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Garment of Shadows
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Garment of Shadows by Laurie R. King - VBC October 2012
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As I begin a leisurely rereading of Garment of Shadows, I'm impressed with the appropriateness of the title in ways I didn't notice initially. On my first reading, I simply enjoyed the beauty of the opening verse attributed to Rumi: ". . . I . . . Long for the night to come, /The night with its garment of shadows /And eyes of stars." The first shadows we encounter, however, are not longed for: the absence of Russell where Holmes expected to find her and Russell's waking to a shadowed world of lost memory. Shadows on the wall also denoted for Russell the passage of time.As snatches of memory return to Russell, it's fun to identify the source. The first is from OJER when she awakened in the attic room after the auto accident and Holmes' capture.
Ah. And then we are presented with a Russell who knows but cannot see, cannot understand either what or how she knows the things she does. We are all thrown into a turmoil and set loose upon this exotic city which would overwhelm the senses of any individual...(a man, in a heavy fog, explaining the phenomenon)
I thought it was great fun to "watch" Russell discover her various talents. For me the beginning of the book was exciting as we were learning about Russell's location as she was. When Holmes started looking for her the book hit another level as we see his concern rise and the steps he goes through to find his Russell. When they come together it is another layer, how much does she remember, can she accept Holmes as her husband, how will she react if this memory loss continues. I think I was as relieved as Holmes when she started to put pieces of her past together.Then the book ramped up the tension when we learn Mahmoud is missing and his disappearance seems to be tied to Russell. For me that is when the book became a page-turner. I wanted to see how an injured and still somewhat fuzzy Russell would partner with Holmes and how together they would stop a war and find a friend.
I need to do a leisurely read of the final version as I read this in manuscript and then as an ARC. The basic story never changed, but the layering of nuance and the smoothing out of some bumpy spots changed the book from the MS to the ARC.
Alice, the final version works wonders with some wrinkles in the conclusion that were still present in the ARC.In my leisurely rereading I have savored the description of Russell's making her way through the Fez medina. Not since the description in GAME of travels in India on the Great Trunk Road have I read descriptions that so vividly invoked all the senses. My sister had a trip to Morocco not so long ago. She said that in the Fez medina they absolutely clung to their guide because they were sure that on their own they would never find their way out.
Be sure to check out the photos of Fez and Morocco on Laurie's website.
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I wish I had realized that before I handed off my newly purchased hardcover copy to my grandma to read (and I think it's now making it's way around the family and I'll probably not see it again until Thanksgiving :-P)!
Context was sublime- great place, smell, sound, taste, texture descriptors- maybe LRK should go travel more often for these memoirs, hmm? ;) Echo the love for Russell's rediscovery of her skills- how disturbingly fascinating, to learn how deadly one can be. (Has echoes of the Bourne story.) Also love Holmes' line about approaching Russell....snort-worthy. (Natch.)
I want to read it again for more depth, and possibly need a re-read of OJER and JUST, for good measure, background, and more context. And jolly good fun. :)
Sara wrote: "Context was sublime- great place, smell, sound, taste, texture descriptors- maybe LRK should go travel more often for these memoirs, hmm?"I'm hoping we will be treated to a trip to Japan to discover what happened on the way to San Francisco and LOCK.
I've enjoyed my second reading even more than the first; and although I purposed OJER as our September book, I've found even more affinities than I had expected.
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http://pinterest.com/laurierking/
Hope you like them--I sure enjoyed having the chance to take them!
Laurie
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Laurie said at the GARM launch that she'll be working on that Russell in Japan story next year! She's working on Touchstone #2 right now, to be released next fall; and then Russell #13 in Japan should be out in 2014.
I've just started reading, so I'm not very far into it. The opening chapters with Russell in the Medina are fascinating as she makes her way, discovering food, money, her talents, languages, people, etc.I'm reading the audio version and I'm a little thrown by the two different narrators. We have been so admirably served by Jenny Sterlin all these years. She's read all the books even the parts where they are separated and we have things from Holmes' point-of-view, and I'm not sure I like having a second voice now. I know Robert Ian MacKenzie read B4B, so possibly people are used to him, but I haven't read that yet, so it's completely new to me.
