Customer Reviews

Stay

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The subtitle of Nicola Griffith's new book, Stay, is "a novel," but the cover illustration and flap copy suggest the usual ho-hum noir tale: an ex-cop PI riddled with grief and guilt over the death of a lover hiding in the woods to avoid the world, who, big surprise, is called back by a friend to find his missing girlfriend. Been there, done that I thought. But by the end of the first paragraph (woods as waterfall? a quinquireme of Ninevah?!), the subtitle started to make sense. By the time I reached chapter two, I didn't have any doubts: Stay is a novel, and a superb one. It's subtle when you don't expect it, and brutal -- shockingly so in places -- when you've let down your guard. It's a powerful exploration of grief, loss of innocence, and rage. And its power comes from the narrator, Aud Torvingden.

In an interview for Bold Type (yes, I googled her name), Griffith says that Aud (rhymes with shroud) "embodies the long journey toward reconciliation of all those parts of our culture that have been artificially levered apart: mind and body, nature and civilization, art and science, man and woman, tenderness and brutality." It's an astonishing claim, but Aud is an astonishing character. She's larger than life -- insanely rich, and capable, and good-looking -- while being simultaneously, and believably, fragile, and vulnerable, and human.

Because of a promise she made her dead lover (which sounds like a cliche, but Griffith makes it work), Aud agrees to track the missing girlfriend. To do that she has to leave the woods, which is where I started to understand that Aud's loss has pushed her over the edge. Or has it? The dead lover appears and disappears (which sounds like another cliche, but in Griffith's hands its not -- it reminded me of Toni Morrison's Beloved), and I alternated between heart-thumping tension and lump-in-throat empathy as Aud struggles with a decision. Can she keep the promise she made to her lover to "stay in the world, stay alive inside," or will she turn her face from the painful vulnerability that is her only hope of redemption? The beauty and suspense lies in the way Griffith describes Aud's inner turmoil. She blends a kind of hard and fast noir technique (tracking the missing woman in SoHo; riffling through a sociopath's loft) with quiet, lyrical passages (showing a stranger around the woods). Some of the juxtapositions are shocking: a brutal beating is described in gorgeous prose. A violent fight is described as a kind of ballet. And quiet emotions are given a visceral edge. It's appalling and exhilarating and moving, and I've never read anything like it. My world looks different.

The spectacular imagery of the remote southern Appalachian mountains, with its buckeye, jewelweed, basswood, and pileated woodpeckers, comes sensuously to life as a lone woman hacks out shingles for a roof on her cabin and hides from visitors. Suddenly, the woman reacts to this quiet, pastoral scene: "An owl screamed in the wood and I wanted to ride behind its eyes when it plunged its talons into living flesh, wanted to tear something warm and soft to pieces while it squealed." With this remarkable sentence, I was totally hooked--by the strong visual images, by the frightening responses of this damaged woman to the sights and sounds around her, and by the emotional desolation of her life.

Aud Torvingen, a former police officer who has killed more than once in the line of duty, has withdrawn from the world to her isolated cabin, grieving and guilt-ridden about the loss of her lover in a shooting she believes to be her fault. When an old friend asks her to find his missing fiancee, Aud journeys to Greenwich Village and a scene of such brutality the reader will not soon forget it. Devastated by the events, Aud understands that she must rebuild her shattered self from the ground up if she ever hopes to recover her life.

Griffith's imagery and psychological acuity are overwhelming. She sets up vivid, sensual contrasts between the pastoral life of Appalachia and the urban life of New York, provides total access to Aud's ravaged psyche, makes the reader truly care for this woman who has killed more than once, and encourages us to hope for her emotional rebirth. The book is stunning, and the writing is truly extraordinary! One caveat, however. While most of us willingly suspend disbelief when faced with excellent, compulsively readable fiction, this book, like some other recent books and films, also encourages us to suspend some of our long held values. Some readers may have trouble accepting the premise here that some people are above the law and that ad hoc, vigilante action is sometimes excusable. Mary Whipple

Many so-called "thrillers" achieve their effects by constant movement, often to no purpose other than causing a rise in adrenalin. If that's what you want, go rent a movie with a high body count. When you open "Stay" its achievement is that it drives the adrenalin by virtue of its examination of the limits of responsibility, the development and application of a moral consciousness, and the costs of engagement in life--and the costs of withdrawal.

This is not to say that all the movement is internal. On the contrary, "Stay" is filled with compelling action.

