Tigana

Spoiler alert: I do divulge the kind of ending, whether or not it is dark, mixed, happy or other.

Kay has another winner. Tigana deals with the concept of memory and the concept of "erasure", that is, the attempt to remove someone from public consciousness. Kay says that this idea came from seeing 2 versions of a picture of a group in Czechoslovakia in which one person had obviously been removed...as if he had never existed.
I tend to gravitate to what I am learning is "romances", heroic romances in which the forces of evil are ultimately defeated and "happily ever after" results. In Tigana, there are a few scenes of a sexual nature, usually consensual...some of which are about the concubinage of forcibly taken women in a harem type setting. In this case, the romantic feelings due ultimately result between 2 of said characters, so "consensual" here is not misplaced...again, ultimately.
The story itself is told primarily from the perspective of one character, Devin, a 20 year old musician and thus has elements of the "coming of age" motif...first sexual encounter, preceded by desire, incomprehension of the other gender, finding his place in the world including a struggle to recapture his people's identity and public recognition and learning how to relate to older and more politically savvy individuals.
The pacing of the plot, the characterizations, the underlying theme and the ultimate resolution were, for me, all ultimately very satisfying. ( )

Better than I had any right to expect, but my expectations are criminally low when it comes to epic fantasy these days. There were women! Who did things! (This fell apart by the end, when all the women really did was fall in love, but for a while there Catriana seemed to have actual power and a political point of view.) The saishan/harem was not treated as a fetish object! (The women in it never interacted with each other, because obvs when you spend all of your time around other women, the only relationships you form are with male castrato and your male captor, whom you don't often see. OBVIOUSLY.) Magic took actual effort and sacrifice! The incest subplot wasn't necessary, but it also wasn't treated as something to be giggled over!

As I write this, I'm starting to think this is like a Mills & Boon novel: you're meant to believe while the reading lasts, but not a moment longer. The non-failiness of this falls apart the more I look at it. But the ridiculously complicated plot is pretty easy to keep track of, the characters are interesting, and the worldbuilding is pretty good. Also, Kay gets major points for mentioning the microhistory classic "The Night Watch" as a source. ( )

Heart-wrenching and masterfully written, this and the Lions of Al-Rassan are two Kay books that are always on my re-read shelf. ( )

August 2009.

This is still such a beautiful, beautiful book. This is my first reread, but I can tell you already that it won't be my last. The writing is gorgeous, and the imagery and the politics and the characters are all amazing. The careful laying of the plot, with the different subplots that weave in, like the Carlozzini and Dianora's own plans, is amazing. There are so many points in the book where I found tears coming to my eyes that I don't even know how many times it happened. It's an amazing, amazing book.

One of the things I noticed most this time round is the backstory, the creation of a mythology that hangs around the edges of the story -- provides sanctuary, or is important to one subplot or another, without taking centre stage. Backstory that both enriches the world, the worldbuilding, and serves a purpose, without being pointless or entirely utilitarian.

I also noticed the moral ambiguity that he builds up. Especially in the figure of Brandin, of course, who has done such cruel, terrible things, but has reasons and a kind of nobility of his own and can actually be liked, in some ways. But not just him. Alessan himself isn't amazing either -- although one difference between him and the tyrants is, of course, that though he does use his special power to bind someone to his cause, he does release them to their own free will and does feel a lot of remorse.

The last line of all means that Guy Gavriel Kay probably deserves to go and live in his own special circle of hell. It's an amazing, beautiful ending, and it's so, so cruel.

August 2008.

The very last paragraph makes me want to kill Guy Gavriel Kay. The impact was somewhat spoilt by my mum spoilering me beforehand, but... on the other hand, knowing it was coming hurt more, too.

One thing I definitely have to say is that Guy Gavriel Kay's romance was much better in this book. I never really saw Catriana and Alessan coming, but at the same time, it was understandable and it didn't make me come over all "...no" like Paul and Jaelle in Fionavar did. Dianora and Brandin were delightfully star-crossed.

I loved the little references to Fionavar, too.

The characters I got to love very, very much. Maybe not quite as much as I grew to love the characters in Fionavar. He wasn't quite as ruthless with his characters in Tigana, though, so I didn't test my love of the characters in tears!

Guy Gavriel Kay is one of my favourite authors right now. Really. I don't see that changing any time soon, either. ( )

I found Tigana annoying me so much this time around. Kay's overly ornate way of writing, the way he makes even the simplest of events sound So Deeply Important by the formal way he's writing... But it all came together for me again when I sat down and just read. I fell in awkward, torn love with Alessan, with Brandin, with Catriana, with Dianora, with Baerd. I loved the way people came together, willingly and unwillingly, against the other halves of their hearts. I love how people became whole again, or didn't, and found healing and/or revenge, or...

It's a complex plot, full of complex people, and I love it so much. I'm rereading all of GGK's work in chronological order, to watch his development as a novelist (and for the sheer love of his work, of course), and up to now this has always been my favourite. Right now, I'm not sure where it ranks exactly -- but oh, I do love it.

Reading Kay's afterword and seeing what his influences were is also pretty fascinating. It doesn't surprise me, in retrospect, that Brian Friel's Translations influenced him, even though it seems like a leap from a literary play about language to a fantasy novel that is, on the surface, about the fight against tyranny (but then, those two don't seem so very far apart if you think in Colonial terms). ( )