Fic Rec: Far Shore by Angelfish

[callistosh65.livejournal.com]

Title: Far Shore
Author: Angelfish
Zine: Never Far Apart
Permission to archive the rec/review at Palely Loitering: Yes
Notes: Following on from bits and pieces that cropped up on byslantedlight’s post about what we were all reading, and from a back and forth with noblesentiments, I thought I’d take the plunge! (Folk should note that it's only available in the zine.)
Short review: It’s post-CI5, as it were. Doyle’s invalided out and in the Hebrides, carving out a difficult, solitary existence for himself. He and Bodie have been on the outs for two years, since a disaster in Northern Ireland that saw Bodie basically abandon Doyle and get married. One day, a car draws up, Bodie gets out.. and the rest of the story is the pair of them working out their respective demons amongst the heather and storms of north west Scotland.



I know this fic has caused mixed reactions, so I think I should state my take on it at the outset. I have a blind spot when it comes to Angelfish. I adore her, she’s my favourite writer in the fandom. And my blind spot is what I like to think of affectionately as the Maclean/Fish Syndrome. The pair of them do things to the lads that shouldn’t work in the cold light of day, but through the skill of their writing I’m drawn into their world, their Bodie and Doyle. Hook, line and bloody sinker. Yes, Ray Doyle – and Bodie, actually - weep a fair bit in this, but their demons break my heart in Far Shore, so I’m there. Yes, Ray goes a-scrabbling in the stones and Bodie leaves AGAIN, but my howl of frustration is recompensed by a Bodie who sits with Doyle on the floor and finally realises he has done enough, so I’m there. And yes, Bodie’s abandonment of Doyle remains inaccessible, but he’s such an awkward, tender diamond when it comes to caring for him second time around that, yup, I’m still there.

My favourite part of the story is the beginning of that second time around, actually, when they’re tentatively finding their way with each other again.

Gradually it bore itself in on both of them that they were living happily. It took some accepting. Neither had managed anything remotely like it before…
….They discussed the phenomenon and discovered that each had independently reached the conclusion that he would die on the streets too young to make any permanent attachment worthwhile…. Neither would have believed that each other was the heart of it – it had taken this long enforced experiment, subtracting the high-octane lifestyle, to show them what was left.

And besides all this, I get the Hebrides again. I spent every summer as a child camping there, so to have them again through the eyes of my favourite writer is the icing on a rather windswept cake for me. The weather did its Hebridean thing and soaked them between bursts of brilliant sunshine. Quite! And I love Bodie’s silent appreciation of the headlands and views Doyle shows him, “an uncomplaining serenity, most unlike his normal city self.”

Anyway, feel free to use these ramblings as a springboard. I deliberately haven’t been too detailed, so jump in. What did you love about it? Any misgivings? Why? I will simply end this, my own ‘Appreciation of Far Shore 101’, with her description of Bodie waiting for Doyle to come out of surgery. It catches at my heart everytime and I love it.

He had started to fall and had fallen like Lucifer until somehow Ray had stopped his descent. Somehow forgiven him. Loved him. Warmth like sunlight in winter branches went through Bodie’s limbs as he considered this, deliberately, consciously, for the first time, and the hard plastic chair and the smell of antiseptic faded out. That Doyle had come to love him during the years of their partnership he had eventually allowed himself to know. It had gone without saying, which was just as well. Bodie was not emotionally equipped for declaration, much as he had liked and come to rely on his partner’s affection.

Daily bread, or sunlight. Men like him seldom gave conscious thanks for either. Which was stupid, really, since both could be so easily discontinued. Since everything could.

Comments

Re: Major Spoiler alert

[callistosh65.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed reading through your reply - Wow. You brought up so many things to talk and think about - thank you! I'll just respond to a couple here..

Okay, I didn't find the plot jerky, though when I realised Bodie was off AGAIN I wanted to throw something. I liked the fact that the plot is... well, that it's basically just the two of them working things out. I didn't need anything other than that to propel them forward through the story, and the Hebrides and its people were fine for me( except that bit with the doc, which I agree with empty_mirrors jarred).

