you get hold of this novella? I haven't read it.