Nom De Coeur by Dorinda (PG)
Title: Nom de Coeur by Dorinda
Fandom: Casablanca
Pairing: Rick/Louis
Categories: Slash, romance
Length: 12,700 words
Warning: None
Rating: Not rated by author - very mild - certainly PG.
Author on LJ: Unknown
Website: Dorinda's Bare Bones Page
Summary: This looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship--but beginnings are only seeds, and it's a long way to Brazzaville.
Review: Rick Blaine's escape from Casablanca is accomplished with the help of, and in the company of, former Vichy prefect Louis Renault. As they get further and further away from danger, and closer and closer to their destination, their relationship begins to alter. But then again, is it such a very big change?
This story has two major assets. The first is the exquisitely-drawn attraction between the two men which could, in a lesser hand, have been presented simply as Rick's rebound affair after Ilsa's departure but which here stands up for itself as something which was always a possibility. The second is the meticulous background. Someone either knows or has researched in considerable detail the railway lines through North Africa, the military situation, the hazards likely to be encountered. However, Dorinda does not make the mistake of beating the reader over the head with her research; it is all simply there, acknowledged and negotiated by the characters but not intruding upon the narrative of their story.
And what can one say about this story? We have two relatively oblique protagonists, neither one of whom wears his heart on his sleeve, gradually learning to depend on one another, gradually working their way towards the truth. Louis has been given plenty of chances to save himself, to sit out the war in safety, but these are not chances also available to Rick; therefore Louis rejects them, throwing in his lot with the fugitive American, offering him protection and guidance all the way until they are at last alone in the Sahara and it is time for total honesty between them.
Dorinda is delightfully enigmatic about what happens in the desert, but whether it's sweaty fumbling or, as seems more likely, a tentative exchange of tenderness and affection, it serves to bind the two together irrevocably. And, after all, a story with this delicacy of touch would be spoiled by the inclusion of a luridly detailed sex scene. We can imagine whatever we want for the two of them; not even so much as a kiss is described, yet somehow we know that there must have been one. Or more than one. Or many.
Less is certainly more when the 'less' is handled as well as it is here. One would have liked the story to be longer, to know how their lives turned out - at least to learn whether they survived the war - but the fact is that the characters are living in the present and so must we. For now, for a while, Rick and Louis are together; it's enough for them, and therefore it should also be enough for us.
Slash fiction simply does not get very much better than this, in any universe.
Link: Nom de Coeur
Fandom: Casablanca
Pairing: Rick/Louis
Categories: Slash, romance
Length: 12,700 words
Warning: None
Rating: Not rated by author - very mild - certainly PG.
Author on LJ: Unknown
Website: Dorinda's Bare Bones Page
Summary: This looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship--but beginnings are only seeds, and it's a long way to Brazzaville.
Review: Rick Blaine's escape from Casablanca is accomplished with the help of, and in the company of, former Vichy prefect Louis Renault. As they get further and further away from danger, and closer and closer to their destination, their relationship begins to alter. But then again, is it such a very big change?
This story has two major assets. The first is the exquisitely-drawn attraction between the two men which could, in a lesser hand, have been presented simply as Rick's rebound affair after Ilsa's departure but which here stands up for itself as something which was always a possibility. The second is the meticulous background. Someone either knows or has researched in considerable detail the railway lines through North Africa, the military situation, the hazards likely to be encountered. However, Dorinda does not make the mistake of beating the reader over the head with her research; it is all simply there, acknowledged and negotiated by the characters but not intruding upon the narrative of their story.
And what can one say about this story? We have two relatively oblique protagonists, neither one of whom wears his heart on his sleeve, gradually learning to depend on one another, gradually working their way towards the truth. Louis has been given plenty of chances to save himself, to sit out the war in safety, but these are not chances also available to Rick; therefore Louis rejects them, throwing in his lot with the fugitive American, offering him protection and guidance all the way until they are at last alone in the Sahara and it is time for total honesty between them.
Dorinda is delightfully enigmatic about what happens in the desert, but whether it's sweaty fumbling or, as seems more likely, a tentative exchange of tenderness and affection, it serves to bind the two together irrevocably. And, after all, a story with this delicacy of touch would be spoiled by the inclusion of a luridly detailed sex scene. We can imagine whatever we want for the two of them; not even so much as a kiss is described, yet somehow we know that there must have been one. Or more than one. Or many.
Less is certainly more when the 'less' is handled as well as it is here. One would have liked the story to be longer, to know how their lives turned out - at least to learn whether they survived the war - but the fact is that the characters are living in the present and so must we. For now, for a while, Rick and Louis are together; it's enough for them, and therefore it should also be enough for us.
Slash fiction simply does not get very much better than this, in any universe.
Link: Nom de Coeur