There
are novels where you quite happily fall in love with the characters, and then
there are ones where if you met them you would ask them what on earth were they
thinking, and shake your head and sigh. And that would be a polite response.
There
were many times when reading “The Paying Guests”, the latest novel by
bestselling author, Sarah Waters, when I felt thoroughly aggravated by its
reluctant heroine. Set in the aftermath of the First World War, a shabbily
genteel widow and her daughter Frances are in reduced circumstances and are
forced to rent out rooms to a young, ambitious working class couple, Lilian and
Leonard – the “paying guests” whose presence is necessary but undesired.
Frances, who has previously sacrificed her independence and her lover out of
duty to her family, finds herself irresistibly drawn to Lilian, and their
tentative friendship soon becomes a passionate love affair with unforeseen –
and catastrophic – consequences.
Frances
herself is a difficult character to like, and as the central protagonist, it’s
hard for the reader to ultimately root for her. Whilst we could sympathise with
her plight – Frances has taken responsibility for the household, and the
detailed descriptions of how she channels her deep emotional turmoil into the
heavy duty household chores of a ‘20’s household is highly evocative –
ultimately we spend far too much time hearing her thoughts. A large proportion
of the book concerns not action or indeed interaction – there is
disappointingly little dialogue, considering the number of intersecting
relationships at the heart of the action- but the torturous inner monologue of
Frances as she dithers and frets and deliberates over what to do.
However,
the relationship between Frances and Lily does cast its spell, and this is
where the slow burning pace is at its strongest and most seductive; in the
first third of the novel, when Frances and Lily are falling in love. Waters
writes well about love and sex, and her previous novels such as “Tipping The
Velvet”, “Fingersmith” and “The Night’s Watch” (which I would highly recommend)
have delighted due to their detailed evocation of lesbian relationships and the
meticulous re-creation of the lives and worlds of those previously obscured or
written out of conventional historical narratives. Particularly beguiling, in
all of her novels, is the city itself, London, which becomes more than a vivid
backdrop to the action but a fully realised, intoxicating world. All the
characters are well drawn and convincing, and the apt, beautifully observed and
often wry descriptions are a delight.
The
shift of pace and plot – from love story into crime-thriller- seemed somewhat
disjointed, and whilst it’s a page turning read, unfortunately it can also be a
page skimming one too. The final third of the novel is somewhat a
disappointment in comparison to the first, and it’s tempting to describe the
book as going out with a fizzle and a whimper rather than a bang. However, this
would be somewhat unfair, as it’s really in comparison to Waters’ other works
that this one ultimately disappoints – and to anyone who hasn’t yet discovered
her writing, “The Paying Guests” would be an excellent introduction.
April Cursons (@charitychiccat)
I loved this book, I enjoyed the wide array of character flaws that each person owned. Focusing on the people and their relationships within a war torn Britain, presented another viewpoint from which we are able to view those times. I agree that the build up in the first half of the book was faster paced than the second, however, I personally loved the ending.
ReplyDeleteAffinity was my favourite novel of Sarah Water's and highly recommend it to others.