Live By the Sword Wednesday
Nov. 1st, 2017 05:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
evelyn_bWhat I've Finished Reading
My Absolute Darling was recommended to me by an acquaintance, who said (correctly) that the close-third POV was excellent, but neglected to mention anything about the multiple extremely vivid incestuous rape scenes. I mention them here in case, like me, you would prefer not to be surprised. It's a big, slow, suspenseful novel about a survivalist's daughter who discovers she can survive on her own terms. I don't think I would have read it if I'd known about the incestuous rape element - not because I don't think stories like that should be told, simply because I have a hard time getting them out of my head if they're well-written and if they aren't it just makes me angry - and I don't know now what I think about the ending - but once I hit the half-way mark I wasn't able to put it down for more than a few minutes at a time until it was finished. I keep wanting to say the final confrontation is too much, but I don't know if it really is. I think it's partly that I mistrust cathartic shootouts, and partly that I still have this misguided desire for fiction to be smaller and more mundane and manageable than real life.
ETA I'm sure I'm being unfairly dismissive above - for one thing, "cathartic shootout" probably isn't to the point, for another, who cares what I don't want to read about? I want to note that in addition to the strong unsentimental POV voice, there are two "normal" teenage characters whom I found completely and unexpectedly fresh and believable, not least because author Gabriel Tallent isn't tied down by misguided ideas about what "real" teenagers might realistically be expected to care about and instead just dumps (what could easily be) a big pile of his own earnest teenage interests and injoke erudition on the page. There are other good things to say about it, but the Chatty Weed Nerd Teens were what got me past my initial misgivings and into the part of the book where I couldn't put it down.
What I'm Reading Now
Anyway, you know who isn't the least bit mundane or manageable? All these assholes in The Three Musketeers! D'Artagnan falls in love with his landlord's wife and immediately gets mixed up in COURT POLITICS which leads directly to DANGEROUS COVERT MISSIONS TO ENGLAND to save the HONOR OF THE QUEEN. This is more than fine by D'Artagnan, who has wanted to be in exactly this kind of story since he was four years old.
I think I've figured out some more of the political situation! Louis XIII, the king, is just an ordinary weak man and like most weak men resents being reminded of it. Unfortunately, because he also happens to be King of France, he is reminded of it hundreds of times a day. Rumor has it that the Cardinal is effectively king because he's not a whiny teenager in a grown man's body, and also because he keeps intriguing all the time. I'm still not completely sure why he wants to discredit the queen, who is frankly the best person in this story as far as I can tell. The narrator flat out tells us it's because she wouldn't sleep with him, but maybe it also has something to do with geopolitics?
The HONOR OF THE QUEEN is in peril largely because the Duke of Buckingham, a ridiculous drama llama and my current favorite character, decided both that he was hopelessly in love with her, and that the best response to being hopelessly in love is to make as big a nuisance of oneself as possible. The Queen, Anne of Austria, is a sensible person (in both the antique and contemporary senses of the word) who is suffering badly from being married to a giant baby in puffy trousers, but who also knows perfectly well no one will forgive her for having an affair with Captain STD even if she does kind of like him a little bit. Buckingham sneaks into the palace with the help of a lady-in-waiting (who just happens to be the wife of D'Artagnan's landlord), breaks out what I am pretty sure is the exact same song and dance about dying of love that he pulls with every single European sovereign under the age of seventy-five and half their support staff, and eventually browbeats Anne into giving him a token of her love - twelve diamond studs in a little casket - so that he'll shut up and go away.
The Cardinal finds out about the studs from one of the ladies-in-waiting, so he sends his femme fatale spy to steal a couple, then encourages the king to throw a ball so he can be all "Anne, why don't you wear those diamond studs I gave you" at the last minute and embarrass everyone in public. It's the pettiest thing on earth! But it also gives D'Artagnan the opportunity to gallop all over France and England with his best friends the Musketeers, getting into fights and wrecking property everywhere they go. His mission: get the studs back from Buckingham and have a couple of new ones made so that when the Cardinal tries to embarrass Anne by presenting her with the stolen ones, the joke will be on him.
Buckingham, happily, doesn't seem to be in on this plot. I think he's just a self-absorbed idiot who genuinely believes he's the dashing and/or tragic hero of every story within a thousand-mile radius. This kind of person is not normally much fun to be around in real life, but books are a different matter. It probably doesn't need to be said that the easily impressed D'Artagnan falls instantly under Buckingham's spell on being ushered into hishilariously tacky SUPERLATIVELY TASTEFUL ultraposh digs and probably wants to be him when he grows up, if he can't manage to be Athos. Get to work seducing a couple of kings, D'Artagnan, and maybe you can!
My favorite Musketeer is probably still Aramis, the pudgy, vain, and affable theology student, but unfortunately he doesn't seem to get quite as much page time as the others. Maybe I just feel like he doesn't get his due because I like him best. D'Artagnan continues to be an overeager adolescent golden retriever who also kills people. Will his reward for SAVING THE KINGDOM with his breakneck Channel-crossing valor be the love of the beautiful Madame Bonacieux? Apparently not, because she's just been kidnapped! Again!! Poor D'Artagnan. Serialization is hard on a young man.
What I Plan to Read Next
I've managed to hit my Mount TBR goal of 60, and will probably try for 75 if I don't get distracted. There's some Zelazny to read - the next book in the Amber series, which will determine whether or not I go on to read the rest of the Amber series - and some books from my TBR shelves; I'm not sure yet which ones.
