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My second RIP read of the season is done. Affinity by Sarah Waters got off to a slow start but finished in a rush. The book is written as two diaries. The main diary that narrates the bulk of the story belongs to Margaret Prior, an upper-middle class lady who begins visiting women incarcerated at the nearby Millbank prison in order to do them good and to give her something to do. Because you see, when the book begins we learn that she has just been recovering from something but we aren’t entirely sure what. Through a slow accumulation of hints and scenes we finally learn that after her father died the year before Margaret had tried to kill herself.
Margaret’s father allowed her to work as his assistant and this gave Margaret purpose and activity and took her out of the straightjacket of Victorian era womanhood. It also gave her an excuse for not marrying without having to reveal to her family that she prefers women over men. Added to her current sorrows is the wound of her lover, Helen, marrying Margaret’s brother, Stephen. Approaching 30, unmarried and with her younger sister planning marriage to a wealthy man, and her mother’s near smothering attentions, Millbank prison becomes a kind of escape.
At the prison Margaret meets and befriends a young and beautiful prisoner, the celebrated medium Selina Dawes who is in jail for assaulting one of her clients and contributing to the death by heart attack of her patron, Mrs. Brinks. Selina says it was not her, that she was in a trance and it was Peter Quick, her favored spirit that caused all the trouble. Margaret doesn’t believe in spiritualism but when Selina starts telling her things that she has no way of knowing and sending her gifts by the hands of her spirits, poor Margaret falls, hook, line and sinker not only for Selina’s spiritualist abilities for Selina herself.
The second diary in the book is Selina’s diary, a book she kept before going to prison. So as Margaret is getting to know Selina we are privy to scenes of Selina’s life through her diary leading up to the day of the assault that landed her in jail.
The language and style of the book is pretty plain and straightforward. No flights of lyricism or long and tricky sentences. This does not mean the book isn’t well written though, only that if you are looking for prose to make you swoon, this is not that kind of book. The story is what is front and center here and nothing distracts from it. It is so well done that we are pulled into Selina’s web right along with Margaret. And right along with Margaret we doubt Selina and then are made to believe. It is quite masterfully done.
I really can’t say anything more for fear of giving too much away. It was not scary or creepy but it was sad as well as an enjoyable RIP read.
Stefanie, this is not only my favorite Sarah Waters novel, but one of my favorite novels, ever. Period.
I just thought it was fantastic. I was entranced by it. I can’t think of a book that made me believe in things that I don’t really believe in, more than Affinity.
What a terrific review you have written.
And you are right… so, so sad.
Also, very good of you to leave it where you did — because too much can easily be said about this book’s ending.
Cipriano, that’s high praise for this to be among your favorite novels ever. Oh how I longed to talk about the ending but it would not be fair to those who haven’t read it. I suspect this would be an excellent book group read since once you get to the end and can look back and see the story as a whole there is so much to talk about.
I know — the ending. I have so often been guilty of saying too much in a review — total inadvertent blabberia of the yapperhole!
But you [appropriately] leave many things unsaid. It’s such a fine book.
Sarah Waters is a gem, and I look forward to a few of her books I have not yet devoured….
I have been impressed by every Sarah Waters novel I’ve read so far, and this is the last one I have yet to read. Thank you for the lovely review – I’m really looking forward to this one, when its time comes!
Litlove, this is the second Waters I have read. the first one, Tipping the Velvet, I was just meh about, but I really did enjoy this one. The way it unfolds makes you catch your breath when everything starts to come clear. You are in for a treat when you get to reading this!
I wish I could join in the universal praise but I have never been able to finish a Sarah Walters’ novel. Even the much acclaimed ‘Fingersmith’ bored me rigid. When, 250 pages in, I dusckvered that I’d got to read the same story all over again I simply lost the will to live and gave up. Oh well, some you win and some you lose.
I liked Sarah Water’s novel because of the way she makes the reader share Margaret’s belief in Selina, that 19th/early 20th century vogue for spiritualism is a rich theme for fiction.
Alex’s opinion just shows that fiction is incredibly subjective (who would be a Booker Prize judge?). I think Sarah Waters one of the most enjoyable fiction writers around- but haven’t read Fingersmith yet.
Ian, yes, that sharing Margaret’s belief in Selina was really well done because the reader does come to believe in her too. I was surprised when I first began to think, well perhaps Selina is legit.
The subjective nature of fiction is both one of its joys and one of its disappointments. I love that not everyone likes the same things and everyone has different thoughts even about the same book. But at the same time I am always disappointed when I don’t get along with a book it seems everyone else loves.
Alex, I wasn’t thrilled with Tipping the Velvet but everyone keeps talking about Waters and how good she is so I thought I’d read this one for RIP and at first I thought, oh no, I’m not enjoying this. But in the end I liked it quite a bit. So maybe it was just Fingersmith that didn’t click with you but one of her other might should you ever feel so inclined to try again.
It was the first book I read by Sarah Waters and I loved it, especially because of the oppressive Victorian atmosphere that was so well painted. I tried other books by her but I didn’t like them that much.
Smithereens, the atmosphere in this book was good, wasn’t it? She got that exactly right. This is the second book by Waters I read and I liked it much better than Tipping the Velvet. I liked it enough to be willing to try another one of her books. So we’ll see how that goes when it comes about!
I think out of all of Waters’s that I’ve read this is perhaps on the lower half of the list, but don’t be deceived by that statement as I loved it nonetheless and would happil reread it–reading your post on it makes me want to do so now (and I had to put the library copy in a display I just put up of ghost stories/October reads as a matter of fact). I don’t think SW can write a bad book in my opinion. I only have one unread SW novel left…I’m waiting to read it as then there will be nothing left until she publishes a new one…excellent RIP choice!
Danielle, only one unread SW novel? Oh no! Hopefully she’ll be publishing a new one soon so you can rest easy
This one did turn out to be a really good RIP choice.
I’ve read three Sarah Water’s novels. I think she’s a really good writer and manages to evoke the era well. However, I don’t love her books. I like them. I thought the Little Stranger was really good and had a gothic feel but was then disappointed with the ending. Fingersmith was okay. Affinity was my favourites of the books. And, yes, sad!
Lynn
Lynn, you are right, she is a good writer but not a great one. I liked Affinity very much but I did not love it. I’d like to read The Little Stranger sometime but I’m not all that interested in Fingersmith.
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This is my favourite of hers: I’d love to re-read, and I’ve almost forgotten enough to do so with pleasure. I’m glad it worked for you too!