Always and other novels by Nicola Griffith

[rachelmanija]

I have enjoyed every single one of Nicola Griffith’s books to date. They are very female-centric, with lesbian protagonists and a focus on mind-body interactions (often but not always involving martial arts), the sensual experience of the physical world, and the details of how things work – things being anything from carpentry to aikido to group dynamics. They do lack humor, but I don’t find that I miss it, since the other elements I mentioned above are particular interests of mine.

Ammonite is sf on the perennial theme of stranger in a strange land, in this case a woman who comes to a planet where a virus has killed all the men, but society survives. I have read a lot of “society of women” stories. With a few exceptions, when men write them the societies are fascistic, ant-like, and often prostrate themselves with gratitude at the arrival of male saviors. When women write them the societies tend to be individualist and bad-ass, or cooperative in an appealing, non-insectlike way. Griffith’s is cooperative in some ways, not in others, and has a strong streak of bad-ass. I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys worldbuilding sf with a focus on made-up cultures a la Ursula K. Le Guin or Eleanor Arnason.

Slow River I don’t recall terribly well except that it managed to hold my interest despite the fact that a lot of the plot involved, if I recall correctly, sewage treatment or something equally industrial and unpromising.

The Blue Place, Stay, and Always are a set of character studies masquerading as suspense thrillers about Norwegian-American Aud Torvingen, ex-cop, self-defense instructor, carpenter, and private investigator. Aud, who is practically perfect in all physical ways, is also a strange and closed-off person, beautifully attuned to the natural world and her own body but perpetually one beat off the rhythms of normal human interactions. But not so much so that she doesn’t have a love life. Both The Blue Place and Always feature sexy and romantic romances.

You can start with Always, the one I just read, but it will spoil earlier events. In alternating chapters, Aud has a disastrous experience teaching self defense in Atlanta (in the recent past) and investigates suspicious events involving a movie shoot in Seattle (in the present.) At first I was more interested in the self defense story, which features many useful pointers (Griffith is a former self-defense instructor), but I quickly became caught up in both after Aud has the unusual (to her) experience of being a victim when the set is sabotaged. I spent a very enjoyable Sunday lounging in the sun and reading this.

The Aud novels are well-written, smart, gripping, and even educational in an entertaining way. If you’re looking for lesbian heroines in stories that do not center around coming out or homophobia, or tough female protagonists who don’t hide or apologize for their competence, these books are for you.

Comments

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

Yes, Griffith's books are excellent.

My favourite is Slow River -- but, for me, the water treatment/sewage treatment technology was actually quite fascinating and an innovative treatment for SF.

I like the way Griffiths includes the experience of being gay without making it the focus of the novel -- mainstreaming it.

She's also edited at least one anthology.

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

Love Always. Love it so. Was one of my two favorite books the year it came out.

[cija.livejournal.com]

I liked Always a lot, despite Aud's total lack of humor (as you say), not infrequent chauvinism, and what I thought was a pretty weird view of Seattle (but I love reading Seattle books--there's a scene in the Edgewater Hotel! I went to a wedding at the Edgewater Hotel once! and so forth). My only real problem was that the disastrous self-defense class thing did not seem disastrous to me at all; in fact I think the thing that the person did that upset Aud so much was a damn good idea and a fine thing to do. Similar things happen in a lot of TV crime shows and I understand that I'm supposed to feel deeply conflicted about it, but I never do.

Slow River is just great.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I felt the same way, both in this case and in general. I handwaved it with the idea that Aud was more angry about being manipulated and used than about the deed itself.

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I have some of these books and never read them, but NG's always been v highly recommended to me.

when men write them the societies are fascistic, ant-like, and often prostrate themselves with gratitude at the arrival of male saviors

That reminds me of Joanna Russ saying in DV something like of male attempts to imagine female societies, it was better not to speak ("'He will be my concubine for tonight,' the Empress of Zar said coldly").

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

God knows there's days when I want to be the Empress of Zar.

[eredien]

Thank you. I have had "Ammonite" on my to-read list for a while, and this just moved it up the pile.

You say that it deals a lot with "lesbians, mind-body interactions, the physical world, and the details of how things work" and yet "lacks humor." Since most of those things are things that I find humorous in my daily life (if not always side-splitting slapstick; often the humor is very dark.) I am curious to see how her work will read to me, if she deals with those topics in a way that doesn't seem to acknowledge that they may have humor.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Report back when you finish reading! Possibly her humor is so subtle that I blinked and missed it.