My Absolute Darling was recommended to me by an acquaintance, who said (correctly) that the close-third POV was excellent, but neglected to mention anything about the multiple extremely vivid incestuous rape scenes. I mention them here in case, like me, you would prefer not to be surprised. It's a big, slow, suspenseful novel about a survivalist's daughter who discovers she can survive on her own terms. I don't think I would have read it if I'd known about the incestuous rape element - not because I don't think stories like that should be told, simply because I have a hard time getting them out of my head if they're well-written and if they aren't it just makes me angry - and I don't know now what I think about the ending - but once I hit the half-way mark I wasn't able to put it down for more than a few minutes at a time until it was finished. I keep wanting to say the final confrontation is too much, but I don't know if it really is. I think it's partly that I mistrust cathartic shootouts, and partly that I still have this misguided desire for fiction to be smaller and more mundane and manageable than real life.
ETA I'm sure I'm being unfairly dismissive above - for one thing, "cathartic shootout" probably isn't to the point, for another, who cares what I don't want to read about? I want to note that in addition to the strong unsentimental POV voice, there are two "normal" teenage characters whom I found completely and unexpectedly fresh and believable, not least because author Gabriel Tallent isn't tied down by misguided ideas about what "real" teenagers might realistically be expected to care about and instead just dumps (what could easily be) a big pile of his own earnest teenage interests and injoke erudition on the page. There are other good things to say about it, but the Chatty Weed Nerd Teens were what got me past my initial misgivings and into the part of the book where I couldn't put it down.
What I'm Reading Now
Anyway, you know who isn't the least bit mundane or manageable? All these assholes in The Three Musketeers! D'Artagnan falls in love with his landlord's wife and immediately gets mixed up in COURT POLITICS which leads directly to DANGEROUS COVERT MISSIONS TO ENGLAND to save the HONOR OF THE QUEEN. This is more than fine by D'Artagnan, who has wanted to be in exactly this kind of story since he was four years old.
I think I've figured out some more of the political situation! Louis XIII, the king, is just an ordinary weak man and like most weak men resents being reminded of it. Unfortunately, because he also happens to be King of France, he is reminded of it hundreds of times a day. Rumor has it that the Cardinal is effectively king because he's not a whiny teenager in a grown man's body, and also because he keeps intriguing all the time. I'm still not completely sure why he wants to discredit the queen, who is frankly the best person in this story as far as I can tell. The narrator flat out tells us it's because she wouldn't sleep with him, but maybe it also has something to do with geopolitics?
The HONOR OF THE QUEEN is in peril largely because the Duke of Buckingham, a ridiculous drama llama and my current favorite character, decided both that he was hopelessly in love with her, and that the best response to being hopelessly in love is to make as big a nuisance of oneself as possible. The Queen, Anne of Austria, is a sensible person (in both the antique and contemporary senses of the word) who is suffering badly from being married to a giant baby in puffy trousers, but who also knows perfectly well no one will forgive her for having an affair with Captain STD even if she does kind of like him a little bit. Buckingham sneaks into the palace with the help of a lady-in-waiting (who just happens to be the wife of D'Artagnan's landlord), breaks out what I am pretty sure is the exact same song and dance about dying of love that he pulls with every single European sovereign under the age of seventy-five and half their support staff, and eventually browbeats Anne into giving him a token of her love - twelve diamond studs in a little casket - so that he'll shut up and go away.
The Cardinal finds out about the studs from one of the ladies-in-waiting, so he sends his femme fatale spy to steal a couple, then encourages the king to throw a ball so he can be all "Anne, why don't you wear those diamond studs I gave you" at the last minute and embarrass everyone in public. It's the pettiest thing on earth! But it also gives D'Artagnan the opportunity to gallop all over France and England with his best friends the Musketeers, getting into fights and wrecking property everywhere they go. His mission: get the studs back from Buckingham and have a couple of new ones made so that when the Cardinal tries to embarrass Anne by presenting her with the stolen ones, the joke will be on him.
Buckingham, happily, doesn't seem to be in on this plot. I think he's just a self-absorbed idiot who genuinely believes he's the dashing and/or tragic hero of every story within a thousand-mile radius. This kind of person is not normally much fun to be around in real life, but books are a different matter. It probably doesn't need to be said that the easily impressed D'Artagnan falls instantly under Buckingham's spell on being ushered into his
My favorite Musketeer is probably still Aramis, the pudgy, vain, and affable theology student, but unfortunately he doesn't seem to get quite as much page time as the others. Maybe I just feel like he doesn't get his due because I like him best. D'Artagnan continues to be an overeager adolescent golden retriever who also kills people. Will his reward for SAVING THE KINGDOM with his breakneck Channel-crossing valor be the love of the beautiful Madame Bonacieux? Apparently not, because she's just been kidnapped! Again!! Poor D'Artagnan. Serialization is hard on a young man.
What I Plan to Read Next
I've managed to hit my Mount TBR goal of 60, and will probably try for 75 if I don't get distracted. There's some Zelazny to read - the next book in the Amber series, which will determine whether or not I go on to read the rest of the Amber series - and some books from my TBR shelves; I'm not sure yet which ones.
no subject
Date: 2017-11-02 10:06 am (UTC)LOL indeed! And Buckingham is totally a drama llama. (IRL, he was Charles I's favourite and everybody else at the court hated him.)
no subject
Date: 2017-11-02 03:03 pm (UTC)ahahahaha I WONDER WHY
no subject
Date: 2017-11-02 03:59 pm (UTC)Louis and Anne forever down in history as the useless one and the sensible one!
no subject
Date: 2017-11-02 05:24 pm (UTC)(I'm pretty sure this stolen-diamond-studs business is not Real History, but there might be drama ahead that Wikipedia could spoil me for).
no subject
Date: 2017-11-03 03:30 pm (UTC)If you think the Three Musketeers would be improved by exploding dragons there are Pierre Pevel's books in which Anne is beset by plots to make her look bad. As I remember they aren't difficult to read as the translations' prose style suggests Pevel was hoping for a big screen adaptation.