Any other thoughts on the audio narrators?
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GARM easily makes my top three favorite, er maybe five... OK, I like them all, but I really like Holmes and Russell in foreign settings. There were so many great one-liners and scenes in GARM. Like Holmes' idiotic conversation with the thugs. I could go on and on naming specific scenes, but I'll just bring up two points to start off:
1) This was my first time reading an ARC, and it was so interesting to see the little changes between ARC and final publishing. It's pretty amazing how small tweaks can change a story, make it clearer, or change the tone. I noticed a few additions to the final published book that added either depth or new insights to the story. So it was educational for me!
2) The amnesia plot line. A few weeks before I received my ARC, a neighbor was discussing helmet safety with me, because he saw that I didn't make my kids wear a helmet while riding their barbie scooters (bad mother that I am). Anyway, he was a BMX rider who didn't wear a helmet and had a pretty bad fall, which gave him a bad concussion, and temporary amnesia. Apparently he couldn't remember where he lived or who the strange woman was who lived with him. He said it cleared up in about a week.
So when I started reading GARM, I thought to myself... wow, this really could happen! I thought the amnesia plot was handled well, and wondered if Laurie did any research on amnesia.
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And Sara, I hadn't even thought of the echos of Bourne! Now I want to read it again with that in mind. I loved the Bourne movies; and his amnesia never struck me as odd at all...hmmm.
Sabrina, the amnesia information is interesting. I had wondered if other cases of head-trauma amnesia followed the course of Russell's.In reading GARM I've become fascinated with this part of the world and its history. I was unfamiliar with the term Maghreb and discover that traditionally it has referred to Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, and Libya, but now also includes Mauritania. My memory of the history of the region was akin to 1066 and All That, what one remembers from school of the history of England. My memory came mainly from Latin classes: the Punic Wars, Hannibal crossing the Alps with elephants, and Cato standing up every day in the Roman senate saying, "Carthage must be destroyed."
We all seem to have the same questions about amnesia. Laurie, if you get a moment to comment, did you (as you appear virtually always to do) do research on amnesia, and can you point us toward what you read?
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Yeah, it was one of those completely random coincidence moments where you go... Huh, cool. IDK though, with all these head injuries maybe Russell should start wearing a helmet when she's on a case... or just walking around. ;D
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In reading GARM I've become fascinated with this part of the..."
I really enjoyed the historical parts too. I had no prior historical knowledge of the area, and it made me want to read up on it.
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I like that Russell was able to see past her friendship with Mahmoud to see the deeper conspiracy, and I think it was even mentioned that she was probably only able to do that because of her amnesia, which made her start nearly from scratch.
I feel like the same is going on with Mycroft. We know Russell has good instincts, so it makes you wonder about the level of unease she has towards Mycroft. It's definitely something Holmes would be blind too since he's too close to his brother.
Sabrina wrote: "...And also in PIRA, wasn't there a sentence which mentioned that they were wondering where Mycroft was?"You've reminded me of something that had been bothering me but that I forgot when discussion of the book began. It was very odd that Holmes could not find Mycroft in PIRA, because we know from Canon that Mycroft goes virtually nowhere except his flat, his office, and his club (and, since the revelation in GOTH, occasional outings with Mrs. Melas). Given that limited number of possibilities, why couldn't Holmes find him? I expected that to be answered in GARM, but it wasn't even touched upon.
I am sort of disappointed to find Mycroft being turned into a bad guy -- or, at least, a morally ambiguous guy. I suppose it's childish of me, but I liked it better when Russell could see him, as she once said, as "sea-green incorruptible" and a "fixed point in [her] universe."
I have really liked Mycroft too as a source of information and help and as a place of refuge. In GOTH I thought Russell was rather naive and rigid in seeing his use of funds that needed to disappear as embezzlement. In GARM, however, if the order to assassinate Abd el-Krim came from Mycroft, he is supporting ruthless policies that both Britain and the U.S. have followed in putting our economic well being ahead of the welfare of the people whose governments we manipulated. I'm thinking particularly of our support of oppressive dictatorships in the interest of stability. GARM is set at the beginning of the disintegration of colonialism and when misgiving were arising about European decisions about the fate of the Middle East.
