The Saga, Part II

So, we’re talking sagas again. The long story of heroic achievement. What if Luke Skywalker found some droids, learned to use the force, and then beat Darth Vader with his light saber?  Short, sweet, to the point, and good beats evil, end of story. Why does that story fall flat with us?

I think it’s the struggle. Conflict is one thing, but a long term struggle is another. Most sagas depict a war between good and evil, right and wrong, love and love lost, etc . . . What makes a saga resonate is the series of battles, one after another. Just when we think the hero will triumph, something else stands in his way. In fact, it seems the entire world is standing in his way.

Think about someone you know who has faced a difficulty and then gone on to inspire you. If you told me about that person’s journey, I might be interested and tell you it’s a good story. But if I knew that person well, watched him grow up, knew how his personality traits affect his reactions to various situations, it would be a different story. The tragedies and triumphs become much more graphic and magnified for me, knowing what this man is like and how these events would have affected him emotionally, socially, professionally, as well as physically.

I think that’s the benefit of the saga. It takes you deeper. Sometimes way deeper. My dad used to love reading James Michener. I remember one particular book called The Source (and I’m speaking from second-hand knowledge only here, I haven't read it). My dad told me the book went all the way back to the beginning of the people of Israel, and traced them through hundreds of generations to the modern day. Now, that might be an extreme case of “backstory,” but then again, everyone I’ve spoken to who read the book has loved it.

As a writer, the challenge is to write a story with enough detail to make it rich, but not so much the story gets dragged into the depths of dull. 

Do you prefer the deep, richly detailed tale, or a "Just the facts, ma'am" approach? Why? What's your favorite example?

The lovely, long story.

Star Wars. Lord of the Rings. Little House on the Praire. They all have something in common. Something I love and can’t get enough of. They are all part of a SAGA. Does the word strike fear in your heart or send you running to the bookstore for the latest and greatest? 

The dictionary defines "saga" as a long story of heroic achievement. I’d like to take a look at each of the above sagas (and maybe a few more sprinkled in) and talk about why we love (or hate) them. This type of story really does tend to elicit a strong emotion one way or another. And yes, I realize Star Wars began as a movie, but we’re talking about a story experience, not merely in book form only.

I have a friend who rarely reads fiction and when she does, it’s usually something light and short. She just doesn’t enjoy delving deep into the lives of characters for an extended period of time. And a saga will require some time. It goes with the territory. If the characters are likeable, I want to spend as much time as I can with them, but the author has to keep things moving along. No two-page descriptions of a single flower, please!

Usually, when written in book form, a saga will be published in multiple volumes. While I like to stay up with current literary releases, if it’s a continuing saga, I prefer to wait until the end has been published before I invest myself. I don’t want to forget any details from the early books when I read the later volumes.

A few years ago, I read a children’s series by Rick Riordan: Percy Jackson and the Olympians. I made the mistake of beginning the series when only four of the books had been released. My kids and I burned through every available word published and then were forced to wait almost six months for the conclusion. Adding insult to injury, my children wrested the book from my hands the instant we purchased it and I was forced to wait for THREE of them to read it before me. Well, let’s be honest, I actually forbade the third kid to take the book to school with him so I could at least have it during the day. Pathetic, I know.

What sagas have you read and loved? Hated? Are there any sagas in your “to be read pile?” We’ll talk about specific sagas next time.

The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley

Just finished reading this delightful novel and as I turned to the “virtual” back cover, I released a pleasant sigh. This is why I read.

So I want to use this book to look at what comes together to produce that satisfied sigh at the end of a book. Several things, I think.

1.     1. We read to feel. To cry with the widow, to sneak around the corner, hiding from the leering, evil gardener, to rejoice in the beauty of young love, and to yearn for someone across an ocean. These emotions swept me up in this novel.

2.     2. We read to escape to another world. To leave the world of rainy, humid spring and travel to exotic locations where snow and ice and a biting wind off the North Sea batter the walls of the castle—this is a great way to gain a new appreciation for the world I actually inhabit.

