Judith Ivory

November 2024 read: I have 40 pages of hand-written notes and I would like to someday share these coherently

April 2024 read: I am not who I once was. I feel as though a wave crashed over me; as though I was dissolved into molecules, my essence taken apart and reassembled into who I am now. This is all very dramatic but it is also true: I am made whole by the existence of this work of art.

September 2023 read: I started browsing, just looking for some quotes and ended up reading it all again. show more It's just so good I could cry about it.

July 2023 read: "Just two messy, stupid human beings."

April 2023, second read: fuck this book is amazing. I was more tuned into Submit during this read. I loved her immediately when I first read Black Silk, but this time I felt like I saw her from the POV of other characters who also love her. People kind of just fall under her thrall and I GET IT. Also, Graham Wessit, in frustration, telling Submit she fucks people with her mind is the hottest (possibly unintended) compliment I have ever read in my life.

March 2023 read:
Do I have thoughts that are clearer now that the book has been within me for a short while? No. I do not. I am in a haze; uncoordinated. I made over 200 highlights and countless notes and my heart expands with the fullness of this book. I cannot stop thinking about this passage late in the book - about a woman Graham once knew - and it feels apt to share and revisit:

[
. “ . . . the small vase with its Etruscan lines. Simple, but pure and beautiful at heart. As an odd postscript, the same little vase had recently made its way back into Graham’s possession. Jim had given over the lot of Margaret’s things to the local church when she’d died (of unknown causes, in her sleep) just the previous year. The vase had been among these articles when the church had had its annual fair. Graham had purchased it for a third its value. He was rather touched to find it was among her “personal things.” Her husband Jim did not remember where it had come from. . .

People missed things. People didn’t notice; people didn’t care. People’s own misperceptions made black into white, made grey into whatever they wanted it to be. Graham began to think it was all fiction. Life was much less fixed than people imagined it to be. Then the thought of Margaret brought him back. She was a fixed point, someone he felt he had known, though briefly, truly well.”
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for me and my life, Black Silk has become a demarcation and I am living in the after of this book.
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Initial response: I have been flattened, bowed by the excellence of this book. It was a surrender I did not anticipate enjoying so thoroughly. I may have more thoughts later although what even are thoughts at this point? I experienced.
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Many CWs, please take care before reading: death by suicide (MMC's father dies by suicide after killing the MMC's mother - this happens off page but is referred to a few times and another character dies by suicide), infant death, young child death, miscarriage, death during pregnancy, infant illness, frequent alcohol consumption, on-page sex, arranged marriage between 16 year old and 59 year old, revenge porn, infidelity, absentee father show less

Someone somewhere on the Internet listed Judith Ivory’s Black Silk as one of their personal Best Books Evar! So I decided to give it a shot, even though it doesn’t have Navy SEALs…

Yes. This is one of the best romance novels I have ever read.

Everything you expect from a romance novel is turned on it’s head; everything you think is necessary in a hero/heroine is missing. Familiar characters - the rake, the widow, the scheming bastard son, are all rounded and fleshed out beyond show more expectations. Actions unfold slowly and with great care. Ivory pays an exquisite amount of attention to language, description, characterization.. even at the expense of plot and likability.

Graham, were he transported to the 21st century, would basically be a “Bro” in an Apatow knockoff. Rich, smart, and utterly wasting his life in the pursuit of idleness. A fuck-up. In fact, an ugly fuck-up, for being so blithe about it. Ivory manages to make the reader see what a “rake” truly is— the waste of potential, and yet also the joy in being eternally adolescent and carefree.

And the widow? Her name is Submit, which really made me doubt I could get two pages into the book… And then? AND THEN? She is everything unexpected - a child bride who actually truly loved her old, rich husband; a unique character who is not swept away by Graham but instead recognizes him for all of his failings.

Their romance is stuttered, cut short, or delayed for most of the book. They misunderstand each other, ignore each other, and fight each other. However, unlike many other books, I was not exhausted by this. Instead, I was invested and cared. These weren’t “Too Stupid To Live” moments where basic logic/self-awareness is sacrificed for dramatic tension. Both of these characters had to be redeemed, both of them have to change before they could reach any kind of happy ending.

I really enjoyed, most of all, Ivory’s prose. She is lyrical without that sense of grasping at straws I sometimes feel from other, less skilled authors. She also is not afraid to write intelligently, with nice, big multi-syllabic words I don’t often see in genre fiction (“inchoate” and “sybarite” were my favs).

I would give it five stars except that there were a few sacrifices to the plot that I did not like. Characters that show up to ratchet up the tension and then nicely dissipate when not needed are wasted characters to me. Four of five stars show less

I read this as a buddy read, for quotes, comments, and discussion: Bliss Buddy Read

"Dis non."

I am wrung out from reading this, I quoted and talked a lot in the buddy read, so I'm going to let that for the most part talk for what I thought about this book.

This was published in 1995, it has a bit of different rhythm to it. The heroine and hero are solidly introduced on their own and their characters are established before they meet (around 35% mark), this completely worked for me and if you're show more looking for depth to your characters that creates an incredibly emotional story, then it will work for you too.

These characters weren't perfect, our hero is addicted to ether, has some struggles with not being the "hot, talented artist" anymore and our heroine is escaping a reputation that gave her a nickname "Miss Seven Minutes in Heaven" and wants a romantic easy life in Paris. It was the underlining truth to these emotions and characters that will have me thinking about these characters for a long, long time.

It was passages like this:
In the musty dark of the attic, Hannah felt heartened at last. And so very impressed with the real Nardi de Saint Vallier. He might not be a prince, but he was heroic: a man ready to face his nemesis, all that had worn him down before. Better than the fancy trousers and pretty coats that had once impressed her, this man had a magnificent fortitude.
that had me absorbed.

The author brilliantly interweaves societal issues and family dynamics through characters' thoughts and actions; these characters were not perfect but they grew.

Secondary characters had me desperately wanting a Director's Cut of the book so I could get a more thorough look at them.

If you can find this book, grasp it with both hands, I've rarely read a book that had such amazing depth to emotions. Read this, read this, read this (then go the buddy read and comment so I can talk about this book more and for years to come :)

"You should know, Hannah, that I would marry you over and over, as many times as it takes to make the world see I love you." show less

I'm a fan of the My Fair Lady story line and I especially love that Winnie was just an incredibly smart lady, but found that her push-and-pull with Mick went on just a bit too long. I could understand her hesitation, and had a great deal of empathy, but her transition came a little late in the story. Also, the extreme fairytale-ness of the ending was just too unbelievable. And they all lived happily ever after? I don't think so. I had to drop my rating a bit for it. I love rags-to-riches show more stories, like, a lot a lot, but just couldn't handle this one.

ETA: I take it about about not being able to handle the ending. The epilogue def makes it too pat, but I really like this story. show less