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About the amnesia: yes, you know me well, I research everything. But interestingly, this is one of the areas I didn't take seventeen dozen books from the library about. I started online, where I found a number of highly detailed stories, case histories, and discussion groups, all of which boiled down to: there are as many sides to amnesia as there are amnesiacs. Brains react to trauma in many different ways. Some people regain memory quickly, others never. Many always have gray areas in their recall. Certain kinds of memory don't tend to disappear--education seems to be stored in a different place in the brain than personal history, for example, as Russell finds. Skills, particularly those with body memory, are there for the discovery, even if the person can't remember how they came to have those skills. So considering that everyone's experience is unique, and that for a 1924 book there was point to the medical details of the injury, I had no need to burden my back with library visits.
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That conflict between altruism and self-service is so interesting. Or is it self-preservation? Is working to maintain stability considered preservation of one's lifestyle? Or does trying to preserve your style of life come across as something less honorable and thus self-serving?
And then, how does that extend to government? It always seems like, despite the fact that they are made up of people, governments don't have the same moral compass or (acknowledged) obligation that people would if they were making a decision by themselves.
That's one thing I've never really understood about colonialism. I feel like it's one thing to remotely manipulate another group for economic gain, but totally different when you're actually interacting with them. Like turning a blind eye to oppression if it's all rumor to you would probably be easier to self-justify, but you'd have to be a lot more hard-hearted to physically be there and still ignore it.
But then again, as we see with Lyautey, the people on the ground seem often to form more of a connection with the people/culture/country they are living in than the government giving the directions.
Erin, these are very perceptive insights. I think governments often feel they have a mandate to protect their national interests without regard to he human suffering caused to other peoples or the best interests of other nations. On the other hand, goverments can act in a very altruistic way to help other nations as the U.S. has often done.I've found face-to-face contact to be more caring than organizational actions. The big exception is when people of another race, class, religion, ethnic group, or even gender are considered "not us" and regarded as less than human. Years ago I head a police officer say that rape is natural and not a big concern, but male homosexual contact is unnatural and must be stamped out. Many British writers describe their people as a rather snobbish lot. I expect that had a sounder basis in the past than in the present.
I was in a book group this afternoon in which some others had read GARM. Comments ranged from one who said, "I skipped all the history and description parts and just got on with the story." Another said, "Its a good book, but I'm ready to leave Morocco." Then there I was, almost always fascinated by history and description and searching the internet for more about the region.
"Then there I was, almost always fascinated by history and description and searching the internet for more about the region. ..."Everyone's taste is so different, isn't it, Pat? I'm just glad you are one of "us," the group that loves detail, history, and superb writing. I think we are the "coooool kids." LOL
I too enjoy the history and vivid description, and I can't wait for Japan! :)
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About the amnesia: yes, you know me well, I research everything. But interestingly, this is one of the areas I didn't take seventeen dozen books from t..."
Thanks for the quick response along with some interesting information, Laurie!
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Colonization and such is a debate that is still going on today. It was mentioned in GARM that the Moroccans viewed the French with mixed feelings, because if I remember correctly, there were many positive things that the French had done for their country, like building roads and a port.
As far as Mycroft goes: he's completely loyal to the Crown, and his job is to safeguard Britain (seems like that anyway). I think he'd get along with Spock and the philosophy that 'the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few' or in this case, Britain.
In his eyes, sending two agents to assassinate the Abd el-Krim brothers was probably the simplest way to avoid further bloodshed. And he likely saw them as little more than terrorists.
It was even mentioned that the Berber culture was centered around bloodshed: a boy was not considered a man until he killed someone. Ali and Mahmoud are ruthless themselves. We know they have no qualms about torturing people for information, and who knows how many people they killed while fighting with Abd el-Krim's men.
The more that I think on it... Russell's distaste seems to stem from Governments in general. And as it was pointed out, she was naive to think that someone with so much power in a government would not have blood on his hands.
