Thanks for the lovely words about my review.

I find it difficult to separate her craftsmanship from my overall view of the book. I didn’t like it really. So, it didn’t strike me, personally, as well crafted. I didn’t particularly admire it.

I can see however, that you did and that just goes to prove the saying about horses for courses.

As for whether you could write that well or not – I thought your review was beautifully written – as an homage to a book you loved, it was thoughtful and evocative. It made me want to read this book you loved so much and experience those things too (- but of course, I could not.) Given how I felt about the book, that the review (in fact, both yours and Jaynes) made me feel that way – well, I think you write very well indeed.

I understand how you feel, since the book was not as great a reread for me as it was the first time I read it.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by “from a literary perspective”

I just mean that both in terms of the fluidity and control of the language, and in terms of the characterization, this book is hard to match in the genre. Like or dislike the characters, connect with them or not, they are just so whole, so complete and so real seeming. That to me is a real achievement.

So I guess I also mean that Ivory is a writer’s writer. I admire her craftsmanship, the building blocks of the book, tremendously. In terms of language, I doubt I could ever write as well if I tried my hardest from now until the day I died.

The book felt like a complex, elaborate, beautifully wrought intellectual exercise. The blood-pumping heart of the story seemed to me, this time, to be buried under layers and layers of cerebral fat. I could see that Graham and Submit were perfect for one another, but I wanted to feel a deep, irreversible connection between them. I wanted my heart to beat faster at the thought of these two people connecting.

Yes that!! (well, except maybe I don’t think quite so beautifully wrought as you do!)

I read this book early this year. Unlike you Janine, I’d have given it a C, maybe a C-. I grade (that sounds like my grades matter – and, except to me, they don’t!) on how much I enjoyed the book and for that, I have to connect with them. I sort of did with Graham but didn’t with Submit.

I also felt that it was a very odd kind of romance – it was quite a way into the book before Graham and Submit kissed and not too far before then that I became certain they were supposed to end up together. Yes there were parts of lyrical prose but the book just didn’t touch me and I found myself wondering what all the fuss was about.

I read it all the way through and it was not a struggle even though it was slow slow slow. But, at the end, I felt a bit cheated – like I’d been built up and built up for… something, which never arrived. I think I disliked the book the more I thought about it actually.

Because of that, I can’t agree with you that this is

surely, from a literary perspective, one of the most accomplished novels in the genre.

(although you are definitely entitled to your view of course). Plus, I’m not exactly sure what you mean by “from a literary perspective”. In the end, I didn’t connect with the characters, so it wasn’t successful for me. I have been moved by so many other novels in the genre so much more than this book (where, pretty much, I wasn’t moved at all).

I know what you mean about how novels that require work of us can still be really great. And I think the writing in Black Silk is some of the genre’s finest, so I hope readers take a chance on it despite my words of caution.

@bettie: Great to see you here! The effort involved in reading Black Silk surprised me this time around. I think the first time I read it, I finished it in two or three days, which isn’t slow for me, especially considering that it is a long book. I was so fascinated with nearly everyone in the book and that interest carried me along like a wave. This time, I remembered the characters pretty well, and their originality didn’t come as a surprise, so I had to expend more effort in the reading process. And since that took some of the thrill away for me, I have to wonder if I’ve become intellectually lazy, or conditioned to expect the thrill of newness every time I read.

This book was provided to the reviewer by either the author or publisher. The reviewer did not pay for this book but received it free.

Actually not true in this case. When I first read it in 2001, I bought a used copy of the Judy Cuevas version. Later I purchased the Avon paperback new (when it was out new in mass market). For this review, I bought the ebook.