Customer Reviews

Always

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Nicola Griffith's latest foray into the adventures of Aud Torvingen, independently wealthy ex-cop, is a tightly paced yet contemplative thriller. To call this novel a "thriller" is actually a misnomer, I would more class it as a character study in crime fiction clothing.

Following the events of STAY, where Aud grieved for her lover Julia, Aud returns to readers about seven months later less emotionally paralyzed and ready for business. In this novel, the business is to leave Atlanta for Seattle and meet her new stepfather and mother for the first time as a couple, while investigating the real-estate fraud of a warehouse turned movie studio she owns. She also falls in love with the enigmatic caterer Kick.

Griffith's writing is as crisp and sharp as ever. She has relaxed into Aud's character and the result is comfortable and familiar. The novel alternates between present day Seattle and past Atlanta, where Aud taught self-defense lessons. The two timelines merge seamlessly, and the self-defense chapters are extremely vivid and compelling. I found myself trying out a proper fist as I read them. At times, I enjoyed the self-defense chapters more than the present day storyline. Griffith's descriptions were so detailed and comprehensive that I had no trouble visualizing the women in their lessons.

I was delighted to spend more time with Aud, but I have a few quibbles. Personally, I loved STAY deeply and grew used to, even attached to, Aud's intense and explosive grief. In this novel, we find her emotional state much closer to "normal," ala the icy superhero we first met in THE BLUE PLACE, but Julia's death has caused her to be more open to love and more vulnerable.

That character shift, from sharply realized grief to growing acceptance, is a little jarring. I would have appreciated a little more acknowledgment of Julia as Aud encounters her new love interest, a few lines to show that Aud still carries Julia with her even as she moves on. But that's a fault of picking up seven months after STAY's close. Grief, and time, changes everything.

Nicola Griffith is an author whom I read, not because her characters are layered and fascinating (though they are,) nor because the pacing and plotting are tight and well muscled (though of course they are,) but simply because there is a beauty, an elegant simplicity to her words as they flow together on the page.

Aud does with body and motion what Griffith does with phrasing and timing: strike precisely, cleanly, with just the correct amount of force to achieve the desired result. Whatever that result might be.

"Always" does not disappoint in this regard. As lean and lithe as a predator, it gives the impression of being simple stream of consciousness narrative. You live in Aud's thoughts as she does what she does, without apology, without explanation (unless she is explaining it to herself.)

What is completely hidden is Griffith's hand, invisible in the face of the work itself. The underlying structure, the bones of the work, endless hours of exertion... of putting your soul on the page for anyone to see, to touch.

This is a masterwork, well worth the price of admission.

As ever, I adore Nicola Griffith's work.

I won't spoil the plot, but one of the best things about this set of books is watching Aud change and grow over time. She's had an eventful few years, and several things begin to move into position so that she can begin a new phase of life - I love that the author left things as beginnings instead of making them endings. This book is quite obviously a chapter in Aud's life instead of a close-ended tv episode - things continue to influence her in this book that began before, and things that begin here will continue or resolve later.

In this third outing with the inimitable Aud Torvingen, Nicola Griffith tries a new organizational approach that, unfortunately, stumbles a bit. Still, even with its minor flaws, "Always" is a masterpiece of fiction, filled with action, romance, drama, angst, sex, and mystery.

The structure of this book is less like the earlier Aud books ("The Blue Place" and "Stay," both highly recommended), and more like the standalone "Slow River" (also highly recommended). The story is told in two parallel timelines: one in the weeks leading up to Aud's trip to Seattle, and one in the trip itself. This can be a bit confusing at the outset until you get used to the alternating chapter sequence, but that's not the biggest problem with this structure. The real problem is that one of the sequences - a series of self-defense classes taught by Aud, which ultimately have unintended (but not unforeseeable, at least to the reader) consequences - is, to put it bluntly, rather boring. Over the course of 16 chapters (coinciding with each of the 16 lessons) the reader will learn far more than she bargained for about women's self-defense. Now, on the plus side, Ms. Griffith certainly knows her stuff. But that's also the negative here, too - we get pages and pages of excruciating detail, describing the exact position for a head-lock or a kick, that do nothing for the story. I admit, I found myself skimming long passages in these chapters, waiting to get back to the real action. Compounding the problem is the sheer number of characters we're asked to keep track of in these sections. There are simply too many women in this class to keep them all straight. Several of them could easily have been combined - Nina and Paulette, for instance, or Jennifer and Tonya - into a single character, making it easier for us to focus on the important hints being dropped about the ultimate tragedy about to ensue - hints all but lost in descriptions of how to hit someone when you have long nails, are carrying a bag full of groceries, have brown hair, and it's a Tuesday.