3.     3. We read to learn. The Winter Sea is about an author who is writing an historical novel. We see how she researches, but we also travel back in time and learn about the Brittish-Scottish Union and the failed attempt of King James to return to Scotland and claim his throne. Real historical figures play major roles in the fiction—it’s fascinating!

4.     4. Lastly, I think we read to get to the last page so we can savor all the moments the author led us through in order to reach a vantage point where we could look back and say, that was exactly right. So much in this world is a mess. Reading an ordered story that ties up loose ends while leaving a few of the right ones hanging, gives us hope that in real life, there’s a chance at bringing things right.

My favorite image is the character with eyes like The Winter Sea. Eyes like that are beautiful to imagine, and since almost the whole story takes place in view of the winter sea, it’s especially poignant.

As a writer, I loved that the protagonist is a writer. I wish I had an agent like hers in the story. I wish I could just go rent a cottage near the setting of my story and write there, alone, until it’s finished. Well, I don’t really want to do that, but the idea is highly romantic, though completely unrealistic for me. But it’s fun to “live” that dream, even if I don’t truly want the reality (ie, months away from my family).

For an escape, read The Winter Sea. It’s beautiful, punctuated with some lovely surprises, and will sweep you to another world . . . plus, there’s a castle. And I'm fairly certain you'll close the book and without even thinking about it, you'll sigh because you're satisfied.

What is it about England?

Is it just me, or is a novel set in 19^th century England like the pied piper? I can’t stay away. I love, love, love stories set in this time and place. Of course I’m a Jane Austen fan, but how many countless other stories start with a giant stone manor house, a garden to get lost in, and a thunderstorm to end all storms?

Why do we love them? Is it the “other-worldliness”? Is it a longing for a simpler, yet more opulent time? I don’t even like tea, but I find myself longing for a cup served in one-hundred-year-old bone china, while wearing a gown I’ve just put on for the express purpose of taking my tea…in the drawing room, of course.

And why is it a game of cat and mouse played in a dark, two-hundred-year-old garden is more enthralling than the same chase scene in a US mall?

Honestly, I think is because I’ve lived (vicariously) so many wonderful stories in that time and place, it seems to me the best parts of the old stories are carried (by me) into the new stories and though they strip me of all objectivity, they sink me even deeper into the storyworld than a single author could take me.

If I walk into a Calculus class for the first time with no previous math instruction, the teacher may be able to explain limits to me after several weeks of blood, sweat, and tears. But if I walk into the same class having already learned the terms and basic background necessary, I can hit the ground running and begin to understand new concepts immediately.

So it is with literature. Having read several novels taking place in the 19^th century, in a stone country house on the moors of England, I already know what life was like. I have a general feel for what the moors look like, and I know how the people lived, both the servants and land owners. So when I take up a new novel, the fresh details ring wonderfully true when they dovetail with details from other books, painting an even richer portrait.

I can’t help it. Victorian and Romantic English Literature inspires me. The stories suck me in and I cannot stop reading them. Lure me in with a castle and a mysterious key and I’ll be rapt until the last chapter. Do you feel the same? Is there another genre you cannot stop reading?

The Novel With a Slow Build

The story with a slow build. I talked about it last time, and I promised more. The title is Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese, and the story is extraordinary.

Like anything involving delayed gratification, sometimes worthwhile journeys require slogging through a bit of mud to get there. I’m here to tell you this: Don’t skip the mud!

Walking in knee deep mud is difficult. It requires concentration because, if you stumble in knee deep mud and then fall in said knee deep mud, it quickly becomes neck deep mud and nobody wants to go there.

The mud focuses our mind. It stretches our muscles. It makes us dig deep to find the energy we need to keep slogging. Are you feeling the grit between your teeth yet? OK, let’s bring it back to reality.