Doyle's motivation for being in Scotland never struck me as bizarre, I rather like that stoic, spartan exixtence he thinks he deserves. I admit to having little knowledge about the world of supply teaching at that time, so that wouldn't strike me as odd, either. Personally, I would much rather have had more on Bodie's motivation for his intial abandonment of Doyle after Northern Ireland.

"Hardarse" doesn't strike me as American - tho' I could well be wrong. (I'm a Birt who neverthless needs a Brit-check on her fics, so Americanisms don't always jump out at me). And Angelfish always seems to do her own thing to English sentences regarding structures, etc. For me it works and doesn't distract.

Part way through I realised that I was car-crash reading I don't agree for this fic, but boy, you make me laugh! I *love* this expression and will have to remember it for future reference ( Ditto the "earth-child moment"- hee:))

(I love the last sentence of your comment, btw - I don't agree - but I love and wish I had your eloquence..:)))

Re: Major Spoiler alert

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh but it is interesting to disagree strongly about something like this, isn't it?! I'm fascinated by the way people take such different things from stories - can read things so differently. We do it through our own experiences, of course, so I suppose it's to be expected, but... well it's still interesting!

And interestingly enough, I agree with some of the things you've said here too - I adore the idea of Doyle running away to somewhere stark and isolated to lick his wounds. I think that for me the motivation for it is just a little bit out - I can imagine him doing it, yes, but can I imagine him making a decision to do so knowing that he could die a lingering death? It doesn't seem his style - whereas the leap over the concrete floor would - he'd hope in a brief moment of irrationality - be quick and consuming. But that's clearly my little version of how-Doyle-would-reason/react!

...well, that it's basically just the two of them working things out. I didn't need anything other than that to propel them forward through the story
Yes! But that's just what I mean! Their working things out seemed to take in so many other disasters that need not have happened to take them through the just-being-them dealing with the initial huge trauma! Which was enough I thought... Interesting innit - same angle, different ways of seeing it... *g*

"Hardarse" doesn't strike me as American
Oh no, I didn't mean to suggest that it specifically was (though I suspect it is, it's usually spelled "hard-ass", which suggests so...) - but it's a modernism, not something that people would have said back then I don't think, which throws me as much as Americanisms do in Pros. Clearly other people don't mind/notice, and that's interesting too - what's the balance between making something culturally accurate (time-wise as well), and making it accessible to people reading it from both other cultures and other times (ie thirty years later!)? Goes the other way too - I've read O. Yardley stories (and I adore her fic) that make the lads sound very old-fashioned, which isn't right either - though at least they'd know those phrases!

Oh I love people messing around with sentence structure too - variety's the spice and all that, that wasn't a problem for me at all. I didn't really have a problem with her very lush descriptions either, although I believe some people found them too much. It was more the combination of it all, I think...

*wanders off to think some more...* (*and stops using the word "interesting"!*)

Re: Major Spoiler alert

[callistosh65.livejournal.com]

what's the balance between making something culturally accurate (time-wise as well), and making it accessible to people reading it from both other cultures and other times (ie thirty years later!)? Ohhh, very interesting point here. Sometimes you get that perfect word for smth in a story as a writer, and you just beat your breast and tear your hair because you can't use it, it's too modern - (Oh, for one of these modern fandoms to grab me!) For 'A Falling Off' I remeber that I wanted to describe smn as a "terrorist wannabe", and of course I couldn't. Came up with 'would be terorist' instead, which is ok, but not nearly as good as the modern equivalent.

And in a S/H fic one time I had Hutch refer to smth as the 'soccer mom save'. I kept it in, because it was the key moment, and nothing else worked. From f/b some loved it *because* of that, others felt jolted out - so as you say, it's all about personal experiences we bring to stories, and striking that balance as a writer.

Oh but it is interesting to disagree strongly about something like this, isn't it?! Absolutely. Vive la difference, my friend!!