A Song for Arbonne

Guy Gavriel Kay knows how to write, and this book is no exception to that - the turns of phrase, the characters and the scenes all shine with the same brightness I found while reading Tigana and the Lions of Al-Rassan. But. But, but but. There are a few awkward stumblings, and a few moments which pulled this book out of the clutches of being of the same level of quality as Tigana and The Lions of Al-Rassan to me.

As will be the norm with all but a few of GGK's books, we find ourselves in a world both familiar and foreign, this time taking its aesthetic and thematic cues from troubadour-infested Languedoc of the 12-13th century. Courteous love, the push and pull of desire and respectability, romantic chivalry, poetry and song are all along for the ride, and happily so. GGK likes his artistic bent to his writing, cheerfully advancing the plot and helping us to understand the characters of his stories through the songs and poems he includes.

With the mood in mind, we need to also look at the underlying themes, and of the ones one could pull from the novel, what stands out to me is the idea of the weight of the past. Many of the characters in A Song for Arbonne are weighed down by their past decisions, by choices they made, and the wounds left thereafter. And what's especially interesting is how many of these characters don't go through the classic narrative arc of getting over their past within the story of the book, and in fact I wonder if any get past it at all, with the exception of exactly two characters who die immediately after they reach that point. Because as people do we ever really get over what we have done or has been done to us? It's a refreshingly honest portrayal.

Of the characters, I found myself quite liking the mercenary Blaise and Duke Bertran - characters which are very much alike, yet polar opposites. One a sword-for-hire rejecting his "given role" in life, the other a powerful noble fully taking on his own role. One stern and reserved, the other fully embracing the joyful hedonism of troubadour culture. Of the two, we only get the POV of Blaise, and it makes for an interesting contrast of characters, leaving us to wonder at a lot of what Bertran shows to the world.

Now, I mentioned "stumblings" earlier, and these stumblings are what makes A Song for Arbonne a less successful book in my eyes than Tigana or the Lions of Al-Rassan. The first of these is the introduction of the antagonistic faction of the story. From two other readings of GGK I had really enjoyed how there is not necessarily a side which is the "good" side. Sure, there are groups you may root for, but arguments could be made for the "bad guys" being in the right. In A Song for Arbonne, the intro of the antagonists gave me whiplash from how clearly and grossly evil they were. Ademar, the king of Gorhaut, is just the icky-est individual, and Geralt de Gersanc, the High Elder of Corannos gave me the impression of being that kid in school who claimed to be performing "social experiments" whenever he was called out on his bullshit. There is no nuane, no room for discussion of the merits of one side over the other. Arbonne is good, Gorhaut is bad (save for the exception of Fulk, Rosala and Blaise).

The other issue I had with the book was that the ending felt very "telenovela". Too many coincidences, too many surprise reveals. Some of those reveals needed to happen, one was completely out of the blue and actually made me groan.

I still recommend the book - in fact once I was finished I ordered every Guy Gavriel Kay book I didn't own. But it is definitely not his best to my taste.

I learn more sometimes from questions I know the answers to

Incredible, beautiful, dense and a little hard to follow.

When starting a Guy Gavriel Kay book there are some ground rules that have to be established between reader and book.

The book demands your attention. You need to absorb every word and sentence because his words are art and slowly paint a very vivid picture with complex characters and story.

Guy Gavriel Kay's books aren't conducive to a quick read here or there. The longer reading session the better. Kay is a master of his work and the enjoyment of the book shines when you can read a chapter in a single sitting (which clock in at 45+ minutes).

Even following my ground rules I found A Song for Arbonne to be a challenge.

A lesson for you to learn if you can: anger and hatred have limits that are reached too soon

The story is incredibly written and I wanted more of the world and story but I was unclear on several characters at the start of the book (especially from the prologue to main story) and I never recovered. This seems like an issue I had with The Lions of Al-Rassan too. I looked for a character summary or Wiki for Arbonne to help clarify who was who but I didn't and I continued to struggle.

My failure to understand relationships and history of characters detracted from character POV's and the story was impacted because of this. My motivation would take a dive during these pages and I would question if it was worth reading for another 8+ hours when I was only absorbing half the story.

Hatred...could be as powerful as love, though the singers might try to tell you otherwise.

I pushed through and, yes, even with holes in my understanding this book is a beautiful story. The ending still had an emotional hit and put a beautiful bow on this story, and for those that followed the plot more carefully, would have found the final pages even more gut wrenching.

I don't typically check my mental stamina and enthusiasm for a heavy read before starting a book so in some ways A Song for Arbonne was a bit like a chore, yet with a payoff. The books are only 500-600 pages but the amount of time it takes me to read them they are equivalent to a 1000 page tome.

Kay has an extensive catalogue of books and I'd love to work through them but I need to pick my next story carefully. I don't want to commit to a trilogy but a multiple book series could help reinforce the characters for me, or leave me struggling over the period of two books instead of one.