Reading this novel was not the difficult experience I’m describing. The first 150 pages are filled with NECESSARY details. They are presented in an interesting manner, and I was transported to an incredible world as I read. But when I reached the mid-point in the novel, all these details began to dovetail. As minor characters grew in importance, I recalled bits of information I didn’t feel were important at the time, but they became paramount as the novel progressed.

One of the greatest satisfactions in reading comes when an author makes every word count and presents his story in a way that the reader can taste each word at the end and know that the flavors all work together to make something more special than any of the individual ingredients alone. If one item is omitted, the outcome will not be the same.

Cutting for Stone is delicate, delicious, serious, fascinating, and riveting. Every word contributes to a gorgeous and complex whole. It’s worth your time.

Fair warning, a few adult scenes and occasional language.

Taking the scenic route to the end?

Last week I sat by the pool and read a book. It’s my favorite vacation. Doesn’t really matter where the pool is. I don’t usually pay it much attention. But last week I found myself looking up from the book and gazing into the heavily chlorinated water. A lot.

The back cover copy and reviews from my friends who recommended the book convinced me this book was wonderful. I glanced at the upper right corner of the page: 135. Seriously.

The story was interesting. The characters, fascinating. The setting, exotic. I knew it would take me to an unbelievable place and I wanted to go there. However, this particular author chose to take me there via the scenic route. To be fair, I will write about this book more next week because I stuck with it to the end and I am still savoring it.

Recently, we drove a long and winding way to the top of a mountain and the beauty blew me away. We drove down the mountain the fast way and let me tell you, the scenic route is the way to go, every time. 

So when you pick up a book that takes you down the scenic route, how long are you willing to give it?

Do you throw the book against the wall after 50 pages? Worse, do you abandon it completely? For many years, I read with an unusual faith that if I held in my hands an official book, published and bound, it must get good by the end. And I finished every book I ever started in the first 25 years of my life because of that faith. Most of the time, the books ended well.

These days, I hate to leave a book unfinished, but if I am not enjoying it I will. There is a distinct difference between a story that is building and a story that is wandering in the wilderness. There is nothing so satisfying as a book that builds slowly and ends like a perfect dessert after an amazing meal.

All this to say, while there is a time to put down a book if you just can’t get into it, always be on the look out for those wonderful stories with a slow ramp-up that build slowly into an amazing, breathtaking, soul-jarring, life-changing experience.

Look for scenic routes . . . you won’t regret it.

Where's the beef?

“I ordered the beef.”

“I’m sorry ma’am, all we have left is the fish.”

Have you ever sat down at a wedding or some other type of banquet and run into this exact scenario? How did it make you feel? Disappointed? Frustrated? Angry?

I experienced the same sort of thing when I purchased a book by an author I’ve grown to love, only to learn the book is a far cry from her others. Unexpected. Not what I’d hoped.

Now that I’m starting to meet authors of all kinds, I’m reminded of my days as a waitress. Before I waited tables, I could be very hard on someone who failed to perform as I thought she should. After “walking a mile” so to speak, I began to understand that a waitress is one member of the restaurant staff, and sometimes things happen beyond her control. As a result, I’m more forgiving these days.

Can we apply this to authors? Maybe. Don’t like the ending? Maybe she had two weeks to write it because of a death in the family and an unforgiving deadline. Don’t like the title? She may not have chosen it. Is the book a complete departure from her other books? Maybe she wanted to experiment before she carved out a rut so deep she could never veer off course for the rest of her career.

Look at poor Arthur Conan Doyle. He tried killing off Sherlock Holmes several times, but his fans forced him to resurrect the character. He wanted to pursue historical novels, but the public wanted him to stay in his "box."

I don’t advocate reading a book you don’t enjoy. Life is too short. But I’m starting to see that life throws us all crazy circumstances and reading a book that is different from what you expected can sometimes give us the gift of something fresh.

I’m just saying you might like the fish, but you’ll never know if you keep complaining about the beef you thought you wanted.