But, lest you think the entire book a disappointment, let me reassure you that the weakness in these flashback sequences is more than made up for by the "main" part of the story, set in Seattle. Aud and Dornan have travelled there for a variety of reasons, including meeting Aud's new stepfather. But the big reason, and the one that provides Aud with the most butt-kicking opportunity, is that someone is sabotaging work on a movie production that happens to be taking place on real estate Aud owns. The idea is to shut down production, force them to default on their lease, and then encourage Aud to sell the property cheaply as part of a rezoning scam. Only Nicola Griffith could get action and suspense from real estate law, but there you go. Naturally, Aud takes offense at the crude attempts to manipulate her, so she Takes Steps to find the perpetrator.

But of course, despite her attempts to remain cool and aloof, our dashing heroine must, must fall in love. It's no secret anymore that despite what Aud wants us all to think, at heart she's a huge softy and a desperate romantic. In "Blue Place" there was Julia, in "Stay" there was Luz (OK, not a love interest per se, but who doesn't realize she's fallen hard for the kid - except Aud herself, maybe). Here, there's Kick, a former stunt woman who's now doing catering. Naturally, Aud falls in love at first sight. Theirs is a rocky romance, full of secrets and misunderstandings, but it's sweet and sexy and, frankly, feels more authentic to me than Aud and Julia's relationship ever did. I'm looking forward to more of Kick in future books.

Fans of Nicola Griffith and her alter-ego Aud Torvingen will find plenty to enjoy in this new book. While not the strongest in the series, it is nevertheless a fantastic novel, striking a perfect balance between hard-bitten action and soft-hearted romance. Like Aud herself, there is more here than meets the eye, and I eagerly anticipate more from this utterly unique and fascinating heroine.

This author's writing blows me away. She has a way with words that I think is exquisite. I happened upon The Blue Place, and liked it so much I followed it with Stay and Always. I would recommmend her books to
any and all readers. I have not yet read Ammonite becaus SciFi is not a
genre I enjoy, but because she wrote it, I intend to try it.

Norwegian Aud Torvingen was born into a life of wealth and privilege. The former police officer gives back to the community by teaching women self-defense. The new women in her latest course cross all social and financial lines so that a southern society belle is on an even footing with a housewife. The women savor each other's triumphs until one day one of them has to put into practice what she learned.

After dealing with officials following the woman's act, Aud flies to Seattle where she owns property that she must clean up as her property manager violated OSHA and EPA rules. The woman was stealing from Aud's account pretending to fix things while pocketing the money and forcing tenants to move out quickly. Aud tries to buy land on either side of her warehouse. Her warehouse is currently rented by a movie company that is plagued by incidents threatening to bankrupt the company. As Aud cleans up the mess caused by fraud, she finds the perfect person for her, but obstacles stand in their way.

As ALWAYS Nicola Griffith provides a classic noir heroine who sees herself as strong and capable. ALWAYS is as much a crime thriller as it is a woman coming to terms with her vulnerabilities making for a deep character study of the self-assured lead female and to a degree the support cast. Aud is terrific as she recognizes her shortcoming of gullibility, but plans to correct her error personally while still trusting those deserving of it. The two separate subplots rotate chapters with Aud the furious female fury as the link to a fine character-driven thriller.

Harriet Klausner

"You're a sensualist, a hedonist of the first order," Kick tells Aud, right near the end of the book, and you know then that Kick has Aud's number. For all of her expediency, efficiency, and near-Terminator ability to assess and nuetralize danger, Aud Torvingen is a creature as much a slave of her body as she is a master of it. Aud has herself convinced that she is fully in control, and a creature of intellect. She relies on and revels in her formidable deductive skills, and is even disappointed when antagonists and circumstances fall short of her expectations. Throughout this trilogy, however, Nicola Griffith has shown Aud to also be a woman who enjoys her body, through martial arts or eating delicous food or taking the body to the bar for a quick dusting off of the ol' cobwebs.

