General Ben January thoughts upon rereading Wet Grave

[sholio]

I reread Wet Grave (Ben January Mysteries #6) over the last couple of days because I talked rachelmanija into going back to reading the series with that one, and so I'll make a nonspoilery post for that in a little while, but reading it made me have some thoughts that reference later books all the way up to Cold Bayou.


* I remember finding the first half of this book draggy the first time, but it's vastly more interesting now that the St. Chinians and Viellards have become major players in the series. I did remember that this was the book in which we got to know Chloe (with the best love triangle resolution ever) but I had completely forgotten that Artois was her half-brother ... and of course we'll see Uncle Veryl again in Cold Bayou.

I was really intrigued, though, that Chloe comes across much warmer and more approachable here than she does in many of the subsequent books, especially Cold Bayou. I got the impression in CB especially that the issue is mainly that Ben just doesn't like her, for basically irrational reasons -- probably having partly to do with the Dominique thing, but also because she doesn't quite fit his idea of what a woman should be like -- and this is coloring the way she comes across in the narrative. I think the narrator bias is especially noticeable in CB because the exact things he criticizes about her are qualities that some of the male characters share (her coldness and emotional buttoned-down-ness, for example, is something that's one of Shaw's traits as well), and he doesn't seem to mind it there. But I get the impression it's narrator bias rather than author bias, if that makes sense. I don't think we're supposed to feel as biased towards Chloe as Ben does. He just doesn't like her much. For the culture he lives in, Ben is extremely open-minded, particularly towards women, but I think Chloe is running afoul of some of his unconscious biases towards wanting more emotional openness from the women he interacts with.

I also thought of this while reading Wet Grave and noticing the way that Ben relates to the prostitutes in the Swamp. Again, it's hard to untangle author bias from character bias, and while I got the strong impression in Cold Bayou that we weren't supposed to share Ben's opinions on Chloe, here it's a lot harder to tell; but I do think this is another case where the "slut", etc, is mainly coming from Ben and his Good Catholic Boy background, especially in dealing with white woman. (He's more sympathetic towards prostitutes of color, especially people he knows personally.) But admittedly it is kind of difficult to tell if this is an intentional narrator thing, or if the author simply gets more nuanced with the working-girls later on, e.g. Viente-y-Cinco in The Shirt on His Back, who is very sympathetically portrayed.

* On a more cheerful note, I have so much love for the slow, slow burn on Ben and Shaw's friendship. Slowly developing friendships that have to overcome a lot of obstacles to get to a good place are one of my favorite things, and I think this one is a bit anomalous (compared to some of the others I like) because they actually like each other from the very first time they meet; they click right away, and trust each other instinctively almost from the first. And yet, the ironclad barriers of race and class and culture are something they only very, very slowly manage to crawl past. I love how it takes something like 4 books, I think, before Ben even refers to Shaw as a friend in his own head, let alone admitting it out loud yet. And in this book we get Ben flipflopping between (understandably!) seeing Shaw as The Enemy and as a friend, and then the hug, and their seamless teamwork in the climax ...! And it builds and builds, but quietly, in the background, 'til in The Shirt on His Back he just shorthands the relationship for Morning Star as "he's my brother."

I'm still slightly annoyed that we've never gotten Shaw interacting with Ben's kids in canon. I realize that finding a way to get Shaw and Ben's kids into the same scene might be narratively difficult, but COME ON, there have been several perfect openings for it (e.g. when the kids were kidnapped) and it just never seems to happen.

I also feel that we're overdue for another Shaw-spotlight book, but maybe that's just me.

Comments

[sovay]

I also feel that we're overdue for another Shaw-spotlight book, but maybe that's just me.

I'd be fine with it. I enjoyed the Shaw-centric plot, but otherwise found The Shirt on His Back uneven.

(I have not yet read Cold Bayou, but I love Wet Grave mostly for Chloë, although I appreciate that the plot includes a slave revolt, a hurricane, buried pirate treasure, and leprosy, and yet somehow no one is dead of melodrama at the end, except for the people who died of other things.)

[edit] I'm still slightly annoyed that we've never gotten Shaw interacting with Ben's kids in canon.

I have in other people's comments expressed my fervent hope for Abishag Shaw, Disaster Babysitter.

[sholio]

Admittedly I love Wet Grave precisely because it is such a completely OTT cavalcade of batshittery; I am incapable of not loving a book that includes the protagonist having a fistfight with an alligator on top of a floating shed roof in the middle of a hurricane. It does seem like the middle books in the series were a lot more OTT than the later ones -- if I remember right, the next one involves Hannibal tied to an altar and about to be blood-sacrificed by Aztec cultists. I really need to reread the whole series.

I have in other people's comments expressed my fervent hope for Abishag Shaw, Disaster Babysitter.

