(no subject)

[skygiants]

It is very much always a good time for a new Iona Datt Sharma novella! I do hesitate to call Division Bells a rom-com, though it's got the structure of one: a shiny-eyed newcomer (and son of a peer) comes to work as the special advisor to a government minister, and immediately butts heads with a sarcastic civil servant who thinks special advisors have no place imposing their shiny eyes into professional environments that require deep commitment and subject expertise, and then they fall in love. Which is indeed a rom-com plot, and the novella is often both very funny and very romantic! But the central question of a rom-com is "will these people find meaning in each other," and while that is an important question to Division Bells, the bigger question is "will these people find meaning in themselves" -- both Jules (he of the shiny eyes) and Ari (he of the bitter exhaustion) spend most of the novel coming to grips with what the slow, grinding work of lawmaking can and can't give them, Jules fumbling his way towards a belief and passion in the work as Ari is remembering that he can have a life outside of it. It's a very good story for right now, I think; it's a story that wants you to remember that progress takes work, and also that there is hope in defeat, and also that there is absurdity in everything, no matter how serious and important, and all of these are things for which I consistently come to Iona's work.

And besides this, of course, there is the simple pleasure of rolling around in the rich detail -- it's just so much fun to read something that's so grounded in subject matter expertise, like being let in on an author's in-joke with themself. I don't personally know anything about how the business of lawmaking works in the UK but I love, so much, that Iona does! Bureaucracy romance!!!

Comments

[sovay]

But the central question of a rom-com is "will these people find meaning in each other," and while that is an important question to Division Bells, the bigger question is "will these people find meaning in themselves"

Huh. I think I prefer romances (as well as narratives in general) that ask the second question.

[skygiants]

Me too! To be fair, I think most of them do, it's just a question fo where the ... load-bearing balance is?

[dolorosa_12]

Thanks for the recommendation — I've bought an ebook immediately! I really enjoyed the other fiction I've read by Iona Datt Sharma, and Division Bells sounds excellent. I think it will be perfect weekend reading!

[skygiants]

I just saw your post, I'm so glad you liked it! Iona's stuff is always such a delight. :D

[davidgillon]

I don't personally know anything about how the business of lawmaking works in the UK

Suffice to say that SPADs are relatively new and a deeply unpopular innovation*, often associated with political skullduggery that's completely incompatible with the role of the Civil Service, who are required to be politically neutral, and with a reputation for being poorly socialised. Dominic Cummings, the PM's SPAD, he of the blatant lockdown breech (and recently found to have evaded 18 years worth of local taxes, and been let off with it), has a reputation for open bullying of Civil Servants at every ministry he's ever worked in.

*Not just with the Civil Service.

[skygiants]

Ah, I hadn't realized that they were a new innovation! I'd more or less assumed that they were a long-existing institution. (Iona has a great set of alterna-titles in this tweet that are all terrible/wonderful puns on SPAD ....)

[davidgillon]

They've actually been around since 1964 (longer than I thought), but they've become much more assertive and controversial over the past decade or so, and now they're often seen as actively trying to drive traditional civil servants to act in a way that's incompatible with their mandatory neutrality.

[lokifan]

That sounds wonderful!! *adds to list*

[skygiants]

I hope you enjoy it if you read it! :D

[lirazel]

I do not tend to read contemporaries, but I have such a soft spot for exactly the character dynamics you're describing here, so I've added it to my to-read list.

[skygiants]

It's really delightful and Iona knows their stuff so well -- this is their first full romance proper and I hope they write a hundred of them.

[sophia_sol]

ahhhh you did such a good job of describing what's so great about this book! I loved it but my upcoming review is basically just two sentences of "it made me feel things"

[skygiants]

IT MADE ME FEEL THINGS! I look forward very much to your upcoming review. :D

[osprey_archer]

GODDAMMIT I don't need another book on my TBR, but HERE WE ARE.

[skygiants]

It's very short! Only 25K! You'll get through it in three shakes of a lambs tail! :D????

[obopolsk]

But the central question of a rom-com is "will these people find meaning in each other," and while that is an important question to Division Bells, the bigger question is "will these people find meaning in themselves".

I really like the way you put this -- I am an avid romance novel reader but am also almost always frustrated by this element of romance novels, and often find the most satisfying moment of the novel to be the one right before the get-together scene, when the main character resolves whatever personal thing was holding her back.

[skygiants]

Yeah! The most satisfying romance novels (for me) I think are the ones that manage to braid these themes together most effectively, where the romance is the lever that moves the character out of stagnation but the most important thing is that they moved.