Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
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Book Reviews of Fingersmith
Book Review: Twists and More Twists ... Sorry I Can't Tell You More: JUST READ IT!
Summary: 5 Stars
If you read a lot of book blogs, I'm sure you've come across a few reviews of Fingersmith by Sarah Waters. And I bet they all have one thing in common: the reviewer laments the fact that they can't really tell you any more than the bare bones of the plot because then it would spoil the book for you. Then they go on to praise the book and tell you "Just read it. Trust me. It is that good."
So who am I to attempt to do the impossible? You truly cannot write too much about Fingersmith without spoiling everything that makes Fingersmith such a dizzying, delightful read. I saw a comment by Nymeth from Things Means A Lot (who wrote one of the best reviews of this book I've come across) on another blogger's review of Fingersmith that said:
The first rule of Fingersmith is that you don't talk about Fingersmith.
Of course, this is a reference to Fight Club (of which I've only seen the movie and not read the book), but, when I thought about it, there are definite parallels between Fight Club and Fingersmith (aside from the need to be close-mouthed about plot points). And so I felt I must respect the code and not talk too much about this book. But here is what I can tell you.
* Reading this book is like looking into a kaleidoscope. You see things fitting together in an intricate pattern but then you turn it and all the pieces align in a new pattern. And then you turn it again ...
* Reading this book is like boarding those Wild Mouse rides you see at amusement parks where you get whipped around on these crazy sharp turns that make your head spin.
* Reading this book is like watching Mission Impossible where the ... WAIT ... I can't continue with that one. It might give too much away.
Let's just say that if Fingersmith was a food, it would be a pretzel. (Because of the twists). I think the true brilliance and fun of Fingersmith is the plot twists that leave you feeling dizzy, invigorated, duped, nodding, shaking, and wanting to leap ahead to find out where Waters is going to take you next. (But don't think the plot twists are all the book has going for it. It is also amazingly well-written; provides a brilliant sense of atmosphere; and creates memorable, indelible characters that will stay with you.)
So, what else can I tell you?
* The book is set in Victorian England. Now usually this is a turn-off for me. I associate "Victorian" with "dead boring." (Unfairly, I suppose, as I haven't read all that much of it.) I always think books set in the Victorian era will focus too much on virtue and being good and social niceties and the big scandal would be if someone used the wrong spoon to stir their tea. (I'm totally speaking out of my ass here, by the way. I don't know ANYTHING about Victorian novels ... just a vague sense of what I think Victorian novels are or would be like. I'm sure many of you will try to convert me now.) So, if you have an unfair prejudice against books from the Victorian era like I did, discard them. This book is ANYTHING but boring and stuffy.
* Fingersmith is a term that means "petty thief," which is how one of the main characters, Sue Trinder, earns her living in London. Fingersmith might also refer to someone who has mastered a skill involving the use of his or her fingers. It could also have another connotation that makes more sense after you read the book but I'm not going to tell you about it. OK ... I will ... let's just say the book has been called "lesbian Victoriana." So now you figure it out yourself. (And that is your only "warning" that this book deals with the Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name.)
* The book is 582 pages but once you hit the end of the first part, you will want to read the book at every available opportunity so make sure you have the time available. Once you board the crazy ride that is Fingersmith, you won't want to get off!
* You will never look at a pair of white gloves in quite the same way.
Oh ... enough already. Just read it!!! Trust me!!!! You'll love it!! (Unless you really don't care for suspenseful, twist-filled, well-written, unforgettable, kick-ass, Gothic, big themed, psychologically thrilling, heart-in-your-mouth historical fiction. If that isn't your type of book, then by all means skip it.)
I hereby award Fingersmith 5 stars and pretty much guarantee it is going to be one of my Top 10 reads of the year.
Book Review: Wow!
Summary: 5 Stars
In a story of double-crossing thieves, Sarah Waters takes us back to dark Victorian London in FINGERSMITH, a beautifully written novel that is wonderfully intriguing, somewhat erotic, and kept this reader completely in suspense from cover to cover.Two young women are orphaned early in life. Susan Trinder is raised by a band of thieves, calling Mrs. Sucksby the nearest thing to a mother she ever had. They live on Lant Street in the heart of the London Boroughs, a dark and impoverished area of the city. From Sue's window one has a good view of the hangings from Gaol, where she is told her birth mother was hung for murder. Her "friends" are Dainty and John Vroom and Mr. Ibbs, who all work and live together with Mrs. Sucksby and Sue, along with a number of babies that Mrs. Sucksby "farms" to make a living. Sue was one of those special babies at one time, but Mrs. Sucksby kept and raised Susan as her own daughter, protecting Sue from harm's way, and helps teach her the art of stealing and thievery.
