Yeah, I can see your point here. Well, some of them.
I don't actually mind Russell's characterisation through most of it, because she was acting in a way consistent with her psychological state at the time -- and while she was annoying as hell, most people are when teetering on the edge of the more mundane kind of nervous breakdown.
As for the clumsy omnipotent voice, I could let that slide pretty easily -- I've read worse in 'respectable' novels, and I liked Hammett. (What I found weird was the way she was writing him like a surrogate son for Holmes -- I really want to say, "Laurie, if you want to write the Lovely Lost Son novel, no one's going to stop you, but for God's sake, stop skirting around the issue. And watch your pacing.")
My problem with the book is that there was no real danger to Russell, and therefore very little tension. Greenfield and his sister were basically cyphers, and worse, they were cyphers with the potential to be really interesting. Especially since Rosa was compared to Russell at several points, and her obsessive support for Greenfield could have made an interesting parallel/contrast to the Russell/Holmes marriage. We haven't had a really worthy female villain since Beekeeper's, and I wanted to know more about Rosa.
I also wanted a proper confrontation between Russell and Greenfield. What we got was just ... nothing. I mean, if he killed her family, and she's mistakenly carried that guilt for ten years, I kind of feel like there should have been an insane amount of tension and hatred. Laurie kind of groped towards it, but the whole conclusion was so rushed that Russell's feelings were just pushed aside. (Ironic, since they were so much indulged through the earlier sections.)
The weird thing was that I kept expecting a big ending -- I had a real sense that she was foreshadowing the destruction of the Russell house, and I was quite certain she'd get to the Lodge and find Greenfield and his sister either in residence or only recently gone. As it was, we just had these big narrative detours -- which I enjoyed reading in an undemanding way, but which only contributed a little to the plot.
Laurie doesn't seem to like inflicting too much pain on her characters. She likes them far too much to make them suffer like that, and I think that's the main reason the Russell series is in decline. She's rushing through endings and denying Russell and Holmes the opportunity to feel the consequences of each story. It's one of the recurring factors in nearly all her books, she just can't inflict that much upon her characters. So of course Russell didn't cause the accident, and may now be insulated from all further angst. Blah blah fishcakes.
...This is one of the reasons that I am actually so into the series in a fannish way. I know it's seriously flawed -- and these narrative flaws are more troublesome to me than the Sue factor -- but if it were good, I wouldn't be able to write fic for it. As it is, I derive considerable sadistic glee from inflicting pain on fictional characters. Especially Holmes and Russell, who can be bent quite far before they break. (Bless them.)
Whereas an author like Bujold, who starts each novel wondering, "What's the worst possible thing I can do to this character?" never need fear that I'll turn my ficcish attentions to her universes -- she's already going my work for me.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-09-16 12:56 am (UTC)I don't actually mind Russell's characterisation through most of it, because she was acting in a way consistent with her psychological state at the time -- and while she was annoying as hell, most people are when teetering on the edge of the more mundane kind of nervous breakdown.
As for the clumsy omnipotent voice, I could let that slide pretty easily -- I've read worse in 'respectable' novels, and I liked Hammett. (What I found weird was the way she was writing him like a surrogate son for Holmes -- I really want to say, "Laurie, if you want to write the Lovely Lost Son novel, no one's going to stop you, but for God's sake, stop skirting around the issue. And watch your pacing.")
My problem with the book is that there was no real danger to Russell, and therefore very little tension. Greenfield and his sister were basically cyphers, and worse, they were cyphers with the potential to be really interesting. Especially since Rosa was compared to Russell at several points, and her obsessive support for Greenfield could have made an interesting parallel/contrast to the Russell/Holmes marriage. We haven't had a really worthy female villain since Beekeeper's, and I wanted to know more about Rosa.
I also wanted a proper confrontation between Russell and Greenfield. What we got was just ... nothing. I mean, if he killed her family, and she's mistakenly carried that guilt for ten years, I kind of feel like there should have been an insane amount of tension and hatred. Laurie kind of groped towards it, but the whole conclusion was so rushed that Russell's feelings were just pushed aside. (Ironic, since they were so much indulged through the earlier sections.)
The weird thing was that I kept expecting a big ending -- I had a real sense that she was foreshadowing the destruction of the Russell house, and I was quite certain she'd get to the Lodge and find Greenfield and his sister either in residence or only recently gone. As it was, we just had these big narrative detours -- which I enjoyed reading in an undemanding way, but which only contributed a little to the plot.
Laurie doesn't seem to like inflicting too much pain on her characters. She likes them far too much to make them suffer like that, and I think that's the main reason the Russell series is in decline. She's rushing through endings and denying Russell and Holmes the opportunity to feel the consequences of each story. It's one of the recurring factors in nearly all her books, she just can't inflict that much upon her characters. So of course Russell didn't cause the accident, and may now be insulated from all further angst. Blah blah fishcakes.
...This is one of the reasons that I am actually so into the series in a fannish way. I know it's seriously flawed -- and these narrative flaws are more troublesome to me than the Sue factor -- but if it were good, I wouldn't be able to write fic for it. As it is, I derive considerable sadistic glee from inflicting pain on fictional characters. Especially Holmes and Russell, who can be bent quite far before they break. (Bless them.)
Whereas an author like Bujold, who starts each novel wondering, "What's the worst possible thing I can do to this character?" never need fear that I'll turn my ficcish attentions to her universes -- she's already going my work for me.