Always is the third book in a trilogy starring Aud Torvingen, an aloof, physically dangerous woman in Atlanta. What started in The Blue Place as a standard detective noir, complete with trouble spelled with a capital "T" walking into the office, evolved into one of the most sensual reading experiences I ever had, which continued on through the next book, Stay.

In The Blue Place, I became involved with Aud's mind: neatly detached, but able to conjure up the atmosphere of her surroundings. I never met a travel book as persuasive as Griffith's novel, almost convincing me to visit Norway despite by abherrence to cold weather.

In Stay, I learned how Aud could use her methodical mind to break herself away from society, and, like a certain protaganist from Hemingway's "Big Two Hearted River", use the action of living a simplified, almost rustic life to seperate herself from her pain. Despite her attempts to isolate herself, Aud is drawn back to society, and humanity. It's not in her nature to disengage, despite her aloof attitude, but to over-engage and think more into a situation than most people.

The double story line in Always serves the purpose of making the ending and beginning believable. The plots mirror each other, while at the same time providing an introduction and closure to each storyline. Despite throwing in this new device that gives us a stronger grasp of how history affects Aud's decisions, the plot is a little flat, lacking the dynamite of true tension to keep you emotionally engaged.

I feel as if Always is the book that Griffith had been waiting forever to write, and found the opportunity finally in her third book featuring Aud. The novel features quite prominently two subjects near and personal to her heart: multiple sclerosis and self-defense (though not together in a strange meld-y way ^_^). Her personal connection to these two aspects of the two main characters made research no doubt a snap, but it also stunted her plot. Make no mistake: these two subjects were actually the best written areas of the book, from the growing escalation of the self-defense classes to the foregone violent climax to the nearly opposite direction Aud must take to navigate Kick's situation. The rest of the book, however, to put it in a word, lacked. Perhaps the fact that Aud has money, and in Seattle, could toss it around willy-nilly, made the dramatic tension lessened, as opposed to the wilds of Norway. Real estate scams are kind of inherently boring, despite Aud's awesome sleuthing. Also, Aud cares about what happens to the movie set because she cares about Kick, but I feel that she, and the reader, are never really invested emotionally in the fate of the studio and the people in it. I might be missing something important, maybe some big moment for Aud where she starts to bury her apathy that borders on misanthropy, but if so, it was a such a subtle moment that most probably wouldn't get it.

That being said, I still liked the book. Kick was a good addition, a strong enough character to contend with a ghost. It is in Kick that Aud finds her mirror, and her match. A woman who knows her own body, and is at home within it and her surroundings. And like Aud, Kick has some issues that are sensitive enough that, when twinged, she lashes out in pain. And super kudos for using the word "Ware", as in "beware", broken down to its component parts. Griffith has a love of the English language that permeates her paragraphs and gives the words taste in my mouth as well as images in my head. I will continue to read anything she writes, and I also follow her blog, [...].

On a final note, the cover art is very... interesting. Eschewing traditional ideas about how to fill in the space, the fist is coming at the reader, and it's pushed to the right of center. The bright purple cover color and bright green/yellow title suggest content more pulp-y than it contains. What I found most interesting is how it compares to the first two novels' covers. The Blue Place features a woman, presumably Aud, sitting quite comfortably sprawled, looking to the side. The image has the illusion of being much more wide than tall, narrowing our focus as well as suggesting that we are missing something important outside of the scene, especially as the image is cut off at strong angles. Stay has another interrupted image, this time of only the lower half of a woman's face, gradually disappating as you move to the side. The fist on the cover of Always, however, is coming towards the foreground, as if to engage you. I can almost see a story within the images themselves. Thoughts?

Griffith can write. She is not terribly prolific, and I forget how engrossing her books are in between publishings. This novel will take you on a trip with her characters, and you'll live every moment with them.

I loved this book! Although I kind of feel like it is a quilty read, being a New Thought, we are all one kind of person, this book is very empowering to women! The story line is very believable. But the part I like the most is the "How to Defend Yourself" in any situation information. Since it is fiction, you get the information in a very interesting way but it stays with you and there is a happy ending!

Nicola Griffith tells the story of Aud Torvingen, self-defense teacher and private body-guard, hit-type person, who is evolving into someone she doesn't recognize. This book is for folks who enjoy the dark side a little and human evolution.

It is a great book. I really enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone.

I've enjoyed every one of Nicola Griffith's books, and this is her finest yet -- rich and subtle and a joy to read. Aud is, as ever, incomparable. Oh so highly recommended.