A review by theladydoor
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
4.0
One advantage to "reading" books as audiobooks is that I always remember where I was and what I was doing as I was listening. Every book gets that extra flavor added to it. For some books, it's a calm nighttime feeling, as I'm listening to it to get to sleep. For some, I remember knitting a particular garment along with it, or jogging on a treadmill with its steady pace flooding my ears. This book took me an incredibly long time to read, nearly six months for some reason, so it is associated with a lot of things. Most of all though, it is associated with Australia. I took a vacation to the southeast coast of Oz earlier, and that's where I listened to most of the book. I finished it on a rainy day in Brisbane while I wandered around the botanical gardens, taking pictures of rain-drenched flora, and surrounded by the damp, clean smell of a passing storm. If I close my eyes and think about the book, I feel myself transplanted back there.
The book itself was a captivating and enthralling journey through the darker sides of Victorian England. The main character, Sugar, is a young prostitute bred and born in the brothels. She is no ordinary "hooker with a heart of gold" though; she spends her free time writing a novel of revenge and hate, condemning the men who have used her to inventive and torturous deaths. She is able to unflinchingly give all men the pleasure they pay for, but she is always looking for an escape from her dreary existence.
That escape comes in the form of William Rackham, a rather inept purveyor of scented soaps and lotions. He himself is looking for an escape from his troubles: an overbearing father, a sanctimonious brother, and a mad wife. He falls for Sugar and sets her up in a house of her own, eventually bringing her to his own home as a governess to his child, whom his wife cannot acknowledge as her own.
While I found Sugar's story of social climb and ambition captivating, I also loved the story of Agnes, William's wife, a naive and pious girl who is entirely uninformed about sexual matters. Her ignorance of even her own menstruation leads her to believe that her monthly bleeds are a result of a demon living in her body. It was fascinating to read about her descent into madness, and I though Faber captured her fevered fragility with excellent skill.
I loved the narration device in this novel. At times, it seems as though the book itself is talking to you, drawing you in, and leading you along to discover its characters. Jilly Bond was an excellent narrator, and I very much enjoyed my experience reading this book.
The book itself was a captivating and enthralling journey through the darker sides of Victorian England. The main character, Sugar, is a young prostitute bred and born in the brothels. She is no ordinary "hooker with a heart of gold" though; she spends her free time writing a novel of revenge and hate, condemning the men who have used her to inventive and torturous deaths. She is able to unflinchingly give all men the pleasure they pay for, but she is always looking for an escape from her dreary existence.
That escape comes in the form of William Rackham, a rather inept purveyor of scented soaps and lotions. He himself is looking for an escape from his troubles: an overbearing father, a sanctimonious brother, and a mad wife. He falls for Sugar and sets her up in a house of her own, eventually bringing her to his own home as a governess to his child, whom his wife cannot acknowledge as her own.
While I found Sugar's story of social climb and ambition captivating, I also loved the story of Agnes, William's wife, a naive and pious girl who is entirely uninformed about sexual matters. Her ignorance of even her own menstruation leads her to believe that her monthly bleeds are a result of a demon living in her body. It was fascinating to read about her descent into madness, and I though Faber captured her fevered fragility with excellent skill.
I loved the narration device in this novel. At times, it seems as though the book itself is talking to you, drawing you in, and leading you along to discover its characters. Jilly Bond was an excellent narrator, and I very much enjoyed my experience reading this book.