Masquerade by Francis Kerst (PG-13)

[meris-mfu.livejournal.com]

Fandom: MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.
Pairing: Napoleon Solo/Illya Kuryakin
Author on LJ: franciskerst
Author Website: none known. Other works are gathered at File40, http://file40.net/file40g.html.
Why this must be read:

It is incredibly difficult to write poetry for a fandom. Wait, make that good poetry. The constraints of fitting into a characterization and a fandom often seem to reduce the most competent writers into vague blatherers of versified generalizations. Then someone comes along who manages to condense the essence of a fandom's traits into concrete and haunting verse.

Francis does that beautifully in Masquerade. There is nothing generalized or vague about it. She describes a specific situation, time, place, capturing a moment in time and place with precision and empathy, that remains open-ended with possibility. And she does it with lyricism and beauty, and a melancholy that resonates with yearning. It is an embodiment of what underlies the best of slash or gen stories, the connection, spoken or unspoken, between Napoleon and Illya, and it is wonderfully expressed in an image and mood that stay in the mind.

Masquerade

Comments

Rec

[franciskerst.livejournal.com]

Blushing shyly...I'm not sure to deserve such a praise but it's very pleasant nonetheless, overall when it comes from someone whose talent and poetical skill is well acknowledged.

It's especially useful for me to know the impressions of english speaking readers, since I try to write in a foreign language without being really fluent: I never know by myself if and when I reached my aim.

So, lot of thanks for your support.