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crack_van2004-01-13 10:50 pm
justacat.livejournal.com) wrote in crack_van2004-01-13 10:50 pm
Slice, by Brighid (R)
Fandom: DUE SOUTH
Pairing: Ray Kowalski/Benton Fraser
Author's Website: http://www.debchan.com/livia/brighid/brighid.htm
Author on LJ: Bone:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
brighidestone
Why this must be read:
I find Brighid to be one of the most underrated authors out there. It's not like she's unknown or unpopular, it's just that I find her fic, at least in the fandoms I've read (Sentinal and dS), invariably tender, touching, and heartbreakingly lovely, and I think it deserves wider acclaim, and more passionate adulation, than it gets. Her stories read almost like poetry; they're beautifully paced and cadenced. And she more than any other writer I've read epitomizes the metaphor of slash-as-fairy-tale, without ever descending into cliche or insipidity. When I read her fics I feel like I've been granted entrance into a dreamy, magical world, a world that is sweet and tender and whimsical yet never sappy - a world that I yearn for, that I hate to leave.
I love all Brighid's dS stories - they're among my favorites in the fandom - but I think Slice is perhaps her most substantial and remarkable accomplishment. This is one that hits you where it counts, sneaking in under the radar to leave you marveling and laughing and wiping the mist out of your eyes. It's a lovely, touching, deceptively simple fic, structured (similarly to Resonant's Sixteenth of June, which I rec'ed earlier) as a series of vignettes, "slices" of Ray and Fraser's life post-Call of the Wild, as they come together on the quest and then settle down together in Chicago. Each slice is cleverly associated with a type of pie - a Peanut Pie, for example, introduces the scene in which Ray first meets Bob Fraser's ghost (who appears at an extremely inopportune moment!), Mincemeat Pie for a child murder case that ravages Ray, and Key Lime pie for the scene in which Ray and Fraser prepare to visit Stella and Ray Vecchio in Florida. (On a side note, Brighid provides a recipe for each type of pie. I'm a pie baker myself, and though I haven't tried any of these recipes, they look wonderful, and I've been told they are.)
The slices alternate between Ray's and Fraser's first-person POVs, and Brighid writes both staggeringly well - the voices are dead on. Each slice is filled with gorgeous little details and images that show the guys' feelings and characters incredibly effectively and insightfully. Ray's sensitivity and vulnerability, Fraser's fears and insecurities, their complementary strengths and the deep tenderness between them - all are conveyed so clearly and yet so subtly. It's another fine example of "showing not telling." And Slice, like all Brighid's fic, reads like poetry; the rhythm and cadence of her prose is so lovely and lyrical, the pacing so measured and so deliberate, that it feels like a song. Her writing manages to be restrained and at the same time almost heartbreakingly poignant - but it's also funny and witty and sexy and detailed and very "real," never mannered or pretentious:
Slice
Pairing: Ray Kowalski/Benton Fraser
Author's Website: http://www.debchan.com/livia/brighid/brighid.htm
Author on LJ: Bone:
brighidestoneWhy this must be read:
I find Brighid to be one of the most underrated authors out there. It's not like she's unknown or unpopular, it's just that I find her fic, at least in the fandoms I've read (Sentinal and dS), invariably tender, touching, and heartbreakingly lovely, and I think it deserves wider acclaim, and more passionate adulation, than it gets. Her stories read almost like poetry; they're beautifully paced and cadenced. And she more than any other writer I've read epitomizes the metaphor of slash-as-fairy-tale, without ever descending into cliche or insipidity. When I read her fics I feel like I've been granted entrance into a dreamy, magical world, a world that is sweet and tender and whimsical yet never sappy - a world that I yearn for, that I hate to leave.
I love all Brighid's dS stories - they're among my favorites in the fandom - but I think Slice is perhaps her most substantial and remarkable accomplishment. This is one that hits you where it counts, sneaking in under the radar to leave you marveling and laughing and wiping the mist out of your eyes. It's a lovely, touching, deceptively simple fic, structured (similarly to Resonant's Sixteenth of June, which I rec'ed earlier) as a series of vignettes, "slices" of Ray and Fraser's life post-Call of the Wild, as they come together on the quest and then settle down together in Chicago. Each slice is cleverly associated with a type of pie - a Peanut Pie, for example, introduces the scene in which Ray first meets Bob Fraser's ghost (who appears at an extremely inopportune moment!), Mincemeat Pie for a child murder case that ravages Ray, and Key Lime pie for the scene in which Ray and Fraser prepare to visit Stella and Ray Vecchio in Florida. (On a side note, Brighid provides a recipe for each type of pie. I'm a pie baker myself, and though I haven't tried any of these recipes, they look wonderful, and I've been told they are.)
The slices alternate between Ray's and Fraser's first-person POVs, and Brighid writes both staggeringly well - the voices are dead on. Each slice is filled with gorgeous little details and images that show the guys' feelings and characters incredibly effectively and insightfully. Ray's sensitivity and vulnerability, Fraser's fears and insecurities, their complementary strengths and the deep tenderness between them - all are conveyed so clearly and yet so subtly. It's another fine example of "showing not telling." And Slice, like all Brighid's fic, reads like poetry; the rhythm and cadence of her prose is so lovely and lyrical, the pacing so measured and so deliberate, that it feels like a song. Her writing manages to be restrained and at the same time almost heartbreakingly poignant - but it's also funny and witty and sexy and detailed and very "real," never mannered or pretentious:
Home is good, home is greatness, and Fraser de-shits the bathroom where we left Dief for the day, then throws me in the shower with a pointed reference to my less-than pleasing eau de days-old dumpster. By the time I'm toweling off he's gone down to run a load down through the laundry. I crack open a beer, start in on dinner, cleaning up some potatoes and slicing up carrots, even starting a pot of oatmeal for Dief, who's making pleading noises, like, "C'mon buddy, can you spare a wonton?" but I'm on to him, and hell, I've already endured the wrath of Fraser once today, and I tell him that, holding his muzzle so he gets the point. The furry little bastard mumbles something rude and heads off to watch television, leaving me to the vegetables. And then Fraser comes up behind me as I'm chopping, takes the knife from my right hand, the beer from my left hand, and he kisses the side of my neck and it's good, it's greatness.It's writing like this that make Slice so unforgettable.
Did I say today sucked? Musta been off my head.
Slice