Maud, on the other hand, lives with her Uncle Mr. Lilly in Briar, on a large estate in the countryside many hours away from London by carriage. She spends her days reading to her uncle and doing things that ladies in her station do - absolutely nothing. She takes walks outside on the estate; she takes tea in her room. She eats meals with her Uncle at the proper time. In other words, Maud's life was a totally different world from that of Sue Trinder's.
Back on Lant Street, a scam is being laid out. It is decided that Sue will masquerade as a maid for Miss Lilly, whose Uncle is a business associate of Richard Rivers, known to Sue and her friends as "Gentleman". Sue's role in this scam is to help secure a matrimonial match between Gentleman and Maud Lilly, who stands to inherit a fortune upon her wedding. Sue travels to Briar as Susan Smith with a totally made up identity, and works her way into the life of Maud Lilly, while Gentleman slowly woos his way into Maud's heart. Their plan is to declare Maud insane after she is wed to Gentleman. Then, Richard will take the money that is inherited by Maud, giving a few thousand pounds to Sue as a reward.
However, things do not go as planned. What ensues is a double-crossing upon double-crossing. Both women find themselves in situations they were not expecting, and soon both are trying their best to rectify things without losing their lives.
This is only a trace of what FINGERSMITH is all about. Besides the intricate plot and subplots that Sarah Waters creates surrounding the scam, Ms. Waters also writes a plot that is not all that it seems. Written from the viewpoint of both Maud and Sue, the reader receives a jolt of shock when it's time to read Part II, where the story is now told in the voice of Maud Lilly.
There are also the wonderful characters that are assembled in this dark Victorian drama. The two main characters, Maud and Sue, are of course the most integral part of the book, and their relationship while they are maid and mistress borders on erotica. Then you have the lunatic asylums, the relationship between the different members of Mrs. Sucksby's household, and life at Briar, the dark and old estate that brings to mind novels such as Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre.
I thoroughly enjoyed FINGERSMITH. It was a great story with beautiful writing and characters that jump out at you as if you were watching a film. I plan on reading Waters other two novels, AFFINITY, and her first novel, TIPPING THE VELVET, soon. FINGERSMITH will definitely be on my list of top 20 books read in 2003.
Book Review: Don't miss this pearl!
Summary: 5 Stars
For anyone who hasn't discovered the literary genius of Sarah Waters, it won't be long before you'll want to devour every word the best-selling, award-winning novelist pens. My admiration goes beyond the author's expertise in capturing the mood reminiscent of Oliver Twist. Waters extensive research enriches the vivid setting. Her spot-on characterizations combined with a highly absorbing plot captivate both critics and readers alike. If I were to go back to Victorian England, more precisely London 1862, I bet it would look, smell, taste, and sound as Waters has deftly described it. If I would have been asked to root for a thief, I should say not. But Susan Trinder, an orphan who through a twist of fate only knows a crooked life, is worth saving. And what of Maud Lilly? Orphaned as well, she lives a seemingly charmed, though lonely life, in a country estate of her uncle, much as a caged bird. Left in the hands of evil folk who prosper by unsavory means, can the fates of both women be spared? How much strife can a woman endure before she loses her mind, heart, and soul?
Fingersmith is the story of two young women who have nothing in common except the acquaintance of a man who goes by the name Gentleman. He's a crook who means to ruin an heiress in order to make his fortune. As part of Gentleman's plan to get rich quick, Susan leaves Mrs. Sucksby, the woman who raises her, and London, the only home she's ever known. When she travels to Briar to pose as Maud's maid, she soon discovers a connection that goes beyond the treacherous scheme that brings her and Maud together. Despite deceit, their kinship is cemented during all the time they spend in each other's company. Their heartstrings are pulled tight with thoughts of what is to happen next. They share a love believed to be so hideous as to be shunned by society and yet through it all, the hope of good coming out of evil is the hope that has readers turning the pages.
Gentleman, a despicable yet thoroughly charming con man, evokes little or no sympathy but he's entertaining in his cunning sort of way. Then there's Mrs. Sucksby, a petty thief, who raises Susan as a means to an end. When Mrs. Sucksby sells the other orphaned infants but keeps Sue as her own, Waters compels us to discover the motive behind baby farmer's actions. Mr. Lilly, Maud's uncle, is a depraved man who enslaves a girl for his gain. It makes us wonder how some people have few scruples to inflict cruelty upon others.
Waters captivates her audiences through vivid imagery as each scene builds the suspenseful plot only to pull a fast one at every turn. Anyone who longs for a Victorian novel told expertly in the Dickens style, who loves surprises, who enjoys characters to sink your teeth into, and who wants to come away uplifted, would do well not to hesitate another moment. Head over to your bookshop or on-line seller and pick up a copy today. Susan and Maud will forever be in your heart. You won't be able to put it down. If you crave authentic historical fiction, clever plot twists, and a fine romance, I highly recommend you don't miss this gem.
