THE PAYING GUESTS by SARAH WATERS

THE PAYING GUESTS

BY SARAH WATERS

THE BLURB:-

It is 1922, and in a hushed south London villa life is about to be transformed, as genteel widow Mrs. Wray and her discontented daughter Frances are obliged to take in lodgers.

Lilian and Leonard Barber, a modern young couple of the 'clerk class', bring with them gramophone music, fun- and dangerous desires. The most ordinary of lives, it seems, can explode into passion and drama...

A love story that is also a crime story, this is vintage Sarah Waters.

THE REALITY:-

When I saw the length of this book I let out a reluctant sigh... I wanted to read it and I've always loved a tome but... boy oh boy, (or should that be girl oh girl, as Ms. Waters is a voracious lesbian writer?) can Sarah Waters string 'em out. Whilst I've loved some of her salacious Victorian sapphic romps- such as Tipping The Velvet and Fingersmith- Affinity, set in a women's prison, nearly bored me to death. In fact the latter novel only got going 30 pages towards the end, with a fantastic and unpredictable (yet screamingly obvious) twist.

So it was with trepidation that I picked up this novel and yes, it was generally a bit too drawn out, but it was a really good read. Really, what you're looking at is a novel in two parts. The first half deals with the- spoiler alert!- burgeoning love affair between Frances and Lilian, and the second half the aftermath of– even bigger spoiler alert!- Leonard's murder. I liked both of the main female characters. On one side you have spinster Frances, who comes across as rebellious and unconventional but in reality she isn't. She won't turn her back on the notion of middle class respectability and keeping up appearances and you kind of get the impression that maybe she wished she was someone who would have been happy with a husband and family. Then you have, by contrast, Lilian- the epitome of the 'new and emerging' bohemian up-and-coming working class- who wants to do things her own colourful, romantic way but who again is hidebound by the conventions of the time.

The murder scene was one of the best I have ever read and so real you almost believed you were there, in that house!  EXTREME SPOILER ALERTS COMING...  Frances watched the clock whilst clearing up the gory evidence of the terrible crime, always the partner more in control of the situation; and yet you could sense the nerve-wracking tension in every nail-biting line. Later on, the mental strain came across with the way in which she wrestled with her conscience and the 'what if' and 'if only' of the whole debacle. It made you wonder- then change your mind, then change it back again- as to whether the women were going to admit to their crime or try and get away with it.

One valid point was put across by a reviewer in the inside cover: that is that Sarah Waters is dealing with a vanished era. Nowadays two women can marry. But if you stick a lesbian love affair within the context of the 1920s then yes, it was shocking and was, generally, the kind of thing that had to be conducted craftily and with the utmost discretion. We must place ourselves into this period before we can truly understand what is going on. Incidentally, full marks to the author for bringing this twilight world to life with her excellent research.

I liked that the two women got away with their crime and that no-one else got hung for it either. The ending was left too up in the air for my liking, but I don't think these two could have remained together. It's fitting that their final scene took place on a bridge, as I think that too much water had gone under the bridge for them to be truly happy.

A wonderful crime story and worth a go. Don't be put off by the length of the book- this is one of the author's better offerings.