I might be way off with this, but the whole situation sort of reminds me of a child who idolizes their father. As that child grows they realize that their father has done things that they find difficult to associate with their loving father: such as killing another. It is unsettling to discover that someone who you trust is capable of such violence. Eventually you come to terms with it, as Russell will probably come to terms with Mycroft and accept him as a necessary lesser of two evils.
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Yes! I'm finally part of the cool kids.
Sabrina, you make good observations. I realize that I was thinking of the assassination of the Abd el-Krim brothers as merely a way to avoid possible inconvenience or added expense for British shipping. But it is true that their deaths might have meant less bloodshed. For whatever it unleashed in the world, the dropping of the atomic bomb saved a great many lives, both American and Japanese, that would have resulted from an invasion of Japan. However, I can't condone the dropping of the second bomb on Nagasaki. In a very imperfect world, ethics certainly conflicts with expediency and with the hard choices those in power must make.
PatF wrote: "...However, I can't condone the dropping of the second bomb on Nagasaki..."It is not so clear that the Japanese would have surrendered without the second bomb. Even after the second bomb AND the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, there was substantial resistance to surrender. When Hirohito ordered the war council to surrender, there was an attempted coup d'état. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrende... . Without the second bomb, would the would-be resisters have had more support, and possibly dragged the war on? Hard to say. I don't pretend to know, but it makes me less critical of the decision to drop the second bomb.
Lenore, thanks for the link. I was speaking from my memories of the time when I was a fifteen-year-old pacifist. We did not know this background--or I as a teenager didn't read as deeply as I might have as an adult.
I have to wonder, as Mycroft is a completely devious gent, whether he especially sent the Hazr brothers with the "assassination" orders knowing they would find their target too congenial and work out another solution. They are too valuable a resource for simple search and destroy covert ops.
Mary wrote: "I have to wonder, as Mycroft is a completely devious gent, whether he especially sent the Hazr brothers with the "assassination" orders knowing they would find their target too congenial and work out another solution."I like the way you think, Mary. Russell has likened Mycroft's brain to Russian nesting dolls, something else always inside of what is presented, complex, or wheels within wheels. I certainly wouldn't be surprised if his motivation was to put the Hazr's in a position where they would have to find alternative solutions. Although the Hazr's may now be totally rogue and I don't think that would have been Mycroft's ultimate goal. He would have had an end game solution of his own to bring them back into the fold...as you say, they are too valuable a resource. Now you have my mind wheeling over whether or not Mycroft was playing a very convoluted game here.
Mary wrote: "I have to wonder, as Mycroft is a completely devious gent, whether he especially sent the Hazr brothers with the "assassination" orders knowing they would find their target too congenial and work o..."Oh, you ARE a deviously clever person yourself!
Mary wrote: "I have to wonder, as Mycroft is a completely devious gent, whether he especially sent the Hazr brothers with the "assassination" orders knowing they would find their target too congenial and work o..."Shortly after I read Mary's comment, I went to take a nap, but my subconscious apparently stayed up. When I awoke, it was with the question: WAS it Mycroft's order?
We know that Mycroft became ill in December 1923. In GOTH, pp. 303-04, he says:
My illness came at a bad time. Decisions were being made with great rapidity last December, after the election but before Labor took over....
I lost two key months to illness. When I was fit enough to resume work in February, I thought at first the changes around me were due to the new régime....
...But when I returned to my office, it was nearly impossible to sift rumour from fact and policy from gossip. I felt there was something awry, I sensed a leak and a degree of manipulation, but everything had been overturned all around me, and in any case, the interference was very subtly done.
Now compare this to what Ali tells us in GARM, pp. 66-67. You will remember that the events of JUST wound up in December 1923. After the party at Justice Hall to welcome the new Duke, the family celebrates Christmas in London, and Marsh and Ali disappear again.
A year ago...Mahmoud and I left England, fully intending to return to Palestine for good. We took our time, stopping two weeks in Paris. Mahmoud--Marsh--wanted to talk with Iris.
...
We nearly made it. We were waiting at the docks in Marseille when Mycroft's telegram caught us up, and sent us to Morocco instead.