Book Review: Unexpected surprise
Summary: 5 Stars
I need to tell you a story, more like a description than anything else, that should help you to understand my views on this book. I'm not familiar with every idiom of English language, so when I stumbled upon this title, I didn't know what to think of it. Didn't know it's meaning and usage and so on. But, what matters more is this. In my language, title of this books is translated like "Cheaters", with blurb saying it's all about lesbian love in Victorian age. If we add to that trashy cover art with two girls in long white dresses, you can imagine what my expectations were. I expected nothing more than average piece of historical fiction, uninventive, industrial piece on impossibilities of love between same sexes, one of those numerous books that you forget the moment after you finish them. Reading of five hundred pages just to confirm that suspicion seemed like too much, and I was on the verge of never opening this one. If I have done that, I would have missed a lot. Now, I don't know what English edition blurbs look like, but I recommend that you don't read them. Not because of possible trash value of some of them, but because they spoil the books (at least mine did) on more profound level. What am talking about? This book is all about secrets, story-twists, misleading chapters, misunderstanding and unknown that reading about single aspect in the blurb will eventually spoil everything. Now, my thoughts on this book were challenged first time on the end of the first part, where I was totally astounded and surprised (something that didn't happen to me in a long, long time) and I found myself wanting more, racing through the pages just to reach conclusion. By the end, I was somewhat disappointed because Sarah Waters lost her initial punch and kinda drifted away, but in the end I felt strangely satisfied by what I just read that all of my resentments disappeared. And I was left with musing about how very good this book actually is.
Now, I will not talk about plot or narration here, considering that knowing all of that will just spoil your reading. What I want to say is this - this in not a historical fiction Sure, it happens in 19th century London and its surroundings and there are no cars or television around but what has been narrated can easily be translated into some of the countries of today without loosing anything in the process. This is the book about lives of the underdogs, book about madness of mental institutions (for those of you who have missed Foucault speaking about the same thing on much more complex level), book about faulty expectations and double standards, about hypocrisy and love and, in a certain way, it becomes postmodern deconstruction of historical fiction as such. But this, purely narrational ploy with its consequences and private hints doesn't suffocate the book. It breathes with life, drawing it's reader inside the text, never letting go.
I don't have a single idea about the other works of Sarah Waters, but I will certainly look her up now. Maybe I was missing much all these years, maybe not. But, beauty lies in the process of discovery. I advise that you do the same.
Book Review: A novel with many layers
Summary: 5 Stars
In the reading life of an avid reader there are only few treats like reaching the very big twist in Sarah Waters's "Fingersmith". Not many things are comparable to the big gasp that even an experienced reader will utter when he/she read that paragraph, and in disbelief wants to move on.Waters' extraordinary novel is made of that, of a big hanging twist after another -- and we are desperate for more. When the narrative flows in a calm pace we cannot almost believe that `nothing is going on'. Actually a lot is going on all the time, but we keep waiting for a huge twist happen. And they happen --oh, boy!
The story of two crossed orphans is told with sophistication and passion. There is more passion from the author towards her creations than from one character to each other. The characters are never what they seem to be --and, no matter how experienced we are, we are delightfully fooled most of the time.
Victorian par excellence, "Fingersmith" can be compared to the also beautiful "The Crimson Petal and the White". Both are very plot-driven big bravura of novels. Waters's work may not be as big as "Petal" but it is still an important social panorama of a period in England --the time when women used to `farm' babies for whatever they were required, a time when pickpockets were called fingersmith, among other things.
But Waters is usually compared to Charles Dickens. It is undeniable that there is a Dickensian element in her novel -- it is not by chance that in the very first page of "Fingersmith" the main character goes to theater to see "Oliver Twist". But while in Dickens' novels characters could be divided into the good, the bad and the very very evil, in Waters's book they cannot labelled at all. Nobody is only good or only bad --they are closer to real human beings, in whom both good and evil cohabit and eventually one of them will come to the surface.
At some point, "Fingersmith" is very close to the gothic novel. Waters has an incredible ability to describe phantasmagoric places without even mentioning ghosts. She creates alive human beings that are much more scarier than any dead soul --just check the beginning of the third part.
But there is also room for existentialism in "Fingersmith". At some point, the narrative would raise interesting questions on the sanity issue. What's a mad person? How can we label someone crazy? There probably is some resonance from Charlotte Brontė's "Jane Eyre". And the philosophical discussion never stops. The most important thematic in "Fingersmith" is the identity: what defines who you are? This is a topic that will always be timeless.
All in all, this is a novel with so many good influences and references that only enhances the pleasure of reading it. There are so many layers in Waters's "Fingersmith" that it is a delightful game to try and predict what will come next --but, mind you, nobody has a creative mind as this author.