But action without purpose, heroism without conscience, intervention without cost is a waste of time and ultimately a lie to the soul, a trap too many books fall into because it's easy. Griffith avoids this trap by making every move, every action, every choice, decision, and judgement matter. Aud must decide and it hurts; Aud must act and it's impossible to be absolutely certain; Aud must choose and it's hard. But in the end she does what all of us must do if we're to live lives that matter, that count for something--she grows.

"Stay" is superior on every level and lives up to its title--it stays with you, long after you finish reading.

I have followed Nicola Griffith since her earliest books (Ammonite and Slow River) and her short stories. I've always admired the beauty of her writing and the humanity of her characters, and Stay is a remarkable addition to her body of work.

Stay continues the story of Aud Torvingen (the hero of The Blue Place) who has shut herself away in a cabin in the woods to mourn the death of her lover. Aud is grief-stricken and full of guilt because she believes she is responsible for Julia's death, and it seems she is determined to stay that way.

Griffith has always made full use of environmental and physical details (Slow River has been noted for its use of water and light as metaphors, and in The Blue Place Aud is constantly aware of her own body moving in the world and the sensations and textures of the things around her). In Stay, the entire forest ecology becomes a metaphor for Aud's state of withdrawal and grief ("The birds were quiet, the sun streamed down, and for a moment the valley felt like a place out of time, secret and silent and still, where no one intruded and nothing ever happened. Then I saw that the gilding on the trees up the mountain wasn't just sun but the first tints of autumn which would seep downhill until all was copper and russet and gold and, not long after that, bare.")

Change is coming to the land and to Aud. An old friend convinces her to leave her refuge and find his missing fiancée. Aud wants to stay in the woods, but her lover made her promise to stay in the world, to stay connected in spite of her rage and her pain.

This is the metaphor that structures and enriches the book: Aud learning that to 'stay,' she must change and become something else. In order to keep her promise to Julia, she has to grow beyond the person that Julia knew and leave Julia behind. Griffith is wonderful at weaving many layers of image and meaning into a narrative that moves quickly but always keeps us in Aud's head and heart as she navigates her way to New York and back again. I was impressed by the small, precise touches that Griffith uses to show us that Aud is really on the edge, not tracking well, and vulnerable: as one example, she reaches the city and opens her suitcase to find she's packed "three pairs of socks, two books, my phone, and a can of half-frozen concentrated orange juice."

I was also impressed by the development of Aud's relationship with Tammy, the missing fiancée. They start out disliking and distrusting each other, and then begin to understand each other better as they spend time together on the mountain, healing. Again, the layers of metaphor abound: "When dirt is disturbed, it becomes unpredictable: perhaps when turned and tilled it grows fertile and lush; perhaps erosion sets in and the whole turns to sand. Some soil is never meant to be turned; it's best left frozen and hard-packed. Sometimes it can be hard to tell until you try."

Griffith has been widely praised for The Blue Place, and with Stay she makes Aud more complex, more compelling, and just as fascinating as ever. The writing is lush and lyrical whether Griffith is talking about violence or healing, and Aud's journey through grief is convincing. Stay took me through a spectrum of emotions on a journey that I won't soon forget. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of literary work that doesn't pull punches or simplify the human heart.

This is the second in the author's Aud Torvingen series. It opens with Aud in North Carolina trying to recover from the death of her soulmate, Julia. An old friend invades her cocoon to ask her to find his girlfriend. While Aud doesn't think she's ready to return to the world, Julia's voice keeps telling her that she needs to stay in the world. She goes to New York and finds the woman. From that point on, her life careens along - seemingly out of control - and full of ephiphanies and unexpected twists.

This series is dark - the protagonist is devastated with grief and guilt over her lover's death - and she is dangerous. The people she seeks are not always amongst the human race's finest specimans.

Griffith is a talented author whose writing improves with each outing. Aud is finely drawn, as are the lesser characters. The descriptions of Aud's North Carolina hideaway are vividly written - so much so you can hear the birds calling to one another in your head and smell the wood smoke from her fire. Aud is damaged and struggling with the decision whether to remain alive.

Griffith is an underappreciated author who deserves a much wider audience. If you decided to read this novel, read the first in the series. A Blue Place before starting this one. I think you'll be hooked and waiting for the third Aud Torvingen novel with Griffith's other fans.

I believe that anyone that has read this book before can vouch that the emotions so intimately and precisely described in this book are completely opposite of the ones featured in Nicola's first "Aud" novel "The Blue Place." If you haven't read "The Blue Place" then I strongly advise reading it before you pick up this one.