...
...So in February of this year, Mahmoud and I saddled a pair of fine horses and headed up into the Rif out of Tangier, to sell some guns.
But we know that between the end of December, when the Hazrs left England, and February, when they began to act on the instructions of the telegram, Mycroft was not at work and not sending telegrams! Peter James West, however...
If I have the timeline correct, I cannot see how killing Abd-el-Krim could have been Mycroft's plan.
Great detective work Mary and Lenore!
Excellent analysis Lenore-I forgot about the dates here.
Brilliant, Lenore. That may explain everything and further point out how disruptive Russell's choice to let Goodman kill West was to the British government. Mycroft couldn't countermand, change or otherwise fix things set into motion by West if West left no trail, which he would be very careful not to do, being someone playing a very covert game.
Well done, Lenore! That was precisely what I was thinking as I read the book!
One thing bothers me about my explanation: If I'm right, why didn't Holmes catch the discrepancy when Ali told him how and when they'd come to Morocco? He does occasionally overlook things, but ...
Well, Holmes was a bit preoccupied.
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I know that Laurie has said in the past that she doesn't plan out books... but it seems her subconscious has been busy writing a big ol' Mycroft book (pun intended).
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Erin, I think you will find a reread of GOTH rewarding. I must confess that I dislike LANG except for Russell's plane trip and the ending in Orkney because I find Brothers so repugnant and Damian's wife a foolish and totally unsympathetic character. On the other hand GOTH is one of my favorites. I especially love Estelle and hope we will hear more about her sometime and find Robert Goodman a wonderful creation. I find most of Laurie's books get even better on rereading.
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Did anyone else love Russell's bullfight with a motorcar?
I can't remember the exact quote, but the mention again in this book of plays that "sacrifice the queen" make me wonder who is really doing what with what intentions. Setting aside (for the moment) Lenore's brilliant timeline analysis and assuming that it was Mycroft who sent them (he did return to work in "February" and that was when Ali and Mahmoud got the orders to go to Morocco), was this another sacrifice? Was Mycroft willing to sacrifice the loyalty of Ali and Mahmoud to get to where he wanted Britain to be in Morocco?
So many questions and this kind of complexity is something I love about these books. They really stand up to re-reading.
Regan wrote: "...Mycroft...did return to work in "February" and that was when Ali and Mahmoud got the orders to go to Morocco..."No, according to Ali (pp. 66-67), February was when, having arrived in Morocco from Tangier and obtained horses to ride and arms to sell, they started up into the Rif mountains. If after leaving England before Christmas they spent two weeks in Paris with Iris, they arrived in Marseille no later than mid-January. Even then, it was only a one-day train ride from Paris to Marseille. If you surf around the Internet a bit, you will learn that, in those days predating the universality of air travel, there was a LOT of ship traffic between Marseille and the Levant, so it is unlikely they spent more than a few days awaiting a ship before receiving the telegram. And it would have taken some time for the Hazrs to get to Tangier and obtain arms in sufficient quantities to sell. "Mycroft's" telegram had to have caught them in January, when he was still not at work.
I'm not saying you're wrong, just that there's still some wriggle room in there. I don't know exactly when they left England (I don't remember what JUST says. Was it absolutely before Christmas?). And they could have spent time elsewhere in France or on the continent before heading to Marseille. All I'm saying is that it's possible that Mycroft returned to work in early February, catches A & M in Marseille and that by the end of the month they were arms sellers in the Rif.We may have to wait many years to have all these complications sorted out by Laurie – if ever.
Given that it's possible the telegram really was from Mycroft, then what was his real aim and how far was he willing to go?
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Regan wrote: "Given that it's possible the telegram really was from Mycroft, then what was his real aim and how far was he willing to go? "
It leads me to wonder how many undercover agents Mycroft has. We know Holmes had a list of something like five possible places he and Russell could have gone on that boat in BEEK, and presumably all of those places had operatives.
Obviously, if you are in a position of power, you don't want to lose any of your pieces, but I can't help thinking that losing two people probably wouldn't be that big a deal to Mycroft's organization. Especially if they gain something in the loss.
