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A review by kaje_harper
Anagama Fires by Sarah Black
5.0
Wow. This is an easy book to admire, slightly harder to love deeply, and yet one I'll definitely reread. There is a lot happening here, and for all the happy ending, it doesn't neatly slot into the usual romance tropes. This story is a tribute to the idea that love happens, and it doesn't make either of you perfect, and sometimes it's still worth living with the imperfections, to have that person in your life.
Lucien and Colin lived and worked together as potters and ceramic artists for over twenty years. But over that time, things gradually came between them. Colin is an artist, of the kind that breaks molds and redefines a genre. His work is bold and brilliant, and attracted world-wide attention. Like many great artists, Colin is rather oblivious about everything outside his art. He's very sure of his vision, and that translates to also being sure in daily life, striding forward without paying attention to whether he's going the right direction for the man he loves.
Lucien is an artist in a quieter, more subtle way. He creates pieces with love and care, bowls that caress the hand and become deep favorites. He's also a softer personality, and was dragged along behind Colin. And gradually resentment built, for Colin's success and his certainty and his obliviousness and his entitlement. At the end of the twenty years, as Lucien and Colin put their newest great pieces into the hottest Anagama kiln and fired it up, Colin was baffled and restless, and Lucien was resentful and close to crying. And in the morning when Lucien woke, with the kiln still cooling, Colin had packed a bag and left for Thailand. As the book opens they haven't seen each other for five years.
It's tempting to blame Colin at this point, for being an insensitive asshole. And he is. But it's Lucien who sees a therapist, stays at the pottery and goes on quietly with his life and his art, although he has never opened that kiln full of potentially priceless art. It's Colin who hasn't created a new piece in five years, and spends his time digging ponds in his Thailand backyard.
One day Lucien looks up to see a young man coming down his road. It's not Colin, although for one heart-stopping moment he thinks it is, but James, Colin's nephew. And it's the beginning of an avalanche of events, engineered by Colin to bring them back together.
One thing I admire about this book is that Sarah Black doesn't really rehabilitate Colin. He's still a genius asshole with sensitivity problems and a sense of entitlement. Although he tries, somewhat, to do better. And Lucien doesn't become a tough independent man who asserts his rights and forces Colin to acknowledge his equality. That's how regular M/M would go, and I might have loved those more-perfect men better. But what the author creates here are two men whose flaws and defects remain, but who both find that the hole in their souls when they are apart is too painful to bear. And who are willing to try whatever it takes to get back together. If Colin's "whatever" takes the form of a lot of high-handed stage managing, and Lucien's is a collapse into letting Colin have his way, that doesn't invalidate how they feel about each other.
A fascinating book about two very flawed men who don't overcome those flaws, but move forward in spite of them. There's quite a bit of pottery lore here, bordering on too much had I been in an impatient mood, but as it was, interesting in its own right. I began to wish I could really see the glazes (and the guys.) I'm beginning to think this author is at her best with the realities and complexities of an existing relationship, after the first intense falling-in-love has happened. A book I will reread, and I expect one that will have new things to say that I missed on a fast first read.
Lucien and Colin lived and worked together as potters and ceramic artists for over twenty years. But over that time, things gradually came between them. Colin is an artist, of the kind that breaks molds and redefines a genre. His work is bold and brilliant, and attracted world-wide attention. Like many great artists, Colin is rather oblivious about everything outside his art. He's very sure of his vision, and that translates to also being sure in daily life, striding forward without paying attention to whether he's going the right direction for the man he loves.
Lucien is an artist in a quieter, more subtle way. He creates pieces with love and care, bowls that caress the hand and become deep favorites. He's also a softer personality, and was dragged along behind Colin. And gradually resentment built, for Colin's success and his certainty and his obliviousness and his entitlement. At the end of the twenty years, as Lucien and Colin put their newest great pieces into the hottest Anagama kiln and fired it up, Colin was baffled and restless, and Lucien was resentful and close to crying. And in the morning when Lucien woke, with the kiln still cooling, Colin had packed a bag and left for Thailand. As the book opens they haven't seen each other for five years.
It's tempting to blame Colin at this point, for being an insensitive asshole. And he is. But it's Lucien who sees a therapist, stays at the pottery and goes on quietly with his life and his art, although he has never opened that kiln full of potentially priceless art. It's Colin who hasn't created a new piece in five years, and spends his time digging ponds in his Thailand backyard.
One day Lucien looks up to see a young man coming down his road. It's not Colin, although for one heart-stopping moment he thinks it is, but James, Colin's nephew. And it's the beginning of an avalanche of events, engineered by Colin to bring them back together.
One thing I admire about this book is that Sarah Black doesn't really rehabilitate Colin. He's still a genius asshole with sensitivity problems and a sense of entitlement. Although he tries, somewhat, to do better. And Lucien doesn't become a tough independent man who asserts his rights and forces Colin to acknowledge his equality. That's how regular M/M would go, and I might have loved those more-perfect men better. But what the author creates here are two men whose flaws and defects remain, but who both find that the hole in their souls when they are apart is too painful to bear. And who are willing to try whatever it takes to get back together. If Colin's "whatever" takes the form of a lot of high-handed stage managing, and Lucien's is a collapse into letting Colin have his way, that doesn't invalidate how they feel about each other.
A fascinating book about two very flawed men who don't overcome those flaws, but move forward in spite of them. There's quite a bit of pottery lore here, bordering on too much had I been in an impatient mood, but as it was, interesting in its own right. I began to wish I could really see the glazes (and the guys.) I'm beginning to think this author is at her best with the realities and complexities of an existing relationship, after the first intense falling-in-love has happened. A book I will reread, and I expect one that will have new things to say that I missed on a fast first read.