Book Review: Always – Nicola Griffith

[bookzombie]

Always by Nicola Griffith
ISBN: 978-1-59448-935-8
Riverhead Books, 2007, 470pp

Summary

Aud Torvingen travels with her friend Dornan from Atlanta to Seattle to investigate why the agent who is supposed to be looking after her financial interests is not making the money from her properties that she expects. She is also going to meet up with her mother, Norwegian Ambassador to the Court of St. James and newly married. When Aud starts to investigate what is happening to her properties she discovers a film production in trouble and an injured stunt woman who catches her attention.

Verdict

A very good, slow-burner of a thriller, with something to say about obsession and control. Spoilers follow.

This is the third of Nicola Griffith’s novels about Aud Torvingen, following on from The Blue Place and Stay. There are two narrative threads in Always, followed in alternative chapters. In one set is the story of Aud’s stay in Seattle, in the other set is the recounting of 16 weeks of a women’s self-defence class which Aud taught before leaving Atlanta. Both work they’re way to a climax – although both threads are, by thriller standards, fairly quiet.

Looking at the first thread, it would take few words to summarise the key elements of the plot: Aud discovers that her financial manager is paying for the sabotage of the movie (or more correctly back-door pilot for a t.v. series) which is being filmed in the warehouse Aud owns. Aud meets, and quickly falls for, Kick, an injured stunt woman, now working as the caterer for the shoot. She also is gradually reconciled to her mother.

Really the plot is not terribly important; it’s not particularly complex and doesn’t take much effort to resolve. What this section is really about is Aud learning about the limits of control. Early in her visit she is poisoned, as are several other members of the film crew, and as a result loses some of the elements of control which are so much the core of her character. But because she cannot bear to not be in control, she also tries to do what she believes is best for Kick. While in her head she is being helpful and, more importantly to Aud, logical, she is actually hurting the person she loves. In a particularly disturbing section, Aud takes it upon herself to arrange for a rotten tree in Kick’s garden to be cut down, against Kick’s explicit request for her not to interfere. Not surprisingly this almost destroys the relationship before it really gets started.  But Aud also discovers that Kick is has a serious illness and has to learn the limits to what she can do to help.

The self-defence training sections make very interesting reading, despite having a rather didactic tone. Here Aud struggles to understand the motivations and life-styles of the over-polite and sheltered women she teaches. I will be honest and admit that, with a couple of exceptions, I struggled to remember which of the women was which; they are, on the whole, fairly bland, possibly deliberately so. If nothing else, this section does act as a good introduction to the principles of self-defence for women, though obviously no substitute for actually doing the training!

If I have one problem with the book overall it is Aud’s somewhat obsessive pursuit of Kick. If Aud was a male character, this would feel perilously close to stalking. It put me in mind of the problems some people have with Fred Astaire’s pursuit of Ginger Rogers in films like Top Hat. Most of the films follow the same plot: Astaire’s character takes an interest in Rogers’ and, despite her lack of interest, continues to follow her around and interfere in her life until finally she accepts him. Perhaps it is a silly comparison, but not entirely unfair I think.

Having said that, I guess that part of the point is Aud learning to understand that she cannot automatically be in control of the relationship.

In conclusion, Always is an interesting and enjoyable novel-with-thriller-elements, but not always a comfortable read. For me Stay was probably the best of the series, but this one comes close.

Originally published at Books, Bytes & Other Bits. You can comment here or there.

Comments

[replyhazy.livejournal.com]

Great review! I wondered if there would be more Aud books. I need to read The Blue Place again.

[bookzombie.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

I admit that I struggled with The Blue Place when I first read it - I found Aud so difficult to relate to. But in some ways the series is about her re-integrating with humanity, so in hindsight it works quite well.

Incidentally if you haven't read Stay, don't read Always until you have, as it does follow on quite directly.

[replyhazy.livejournal.com]

I should reread them both then, though I found Stay actually more difficult than The Blue Place. In the first book I kind of thought of Aud like an alien, but in the second you can't really do that and I sort of had to revisit my idea of the character.