I desperately want Abishag Shaw, Disaster Babysitter, and I sincerely hope that canon will deliver eventually.

[sovay]

I am incapable of not loving a book that includes the protagonist having a fistfight with an alligator on top of a floating shed roof in the middle of a hurricane.

Believe me, I wasn't saying it like it was a bad thing.

-- if I remember right, the next one involves Hannibal tied to an altar and about to be blood-sacrificed by Aztec cultists.

You remember correctly! And the previous one contrived to be an opera seria (Drusilla D'Isola, the killing of Vincent Marsan, the murders of Sidonie Lalage and Aucassin Couvent) and an opera buffa (ITALIAN NATIONALISTS AUSTRIAN SPIES CHERRY-CHEEKED PATTY CHEKHOV'S VOLCANO GOES OFF) simultaneously and in the same plot. I love this series.

[chelseagirl]

I have read bits of this series out of order but am feeling a strong need to read the whole thing

[sholio]

You should! :D I should too. I've reread several of the books individually, out of order, but a lot of them I've only ever read the first time through.

[lavode]

He thinks that way about Rose too at first, doesn't he? "Prim" and so on. But the main reason Ben's reaction to Chloë feels really unfair to me is that she's so young - isn't she 15-16 when she marries Henri? Closer in age to Pia than to Veinte-y-Cinco. And at least in Die Upon A Kiss he has no reason to think the marriage is her choice in any way. But then he is quick to see how competent she is and act accordingly, in Wet Grave and later in Good Man Friday.

I get the feeling that Ben worries about looking unmanly in front of Shaw because he isn't as emotionally reserved and that that contributes to the slow development of their relationship, but he never seems to judge him for it... and while Rose opens up more to him in later books (she's cried in front of him a few times, IIRC), with Shaw it's more as if Ben learns to communicate about feelings without actually talking about them. Which is one thing I like about their friendship, I just wish he could do it with Rose as well.

Another Shaw-centric book would be great!

[sholio]

Oh, that's a really good point about Ben learning to meet Shaw halfway -- although I never really got the idea that he didn't "get" Shaw (in the same way he doesn't seem to "get" Chloe). They seem to click from the very first time they meet. But it does seem to take him awhile to really figure out how to relate to Shaw, and yeah, the emotional reserve is probably part of it. I hadn't really thought about how, although Ben seems somewhat reserved in his narration, he's really not, except to the extent that his society has forced him to be; he's an expressive person, he cries, he talks about feelings. So he might have more trouble relating to people who aren't that way.

Although ... then there's Olympe, come to think of it. Who he clearly likes and respects, but she's very emotionally buttoned-down. The fact that she's his sister and he's known her his whole life is probably a factor there, as well as understanding on a visceral level what made her the way she is.

[brigdh]

I totally agree with you on Ben disliking Chloe. I kind of like it, as a narrative choice; Ben is otherwise so perfectly ethical in his views that his slight hangup over women/feminism makes him a fuller character, to me. And he does seem to frequently criticize women who are either explicitly sex workers or who are making relationship choices based on wealth rather than genuine affection. I think it is supposed to be Ben's opinion rather than the author's, since now and then another character will express a different view, though so much of books' observations come through Ben that it can be hard to draw the line.

I also feel like it's been quite a while since we had a Shaw-centric book. I kind of wonder if Hambly's been influenced by Black Lives Matter? It, and the general issue of police violence in black communities, took off in 2013, and I feel like that's around the same time that Shaw took a step back in prominence as a character. I could see how it might feel awkward to have a white cop as a hero in a series about black people seeking justice in this context. But this might just be me! I have absolutely no reason to know if Hambly feels the same way or if the timing is just a coincidence. But it's my own secret theory for why there's been relatively little Shaw in the more recent books.

[sholio]

I think it is supposed to be Ben's opinion rather than the author's, since now and then another character will express a different view, though so much of books' observations come through Ben that it can be hard to draw the line.

Yeah, I agree about this being Ben's opinions rather than the author's - or at least I think it comes through to me that way, though in a close 3rd person it's always hard to tell. With Chloe, I'm positive it's just Ben, but with some of the other things, it can be unclear.

With Shaw ... oooh. Hmmm. That's interesting; I hadn't thought of that being a major factor, but it certainly could be.

In general, I really appreciate that she clearly works hard to keep the white characters from stealing the spotlight from the characters of color, and to make sure that they rescue themselves without relying on white characters, and it's possible that she often downplays Shaw or keeps him out of the way simply because it would be awfully easy for him to end up in the "rescuer" role because his particular areas of competence lend themselves to that.

But yeah, I can absolutely see her having decided that she needs to keep Shaw from having a big role in the books right now due to RL factors.