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ci5hqTitle: Sun, Sea, Sand and Absolutely, Categorically No Excitement
Author: JoJo
Link: Sun, Sea, Sand and Absolutely, Categorically No Excitement
Pairing: Bodie/Doyle
The title alone tells you you’re in for some definite smiles and chuckles, along with the usual dose of angst and hurt/comfort.
What I love about Jo’s writing in Pros, is how wonderfully a sense of time and place comes through – these lads could really be nothing else but British, and nowhere else but the 1980s.
There were still three birds with no tops on cavorting in the waves.
Tristao hailed him like a long-lost friend, and Doyle drank his first Superbock of the day while discussing Eusebio’s penalty-taking techniques. At least, Doyle thought that was what they were discussing. Tristao didn’t have much to say other than “Bobbeee Charlton,”
And with her it’s all in the details, the minutiae of British life back then - a Lilt for Bodie, for example. Nowadays we are spoilt for choice for soft drinks in cans, and I don’t even know if Lilt exists as a staple in the UK anymore – but when Jo writes the lads, my late 1970s/early 80s teenage years come screaming back to me in every tiny detail – the precise time when I was watching and loving Pros because yes, I remember Lilt!! It’s how she keeps it all so very grounded in British pub/lads culture.
Then there’s the reason for the holiday – so unsentimentally laid out, yet all the more touching for it.
He let the un-Bodie-like slow transition from unconscious to conscious run its course, and then plopped the cold can down next to the nearest hand, well away from the letter-box sized area under his navel where the poor sod had been stitched up like a kipper. Some of his newly-acquired relaxation deserted him as he sat back down on his towel, aware of Bodie’s laboured progress from lying to sitting.
And of course, there’s her dialogue.
No need for any ‘he said/he said’. It is all beautifully set up so that we hear this particular exchange perfectly, know exactly who is talking, and accordingly we smile in all the right places.
“You ready for lunch then?” Doyle said.
There was a long yawn.
“Wezza sun?”
“Don’t start.”
“Fancy a swim?” The voice was croaky.
“As a matter of fact I do. But you’re not coming.”
“Fancy a shag?”
“Yes, but I’m afraid you’re still not coming.”
“Ha.”
“Nice sleep?”
“Dunno, was asleep.”
Bodie’s twinge of possessiveness as Doyle goes off to swim where the three topless birds are still cavorting, is lovely to witness with this very Bodie-esque touch of: “I shall be watching you.”.
I love the ending especially, with Bodie doing his level best to hide how crap he feels behind his sunglasses, and Doyle letting him know Bodie has nothing to prove, that he is there to stay and that he loves him for more than sex, and that their relationship is not going away just because Bodie is too weak right then and sleeps all the time.
But this is Jojo, so it’s all shown not told. Not one bloody word of it.
Genius.
Author: JoJo
Link: Sun, Sea, Sand and Absolutely, Categorically No Excitement
Pairing: Bodie/Doyle
The title alone tells you you’re in for some definite smiles and chuckles, along with the usual dose of angst and hurt/comfort.
What I love about Jo’s writing in Pros, is how wonderfully a sense of time and place comes through – these lads could really be nothing else but British, and nowhere else but the 1980s.
There were still three birds with no tops on cavorting in the waves.
Tristao hailed him like a long-lost friend, and Doyle drank his first Superbock of the day while discussing Eusebio’s penalty-taking techniques. At least, Doyle thought that was what they were discussing. Tristao didn’t have much to say other than “Bobbeee Charlton,”
And with her it’s all in the details, the minutiae of British life back then - a Lilt for Bodie, for example. Nowadays we are spoilt for choice for soft drinks in cans, and I don’t even know if Lilt exists as a staple in the UK anymore – but when Jo writes the lads, my late 1970s/early 80s teenage years come screaming back to me in every tiny detail – the precise time when I was watching and loving Pros because yes, I remember Lilt!! It’s how she keeps it all so very grounded in British pub/lads culture.
Then there’s the reason for the holiday – so unsentimentally laid out, yet all the more touching for it.
He let the un-Bodie-like slow transition from unconscious to conscious run its course, and then plopped the cold can down next to the nearest hand, well away from the letter-box sized area under his navel where the poor sod had been stitched up like a kipper. Some of his newly-acquired relaxation deserted him as he sat back down on his towel, aware of Bodie’s laboured progress from lying to sitting.
And of course, there’s her dialogue.
No need for any ‘he said/he said’. It is all beautifully set up so that we hear this particular exchange perfectly, know exactly who is talking, and accordingly we smile in all the right places.
“You ready for lunch then?” Doyle said.
There was a long yawn.
“Wezza sun?”
“Don’t start.”
“Fancy a swim?” The voice was croaky.
