Francesca Forrest’s Reviews > A Garter as a Lesser Gift > Status Update

I love AGG stories kind of sideways from the way a lot of other fans love them, and I suspect kind of sideways from where AGG's own energies and interests are directed--although I know she does also love the things she writes that are what I love in her books. The last 10% of the story is important for her & for many readers, but although I love the resolution, I'd have preferred less time & energy spent there.

“But you only kept it because you love your life,” Lord Bertilak said: for it was he, for all that his face was still green. “There is no shame in that.”

“What is the point of arranging these tests if you are going to tell me there is no shame in failure!”

“Oh,” Lord Bertilak said. “I did not say that. There is shame in breaking your word: and for that, I winged you.”

And this from earlier, Gawain and the lord talking about mysteries

--but for myself, I like that they always end the same.”
“But they don’t,” objected Gawain. “That is, the detective always figures out who did it, or else it wouldn’t be a mystery—but then he has to decide what to do about it.

--I love it in AGG stories when people discuss film or art or books, and it's a conversation I want to participate in.

--And through that darkness their three voices twined, like skeins of light, as they each sang of oak and ash and ivy; and he heard his voice like a stranger’s voice, and he was singing a song he did not know.

--Lord Bertilak turned bright eyes on Gawain. “Well, how do you like my lady wife?” he asked.

(Right out of a ballad)

-- I’m not successful enough to be modest yet...Wait till I’m an ace, and then I will be humble all over the place.”

More:

--Gawain smiled, and tried not to drowse in the warmth that rose from the six cows, who regarded Gawain with thoughtful long-lashed eyes.

--“No, no. Food is hospitality, not a gift,” Lord Bertilak said.

--The candle threw her shadow long and strange upon the cold stone wall.

--his breath shimmering in the air like smoke.

Another:

--As Gawain left the village he kept an eye out for a dog that might need a thorn removed from its paw, or a hare caught in a trap. But he saw nothing of the kind, and Percy surely would have pointed out that kindness done from conscious motive probably would not help him, anyway.

(This type of thought is one of the things I love in AGG stories)

Some good lines from further on in the story

--For it had come to him that in fairy tales, the young hero often succeeded by showing unexpected kindness; and it was worth a try. But he got only a medieval mural of St. Catherine kneeling bare-breasted before her catherine wheel, painted so high above the church nave that Cromwell’s soldiers had not seen it to whitewash it.

A few lovely lines from the first half:

--The airmen bunched tighter around Gawain, their anger like a fog.

--they fell silent as abruptly as a wireless switched off

--As one body they flinched when the green man’s white teeth sank into the apple’s crisp flesh, the bite as loud as a gunshot.

--The night was cold, with the brisk hard cold that carries no hint of snow.