The Paying Guests, by Sarah Waters, 2014
576 pages
Well I checked this out because of the many intriguing quips of praise on the back that of course turned out to be for a different book, I love how they do that. But I read this, and enjoyed reading it, and I definitely want to seek out this other one now.
But here's this, which isn't a ghost story at all. It's a historical drama/romance that goes crime. Takes place in 1922 England, and the story is of a mother and daughter who open up their home for lodgers, or as they like to call them,
paying guests, after the man of the family died and left the best gift of all, crippling debt.
The guests, a Leonard and Lilian Barber, are a modern one, whose tendencies and style intrigue the young(ish) landlady Frances and her mother. Along with that, certain desires also spring up as the novel progresses and things are revealed. As a love affair develops between Lilian and Frances, we track it along, observing the tension and disturbances brought about by whatever.
And tension is something that this book has in heaps. It's probably it's strong suit. It's a bit slow beforehand, but speeds up a touch once the affair is in full force, and then there comes a major spike in pace at a certain climactic moment, but really kinda fizzles away from there. The tension though is what's up. The two women have to hide this shady business from their respective peers, and the time they have together is limited and wrenching and also "volcanically sexy", and I guess I'm inclined to agree. I'll have to mirror something I saw in another review I most likely wouldn't have thought of, being who I am and all, and say that Sarah Waters is great at describing physical contact and gestures. The physicality runs the gamut from very subtle to very unsubtle and explicit, with many unique ways of putting it all. Of course I have no idea what physical contact is like but this book
is sexy. Tension and sexiness in abundance, tenderness, sympathy.
And while I did enjoy reading this book, I can't say the way it all went down in the end was agreeable with me. There's a serious lack of resolution when the end rolls around. During the final chapters as the pages just kept slipping by, I was expecting something drastic to come about, heavier expectancy with each passing sentence. But ultimately I found it to be just a gradual decline into what I think was a rather unsatisfying conclusion.
I can't get into it because there's a very abrupt spoiler involved, but this moment is so sudden that it peaks the excitement and intrigue immediately after a humble buildup. I didn't know what to expect in the end during the aftermath, but was kind of let down.
So I'm kinda conflicted in that regard. I still liked reading it, much to my surprise, and when things started to pick up I was very much enthralled, but it turned into an empty feeling.
7-7.5/10?