“As a matter of fact I do. But you’re not coming.”
“Fancy a shag?”
“Yes, but I’m afraid you’re still not coming.”
“Ha.”
“Nice sleep?”
“Dunno, was asleep.”
Bodie’s twinge of possessiveness as Doyle goes off to swim where the three topless birds are still cavorting, is lovely to witness with this very Bodie-esque touch of: “I shall be watching you.”.
I love the ending especially, with Bodie doing his level best to hide how crap he feels behind his sunglasses, and Doyle letting him know Bodie has nothing to prove, that he is there to stay and that he loves him for more than sex, and that their relationship is not going away just because Bodie is too weak right then and sleeps all the time.
But this is Jojo, so it’s all shown not told. Not one bloody word of it.
Genius.
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no subject
Date: 2011-09-08 07:30 pm (UTC)Edit:I just discovered Jojo wrote "Today's Lesson" - omg. That's a great story!
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Date: 2011-09-08 07:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-08 08:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-10 04:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-08 08:34 pm (UTC)I love JoJo's writing, just love it.
But this is Jojo, so it’s all shown not told. Not one bloody word of it. Genius.
You are so right!
Ta muchly for the reminder of this one. ♥
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Date: 2011-09-10 05:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-08 09:59 pm (UTC)it’s all shown not told
And that's what makes a good story!
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Date: 2011-09-10 05:42 am (UTC)I am a HUGE fan of show not tell writers, and Jojo really is one of the best. She can do very dark fic - there's one where Bodie has had his fingers broken and been tortured? I forget the title right now, but she can also infuse such humour through her word choices. (Bodie with his 'Ermintrude eyelashes', for example:))
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Date: 2011-09-09 12:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-10 05:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-09 06:28 am (UTC)There is nothing clever I could add, just maybe...
Poor Bodie!
- and lucky Bodie to have Doyle! :-)
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Date: 2011-09-10 05:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-10 09:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-09 10:55 am (UTC)What I love about Jo’s writing in Pros, is how wonderfully a sense of time and place comes through – these lads could really be nothing else but British, and nowhere else but the 1980s.
Definitely, the sense of place is very important to me, an essential in a story as I’ve got a rotten imagination and so, with descriptions like this:
With a quick pat of the pocket to make sure his escudos were there he set off across the burning hot sand towards the wooden steps a hundred metres away.
....I’m thinking, oh yes! I remember burning hot sand (though I had to look up 'escudos' as I wondered why he was carrying Spanish flips flops in his pocket..) and hey presto I’m right there with the lads on the beach that Bodie (at least) isn't sure he wants to be on - the devil’s in the devil, as they say, or something like that. And yet the details are never irritating or obtrusive, they never bog you down or drive you mad in the way some over-detailed writing can do, they’re just there, like the chips with my fish, essential for a good meal and without which neither the meal or the story would be complete. (Well, I know a story doesn’t need chips but you know what I mean...)
Some of his newly-acquired relaxation deserted him as he sat back down on his towel, aware of Bodie’s laboured progress from lying to sitting.
I think that’s the perfect quote for the kind of way I like a writer to show the lads’ feelings and it seems to be the common demoninator of all my favourite writers: a gruff but very deep caring for each other, one which never threatens to disturb that important sense of equilibrium and equality they have between them and which never changes who or what they were before they met each other i.e. two very tough men. I take my hat off to any writer who is able to keep them as a canon Bodie and Doyle who are also deeply in love with each other.
I thought this was a very good choice of story, thank you for that and for your review.
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Date: 2011-09-10 05:57 am (UTC)I hear what you say about time and place. She's precise but vivid and the line you quoted was exactly that - one line. But it conjures up an instant image of heat, a beach in foreign climes, and where Doyle is going.
And yet the details are never irritating or obtrusive, they never bog you down or drive you mad in the way some over-detailed writing can do, they’re just there, like the chips with my fish LOL I love this, you expressed it perfectly!
And yes, she very much keeps them canon, doesn't she? In the dialogue especially, it could really be filmed from an episode. Like you, I like the balance. I want to feel the care and the love, but I don't want to be hit over the head with it with un-lad like behavior or declarations. Which is why I have absolutely no time and patience for stories where Doyle is this clingy, weepy bloke who can barely hold a gun without dropping it.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-10 11:22 pm (UTC)when Jo writes the lads, my late 1970s/early 80s teenage years come screaming back to me in every tiny detail – the precise time when I was watching and loving Pros because yes, I remember Lilt!!
I was ridiculously excited when Lilt was mentioned! Lilt!!!
But this is Jojo, so it’s all shown not told. Not one bloody word of it.
Absolutely. It's just gorgeously done :)
no subject
Date: 2011-09-11 11:57 am (UTC)I'm very glad you enjoyed this.