(no subject)

[skygiants]

Llinos Cathryn Thomas' A Duet for Invisible Strings is a charming novella featuring the rarest of romantic protagonists: solidly middle-aged lesbians!

The lesbians in this case work together in an orchestra; Heledd is the first violinist and she has been pining for her conductor/collaborator Rosemary for many a year, and Rosemary does Not Seem Indifferent. Unfortunately, Heledd is also afflicted with a mysterious supernatural obligation that makes her deeply reluctant to act upon her feelings in case the supernatural obligation comes to call upon her in the near future. As indeed it seems quite likely to, when the orchestra unexpectedly finds a gig has been arranged for it in Heledd's home village in Wales!

It's a relatively short book but a very sweet one; Heledd and Rosemary are both kind and responsible and drawn together by a shared passion and I always enjoy a sympathetic changeling POV narrative -- probably my favorite aspect of the book was actually the description of baby changeling Heledd having to learn how to make music from scratch instead of summoning it out of the air. It's definitely got something of the feel of a fairy tale, but the solid musical details and concerns of a working orchestra ground both the story and the protagonist in a way that I appreciated very much.

Comments

[chestnut_pod]

I totally agree! Especially when it's some other thing that truly seems to have a personality -- often I feel like the arts, like music or dance, get the most attention, and definitely THE REVOLUTION or THE WORKERS, but I've also read great stories where everyone is a lawyer, or a country parson, or an architecture enthusiast! I love being introduced to new things to love in that way, just like the characters sometimes are.

[genarti]

Yessss. One of my favorite forms of romance! (Or friendship, come to that.) Overlapping with, but I think slightly distinct from, Person A/Person B/DUTY AND RESPONSIBILITY, which I also love enormously and possibly even more.