In this second installment Aud is grieving. She's grieving hard, so hard that she's moved out of the heated jungle of Atlanta to the peaceful and serene North Carolina woods! However, where there is a will there is a way, and although Aud is forced back into the world she's willing to stick it out. The complex emotions, the descriptions of them, and the characters are all 3 dimensional. You won't forget them nor how you met them. Mrs. Griffith beautifully wrote this novel. It sports grace, style, attitude, and emotion. You feel as if you've been in Aud shoes, or could be. You feel for Aud and some of the other characters and you find yourself wondering if you're capable of doing the same in some of the situations that arise.

Once you finish this book, you will definitely be provoked to reanalyze yourself, your decisions and your outlook on life and people, whether they live with you or not.

I can't improve on what the chap says below. I admired her first heartshattering, atmospheric, and highly resonant tragic novel, "The Blue Place," starring this same lead detective character. That novel has the palpable sense of impending doom and unavoidable, inevitable destiny from the very beginning and this wished-for follow-up of Aud's state of emotional and mental health is pure prose poetry of being in the state of grief. I could identify. The 'mystery' novel part of it is negligible, a McGuffin, it's not about that, just as the first novel really wasn't either. The dead lover is so present in her thoughts and heart that it almost reads like a ghost story at times. Aud is not a great detective by any means, but she is a woman of action.

this perfectly balanced novel is like the best dinner you ever had with a fascinating companion who excites you and listens to you and intrigues you all at the same time. it will make you listen intently; it will exhilarate you; it will make you nod and say "yes, yes, that's it _exactly!_" you will finish, and walk away satisfied, but long for more. you will lie awake in your bed and replay moments in your head, and you will dream differently.

the physical world is the first thing you notice: the trees, the wind, the birds, the scents of dirt and leaves and mossy water. then the interior world of aud. then the story, which is aud's story of pain and love and joy and loss, of learning and hope and risk and reward and mistakes, and, at last, of pure and intensely satisfying action. you will pump your arm in victory, shout "yes!" loud enough to startle your honey, then startle him again when you reach the end and weep but smile.

i was struck, over and over, by how absolutely true it all feels; the grief, the joy, the fight, the friendship, the lust, the blood, the child, the change. the story is a marvel of zest and rightness and realness: things go wrong, things evolve organically, things go according to plan but then end up meaning something different. and always, everywhere, infusing everything, is aud. you will be reminded of yourself. you will be glad sometimes that it's not you suffering and you will be sad sometimes that it's not you triumphing. your honey will read the book and be glad, and sad, and angry, and intrigued (and a little bit jealous I think).

you will want to read _stay_ over and over and over again, and wish you'd read the first book first, and meantime gush uncharacteristically like this to anyone who will listen.

savor this book because you can only read it for the first time once.

An astoundingly strong, rich, thoughtful and cleverly written novel.

I have long been searching for a novel that would have at least the same power to completely rivet my attention, teach me how to see things that have been worked to death in so many other novels in a new, intelligent light, and make me really think - as much as "The Blue Place" did way back in 1999 - and this novel certainly has done that.

Aud (as in proud, avowed, loud, and only very, very rarely cowed), is a very strong, intelligent, determined and fiercely loyal character, who, on losing her soulmate, Julia in an incident for which she completely blames herself, is on the borderline between acute grief and psychosis.

But, she has avowed to "Stay" in the world, no matter what, a promise she made Julia before her death, and a promise she struggles valiantly to keep throughout the novel, no matter how tough and seeminly unreal things get; how torn her loyalties are between helping a friend find a girlfriend in trouble, and a brave little girl also in potential trouble because of it; and how, in doing all of this, she pushes her body, mind and will to the extreme, in such a way that one wonders if she will ever survive it all.

Heroic, bleak, clever, but at all times refreshingly true to itself and the stark unflinching reality of life, grief and survival - "Stay" is one novel I definitely recommend you do not miss. Unputdownable noir at its very best.

- Highly recommended.

Nicola Griffith breathes life onto paper once again. Stay does not disappoint. Stay is rich and deep. Full of color, of life, of humanity. And of Aud, who we came to love in The Blue Place. Know her, know thyself.

Aud is quick-developing a loyal following of strong, thoughtful, intelligent women. (Xena and Kay Scarpetta watch out! Aud is going to give you a run for your money!)