Christmas Reading Room December 2

[potztausend.livejournal.com]

Title: The High Road 

Author: M.Fae Glasgow

Pairing: B/D

Link to story: http://www.oblique-publications.net/archives/bdictumii/high.pdf

Warnings: Mum Cowley, gingerbread and butter,  the weather.
 

Bodie and Doyle have to protect Cowley (Sorry, it’s Mr. Cowley...) who is visiting his mother over Christmas.

M.Fae Glasgow paints pictures with her words - pictures of landscapes, streets, Cowley’s past, of deep emotions. Sometimes it’s funny, with a dry sense of humour, sometimes it’s so intense. She draws me into sorrow and hurt, love and joy. 

M.Fae Glasgow writes dark endings? Oh no, it’s Christmas...

 

Comments

[msmoat.livejournal.com]

She does write dark endings! Sometimes. *g* But this one...ahh, I do like this story! It's such a cool glimpse of Cowley, and I love the relationships all through the story. Thank you for the reminder!

[potztausend.livejournal.com]

Oh sure she does write dark endings - but not when it's christmas *g*. Cowley as a boy, his wonderful mother, the way she writes about emotions or even the weather... a good story!

[roven75.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the rec! :) I do have problems getting into some of her stories but I enjoy this one. It reminds me of "Roses Are Red". I like it when she puts on the storyteller's cape and pulls out the humor (and she does have a great sense of humor).

[potztausend.livejournal.com]

I like her humour too. And I remember reading "Roses are red" a long time ago... *thinks about it*

[constant-muse.livejournal.com]

Amazing - this is the one I was going to rec tomorrow! Great minds think alike, eh? (or, fools seldom differ...)

Christmas fic is not my favourite, which is one reason to like this, because it covers the whole Christmas-Hogmanay season and it isn't focussed on the lads' Christmas together.

I read it ages ago and some images stayed with me, like Cowley's stern but surprisingly tolerant mother (where he gets it from, I guess) and her old-fashioned Glasgow flat. And the lads being in this constraining environment where they have no privacy, and everything has to be polite and clean and tidy - so different from their usual active life out on the streets.

And Bodie doing the washing up!

I'll just be off finding another story to rec now. *vbg*

[potztausend.livejournal.com]

I suppose I'm a mixture between a great mind and a fool ;-). Cowley's mother is great - so much wisdom. I think the unfamiliar environment increases the suspense: the more they were polite the more I expected an outburst.
Ah - the next story - now I'm curious which you choose...

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I waited until I was tucked up in bed last night to re-read this one - brilliant choice, another one of my favourites! I like M.Fae Glasgow in general, and this one just... makes you want to hug 'em all, even Cowley! I love the glimpse we get of Cowley's childhood, from him as well as his mum, and that the lads are so amused by it all through... and I love that underneath all the Cowley family stuff it's the lads that we're watching really, and how we're shown what's happened between them, and how Glasgow builds us up to what will happen! And her chatty style is fun too! Yeay! *g*

[potztausend.livejournal.com]

Ah - you summed up everything so nicely. I like your sentence "how Glasgow builds us up to what will happen" very much. In german we call it "a suspense's arch" - it doesn't mean a suspense through action but the way of writing scenes so one is clinging to a book or a story.

Glasgow is able to write light and funny stories like "Footbridge", and she wrote "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" which left me stunned and speechless, reading about so much hurt and agony. Yet she wrote hope and love into it (I never dared to rec it...).

[cornishcat.livejournal.com]

An intense story which I found difficult to read at times ... the seemingly relentless despair and frustration made me want to knock the lads' heads together.

But it is a great recommendation and the slow climb to the satisfying climax was well-worth my perseverance.

Saying that, I do feel I've been dragged through an emotional mill! Think I need a wee dram now to recover my equilibrium. *g*

[potztausend.livejournal.com]

You are so right about the "emotional mill". When I started to read the Pros, the oblique-publications.net was accidentally one of the first sites, with many stories by Glasgow and Sebastian. They wrote hurting and disturbing stories as well as some funny and lighter ones, and I was so impressed by them. It's such a great intensity, an attempt to get to the bottom of an emotion. Very touching.

[cloudless-9193.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the reminder. I remember this one faintly. It's now on my to-read list this month. :-)

[potztausend.livejournal.com]

You are lucky it's not New Year's Eve... ;-)

[jgraeme2007.livejournal.com]

I think the slightly ironic omniscient tone M Fae takes with this is very effective. It's an almost Dickensian beginning as she describes the car and its inhabitants speeding toward the inevitable showdown.

She has a wonderful eye for detail -- the description of Bodie's sweaty hand on the gear shift next to Doyle's denim clad knee -- although I think she also has a tendency to overwrite.

She also does a great job of building tension to a screaming point, but what I really love is when -- as in this story -- she indulges that droll sense of humor. I think it helps to balance the bleakness of some of this.

The little captures of the understanding between the lads -- even when they're struggling -- I think it's one reason she's very successful at bringing them to life so vividly.

Anyway, many, many things I enjoy about this story -- I'd forgotten all about it, so thank you for the reminder!

[potztausend.livejournal.com]

To be honest I read the story instead of the beginning *g*, but her "slightly ironic omniscient tone" in the course of the story is great. I like her thing about the weather - while driving to Scotland the weather is absolutely great and the lads are grim. On the way back to London it's raining and raining - and the lads are happy. A wonderful idea.

[moth2fic.livejournal.com]

A nice story - and I like the way we get a real look at Cowley (and his background) - but I have to say I don't enjoy the style. The storyteller mode always tends to throw me out of a story and make it all 'once removed' whereas I like to lose myself in fics. But it's cleverly done, and as I said, a nice tale.

[potztausend.livejournal.com]

I must confess I had a little problem with the beginning of the story because I seldom read tales/AU's. This feeling vanished as I read on, and I could "lose myself" in this story. So I think I understand what you mean, although my reaction was different. Thank you for reading it.