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Favorite Romances Series: The Shadow and the Star by Laura Kinsale
A couple of years ago, when I filled out my Top 100 Romances ballot for AAR, I ranked The Shadow and the Star at #3. I think the next time around, I'll have to bump it up. I've read this book 6 times now, and each time I like it better and get more out of it. Since there is already a review at AAR for this book, I can't submit one, but I'd like to take a moment and talk about why this book is so magnificent and why it strikes such a chord with me.
This is one of those books I love so much that I can't discuss rationally with someone who doesn't love it as well. There are a couple of vocal romance readers out there who will tell you this book is frustrating in the extreme. I can't relate to them, but they are out there. Here is the original Publisher's Weekly review from 1991:
"Kinsale ( The Prince of Midnight ) makes a sincere attempt to rise above the standard historical romance by introducing an element of oriental mystery. Sadly, the attempt flounders in its own pretension, and the work is most enjoyable where it is most conventional. Kinsale alternates here between two related stories. One, set in Hawaii, follows young Samuel Gerard, whose childhood has been a nightmare of sexual and physical abuse. Given a home by the benevolent Lady Ashland, he soon becomes the protege of enigmatic Japanese butler Dojun, who coaches Sam in a Japanese system of fighting and self-discipline. In the second story, set in 1880s London, the impoverished but resolutely respectable Leda Etoile learns that Samuel, now full-grown and dazzlingly handsome, is behind a baffling series of thefts marring Queen Victoria's jubilee festivities. Unemployed and without funds, Leda accepts a position as Samuel's secretary and gradually succumbs to his charms. Samuel thinks that he has no interest in Leda, but then he also thinks that Dojun's training was disinterested. He's wrong on both counts. Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc."
I take a couple of exceptions to this review, which really misses the boat, IMHO. First of all, the remark about Kinsale trying to rise above the romance genre is condescending in the extreme. What she has written here is an exceptional romance, not a hybrid of fiction/love story or literary fiction with a dash of romance. This book is Romance - straight romance. It's not trying to be anything else.
Second of all, this isn't a mystery, and there aren't two stories. There is only one: the story of Samuel Gerard and Leda Etoile. Samuel's backstory is there to shed light on his character as he is so controlled and so shadow-like in company that without the view of his past he would be just another strong and silent type. The sub-plot with the Japanese sword isn't really even a sub-plot, per se. It's a metaphor for Samuel. He is the sword: stolen, internally disfigured, hidden, recovered, used as a tool, and then eventually restored to his original magnificence and set free.
The first time I read this book, I had no idea what the whole Dojun/Japanese fighter training thing was supposed to signify. This part of the book seemed to me inexplicable and a trifle bizarre, and therefore the ending seemed rushed and unsettled. I think this is because I skimmed over the part at the end where Dojun explains the significance of his life's work (and, therefore, Samuel's) and the history of the sword. I had no interest in Japanese military coups. This is a very small passage, but without it, the metaphor doesn't work: if you skim it or fail to pay attention, the ending is going to seem off. Unromantic. Leda and Samuel will still seem on precarious footing, relationship-wise.
Additionally, I made the same assumption that Samuel makes: that Dojun is a father figure, and this sword thing is just a side interest. Dojun does act frequently in a fatherly way, he is wise and astute. So when he tells Samuel, "Want too much, you," I took that for more sage advice from the mentor. But this is another mistake in my reading. Dojun is a fanatic. His whole life is an obsession with an object. He does care for Samuel in his own way, but as a tool to be used for his cause. Dojun uses Samuel, any feelings he has for him personally are secondary. Had he viewed Samuel as an equal, he would have told him about the sword and tried to sway him to the same loyalty. He never does this until after Samuel reveals he has mistakenly taken it and brought it back to Hawaii with him. Dojun honed Samuel, he carved him as one of his wooden creations: into something useful and beautiful and deadly - but not animate or important in and of himself.
The climax of the story on the ship with Dojun's political foes - that's not external plot resolution; it's internal with external metaphor. Up until the point when he met Leda, Samuel felt like the sword hilt: beautiful on the outside, common and ugly on the inside. His childhood abuse left him entirely self-loathing, and no one around him has been able to help him through his insecurities. Tess sheltered him and loved him, but always felt sorrow for him, and he knew it. Dojun shaped him externally, but never bothered with his feelings. All his training and his successes fail to alter his view of himself. Only Leda does that. Because Leda loves him, despite his past. She admires him for his ability to overcome the past. She knows everything and thinks him remarkable. And Samuel, in respecting Leda, has to reevaluate himself. If she, who is pure and good and recognizes value, can love him, he is lovable.
When Dojun reveals the sword's history, and the reasons behind his choice and training of Samuel, Samuel recognizes the truth. He has expended so much energy trying to get Dojun to love him for who he is, and Dojun has no interest in doing that. But Leda does. Leda wants to please him. She wants him to respect her. Dojun's dragging of Leda into the Japanese sword intrigue puts her at risk and therefore puts Samuel at risk, but he doesn't hesitate to do so. He is willing to use them as pawns for his cause. When he tells Samuel once again, "Want too much, you," Samuel makes the ultimate break with him: choosing Leda (and his right to be loved for himself) over Dojun's "love." He's tired of being a tool for perverted purposes. He throws the sword and sets himself free of anyone else's agenda.
Understanding this, the last chapter of the book has to be read differently. Samuel chose himself for himself. He is choosing to believe he has value and that what he wants from Leda (love, sex, daily affirmation) isn't too much to expect from a lover. Yes, he is damaged, but he isn't too damaged to give Leda what she wants: love, closeness, companionship, physical intimacy. Believing he is worthy of this makes their future relationship possible. Before the boat his need for her is weakness; after, it's normal human need.
This book has so many high points. I love Leda. Really, I adore her. She's funny, humble, self-deprecating, modest, loyal, devoted, upright. She only wants to do right, to be the lady she was brought up to be. While she has a rigid view of what ought to be, she isn't priggish or judgmental about those around her. So many of her insights about men and relationships make me laugh. She's such a strong character too: willing to work harder or suffer more to stay within the confines of her sense of right and wrong. I loved that she refused to be Madame Elise's whore despite the fact that it meant her life's fragile foundation crumbled underneath her. Ultimately she's as brave as Samuel, with an even stronger sense of integrity.
It's fascinating too, how Samuel and Leda mirror each other. They are both orphans, without a sense of their true origins. They both feel like outsiders, torn between how they were brought up and society's expectations of people of their backgrounds. Lacking a sense of identity, both of them have committed to rigid codes of morality and behavior. Neither of them gets why these codes are so important to the other one. Both are amused or perplexed at the other's devotion to these rules, but ultimately respectful. As the book has a number of settings (London, Hawaii, transplanted Japan) there are numerous incidents of cultures colliding. Kinsale really did her research for this book. The details of Victorian living, life in developing Hawaii, and Japanese warrior culture are all there. The characters think constantly according to their cultural biases and expectations and the reader "sees" these cultures through Kinsale's descriptive details.
In sum, for Romance: this is the ultimate: lovely prose, finely drawn characters, the sense of truly experiencing a world long gone, and a touching love story about people who mirror and ultimately complete each other.
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