The Bright Sword follows the meta-quest of one Ser Collum to become a knight of the round table. Growing up parent-less in the northern isles, he eventually steals a set of armor and sword and sets off on a journey to Camelot. Now that Arthur is dead and gone, Collum finds only rough camaraderie among the motley crew of knights who are now at loose ends around the round table. But when a green knight shows up one day with tidings that one of the knight's of Arthur's table yet lives, the group sets off on a quest to find said knight. Adventure, as they say, ensues.
The Bright Sword is Arthurian milieu if ever there were. Grossman weaves a colorful tapestry of story—fictional, historical, and beyond. Arthurian legend, character side stories, Collum's adventures, English history, and dream sequences fill the pages. Grossman's diction is contemporary in tone and feel (as opposed to classic and formal). He drops f-bombs occasionally and adds small, gritty details that you would not see in a Victorian rendering. But the heart of storytelling remains knightly adventure, with all the elements of honor, power, nobility, etc. that one would expect when fairies, wizards, dragons, and the other classic devices of Arthurian legend are at play.
Which is a good time to point out: The Bright Sword possesses a through-line of story (Collum's tale), but the narrative is not linear. Side stories abound. Grossman routinely veers off the main path to tell the backstory of a particular knight or side character. He brings Collum's fantastical dreams to light. Bits of history are wedged in to provide context. And on occasion Collum enters the mists of faerie. It is truly Arthurian milieu.
For readers concerned that Grossman's foray into historical fiction may too often switch from storyteller to educator, be aware The Bright Sword walks that fence carefully, and occasionally slips. Scattered throughout Collum's tale are tiny details of Medieval life the ordinary person does not think of, and which enhance the story. They help bring the setting and characters to life. And then there are moments when one feels Grossman slipping on the professor's hat to pass along a bit of Arthurian lore. Here is what I learned researching this novel... I felt the novel would have been better without these educational bits, but undoubtedly there will be readers who enjoy them, perhaps even want them. You know which type of reader you are, so you can decide for yourself whether this would be a turn-off or -on.
Another element of The Bright Sword which will sit well with some readers and cause others to bounce are the routine, overt appearances of politics—contemporary left politics, to be precise. Throughout the course of the book Grossman runs through a DEI checklist. There is talk of reparations, of women's rights, of homosexuality, of patriarchy, of transgenderism, of race—and on goes that checklist. You know the one I'm talking about. The first checkbox I ignored, the second raised a red flag, and by the time I'd reached the third, fourth, fifth instances it was clear Grossman had an agenda beyond storytelling. While the DEI content occupies only 10-15% of the book, it's enough to be clear Grossman wanted to re-write Arthurian legend in much the same way other modern writers have taken texts of yore and injected them with modern politics. This left a bad taste in my mouth. Like giving a caveman a spaceship, it feels paradoxical somehow. Moreover, the book would have been just fine without it. But again, there are readers for whom this type of content is required lest the author get a tongue lashing. Put your whips away for The Bright Sword.
In the end, The Bright Sword has potential to be a great book if modern politics and Arthurian infotainment are on your scorecard. If they are decidedly not on your scorecard, you should think twice about this one. If you don't give a fig about either, then it's possible Grossman's mix of knights, quests, and magic in an Arthurian setting will engage. The sense of adventure is real, the sub-stories shift and twist in unpredictable fashion, and there is a sparseness of color which gives the rare moments the fantastical appears a certain punch. This was clearly a passion project for Grossman, and the heart shows.
While reading Alfred Austin's 'The Poetry of the Period' I was struck by a particular passage and was reminded of your fine review.
ReplyDeleteThis is what Austin has to say concerning Tennyson's 'Idylls of the King' (perhaps the most influential work of Arthuriana of the Victorian Period): "What are the four Idylls of the King about? Woman, woman, woman, woman. I wonder what the Flos Regum Arthurus and all the Table Round would have thought had they known that their names and deeds would have served this one small purpose in the nineteenth century." Austin published this in *1869*
I've not yet read Grossman's 'The Bright Sword' but from your description it seems to me that Grossman's efforts to foreground the perspectives and experiences of minorities isn't a concession to contemporary trends so much as a continuation of a tradition endemic to Arthurian retellings.
You're well within your rights to feel it is jarring when Grossman applies contemporary identity politics to the cod-medieval milieu of Camelot. "Like giving a caveman a spaceship," as you suggest. However, I might counter that this "paradoxical" element doesn't detract from the narrative at all. Rather, the friction produced when the modern and the historic rub against each another is common to all major Arthurian retellings of well over the last century.
We can identify Grossman's antecedents in Tennyson's focus on 'Woman, woman, woman, woman" and T.H. White's playful anachronisms: "“It was not really Eton that he mentioned, for the College of Blessed Mary was not founded until 1440, but it was a place of the same sort” and John Boorman's use of Richard Wagner.
Austin saw Tennyson's 'Idylls' as symptomatic of the "feminine temper of the times" and today it might be hard to see past the "DEI checklist" of 'The Bright Sword.' I wonder what will stick out to the readers of the latest Arthurian retellings in the next century and whether they too will protest the injection of modern politics into the texts of yore. Perhaps they will yearn for the days of Tennyson, White and Grossman.
You are way beyond me in terms of scholarship, as I assume most people who read this novel. I have to take your word for it.
DeleteCheck out the novel and come back to comment, if you would. :)
I should like to do that very much! I'll have to read The Bright Sword just as soon as I've finished my TBR list. It should only take two or three... decades. And there's so much other Arthurian fiction I should give a look-in like To the Chapel Perilous by Naomi Mitchison, The Buried Giant, Spear, By Force Alone, and it looks as if Adam Roberts has a book coming out as well. Oh dear.
DeleteI should like to mention not a few books on the TBR were added due to your own reviews and end-of-year lists. Thanks for all the good work you do, Jesse.