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

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I think Doyle is too much of a free spirit to follow something as hidebound as socialism.
Eep - think we're at cross-purposes here! I completely agree with you, and I'd never call Doyle "A Socialist", I was originally using the word to mean "left-leaning" I suppose - because "left" can mean so many different things these days. Is the current Labour party "left"? No, it so isn't! Is it more left than the Tories? (Hah, well, debatable!) Perhaps... But I think Doyle has more of an tendency towards "socialist" ideals than towards "right-wing" ideals. Mind you, it's never black and white, is it, and he does work for what most socialists would call a crypto-fascist governmental agency! (Don't pick me up on "crypto-fascist", I just think it sounds good! *waves to Red Dwarf*)

I always think of ideology more as the study of ideas and doctrines than ideals!
Bugger, that'll teach me to post during first coffee - I was thinking of Doyle's ideal-ism of course... *headdesk*

Re: Major Spoiler alert

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

Eep - think we're at cross-purposes here! I completely agree with you, and I'd never call Doyle "A Socialist", I was originally using the word to mean But I think Doyle has more of an tendency towards "socialist" ideals than towards "right-wing" ideals.

Sorry, if I put words into your mouth! And yes, I'd say he was left-leaning - in the broadest sense of the word - and it's more the statist element to socialism which I'd think he'd have little truck with. And in some ways they could both be seen as apolitical animals - Doyle in his free spirt sense, and Bodie in the sense that he's ex-army and the army is supposed to be apolitical, following the orders of their political masters whoever they may be and so, he follows Cowley's order fairly unquestioningly, too. And membership of Ci5: well, wasn't it claimed somewhere that it's 'above the law', so maybe it's above the state? Dunno.

I always think of ideology more as the study of ideas and doctrines than ideals!

....Bugger, that'll teach me to post during first coffee - I was thinking of Doyle's ideal-ism of course... *headdesk*

Phew, that's a relief! You really had me worried there for a minute, trying to pick my way through the intellectual subtley of this new word!.

Re: Major Spoiler alert

[magenta-blue.livejournal.com]

This is a really interesting discussion. Another perhaps example of Doyle's left leaning is during It's Only A Beautiful Picture - when Doyle is being grilled by the copper that he should mind his manners as 'Colonel Sangster is not an ordinary citizen.' And Doyle replies as he goes out of the door 'class system rules, okay' - which reminded me very much of a nod to the BBC comedy Citizen Smith (aired 1977), although it probably wasn't intended as such, as the phrase is, as Doyle says next, 'just a saying'. *g*

Re: Major Spoiler alert

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah! Great example. Doesn't he stick his arm in the air at one stage, Citizen Smith style? Yes, I'd say he definitely leans to the left, hand on hip.

Thanks for that!