Affinity

Rating:
Summary: Hauntingly good
Review: After being entirely pleased with TIPPING THE VELVET, I was eager to read Affinity. Waters widened my scope of appreciation for stories like Affinity because although it evoked immense sadness and haunting disappointment, I found myself enamored with, and awed by its delivery. I was compelled to know more about its heart, and read into the late, late hours of night, which hasn't happened in a long time.

Rating:
Summary: Mesmerizing
Review: Ms. Waters has a unique gift for writing...her style pulls you into 19th century life so completely you can almost feel the London fog on your face. I was especially moved by Margaret's character. Each time she descended into Millbank prison, I felt as if I were walking alongside her; I cheered for her bravery in finally standing up to her family (especially her mother); and without giving away any plot, I felt my heart ache as surely as hers by the end of the novel. This is a profound story of love, loss and lonlieness set against an era where an unmarried woman is seen as a spinster, a burden and a perpetual child that must be "looked after" by others or fall vitim to any number of predators. This is quite simply one of the best novels I've read, and I will definitely be keeping an eye on this author.

Rating:
Summary: A Writer's Model; A Reader's Dream
Review: Ms. Waters has created a novel that is a curiously satisfying mixture of Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens, and Toni Morrison. The narrative style and empathetic female characters are of Bronte; the description and carefully drawn settings and character names are truly Dickensian; and the craftwork of the plot and language are reminiscent of Morrison. The story's framework, told by the journals of both Selina and Margaret, is skillful and well-suited to the plot. I felt immersed in the life of Millbank and the inner turmoil of Margaret. As soon as I finished this book, I recommended it to friends and began to read it again, looking for subtle clues and shadings that were adeptly woven into the story, leading to its conclusion. This book was, without a doubt, the best current fiction I have read in quite some time.

Rating:
Summary: A novel by a lesbian is not necessarily a lesbian novel
Review: This book will disappoint if the reader is expecting a lesbian novel. Though female characters are attracted to other female characters -- after all, the main setting is a women's prison -- there are no moments of lesbian love-making or other conventions of the typical lesbian novel. (To say more is to give too much of the plot away.)

But it is a wonderful novel showcasing the incredible skills of its author Sarah Waters. You can read _Affinity_ on so many levels. You can read it for its intriguing plot with its O. Henry conclusion. You can read it as a treatise on 19th century prisons or as a history of Spiritualism in England. If you like 19th c. English novels, you can enjoy _Affinity_ for its faithful emulation of that form. (But remember that the pace will be slow; give yourself 100 pages or so to get into the novel.)

Waters' first novel, _Tipping_the_Velvet_, was enjoyed at its deepest level by any reader with some knowledge of the conventions of the picaresque novel and a scat dictionary handy. The same sort of thing is true of _Affinity_. For example, the two books Margaret reads to her mother are not accidental choices. (Think about the theme of Dickens' _Little_Dorrit_). The name of Selina's "spirit control" is too close to the "Peter Quint" of _The_Turn_of_the_Screw_ to be coincidence. Finding the little secrets that Waters sprinkles through her novels are a large part of the joy of reading them.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding read
Review: By 1873, in her late twenties, upper class Margaret Prior tries kill herself to end her unhappy life following a failed love affair. She also fails at suicide and by the fall of 1874, as part of her recuperation, Margaret begins visiting London,s Millbank Women,s Prison, home of convicted murderers and thieves who almost all claim their innocence.

However, one individual, the spiritualist Selina Dawes, connects on an emotional level with Margaret. Selina has been imprisoned because of the death of an elderly patron at a seance she hosted. Selina begins to send tokens of her affection to Margaret via her "associate" Peter. Margaret finally decides to free her "future" lover and herself from the solid and imaginary walls that separate them even if it means risking her life.

AFFINITY is a powerful yet detailed Victorian tale centering on relationships, especially that forbidden by society between two women. The story line is drawn along two paths, Margaret's current diary and Selina's journal of her pre-incarceration days. Surprisingly, this technique works as readers obtain a juxtaposition glimpse at Selina from her own view and that of her wannabe lover. With homage to the authors of that era, Sarah Waters shows she is a rare talent who demonstrates that emotion and intellect do not often go hand in hand as human frailty intercedes.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: A Marvelous Novel
Review: If you have read "Tipping the Velvet", you know that Sarah Waters is a talented author. In that first novel, we discovered a lesbian author able to put up some good sex scenes. So, maybe she was a great lesbian author, maybe she was a good author of erotic books (not pornographic, by the way). But can she be more than that?

I was so anxious to know for sure, that I bought "Affinity" from Amazon.co.uk in January 2001 (Sarah Waters being a english author, I was right thinking that she would be published in U.K. before being published in U.S.A.). I was not disapointed.

Although my english is not that good, I fully appreciated this novel. "Affinity" is not an erotic novel. There is love, but not sex, and the fact that the love is between two women is not the main feature. I don't want to make a complete résumé because I think it is difficult to do so without spoiling the pleasure you'll have reading it until the end.

Let's just say that this novel is about a sad young woman who desperately need to be loved, who is desperately ready to believe in love and who thinks that she had find it while visiting a prison in London, in 1874. This is not a funny or a "feeling-good" book. But Sarah Waters knows how to make you feel, smell, taste and see the life of a woman who would have live 125 years ago.

Now I know: Sarah Waters is a great author. Don't read "Affinity" because you think that it is a sex book (it is not). Don't read it because you think Sarah Waters is a lesbian. Read it because it is a great book. The best I've read in a long time. Believe me, I'll wait for her next book.

Rating:
Summary: Once again a triumph for Ms. Waters
Review: Ater finishing Affinity, I can hardly wait for her next book. Ms Waters write such a totally consuming story that it's hard to pull yourself away. I found myself sitting up way into the night and picking up the book at every opportunity just to find out what happens next. However, I didn't want to read it too fast because I knew there wasn't another yet. I hope Ms. Waters continues writing in the fashion of Affinity, Fingersmiths and Tipping The Velvet. I will definitely be first in line for her next masterpiece.

Rating:
Summary: Not as good as Fingersmith
Review: I like Sarah Waters -- her writing is lovely and her characters are well-developed and interesting. Her ability to evoke 19th century England is fine and she sets the mood, often dark and eerie, rather well. This is a good book, and, like Fingersmith, contains a twist. It's not as interesting as Fingersmith, however; the story isn't as compelling, nor are the characters, and the twist isn't that surprising (the twist in Fingersmith literally made me yelp!). It is a tad slow as well. It's worth the read, but if read after Fingersmith this may disappoint a bit.

Rating:
Summary: Ebb, Flow and Low
Review: Irrefutably, Affinity is well-written, engrossing to read. It's a tour of Victorian England, particularly the spiritual "business," through the protagonist's eyes. The emotions that the reader can feel through this exploration is ebb and flow. Miss Prior is flawed or she thinks she's flawed. So, the reader becomes her. And when she finds hope, the reader finds hope. The Author's style is that of journal-writing, in a way, it's epistolary. This is where the secret of the writing lies, it is a vital style to use to unfold the whole story. Miss Dawes is an engaging counter-character. The "low" of the book is when I got depressed, not clinically, however, it renewed my fervor for writing. It reminded me why I persisted on being a writer.

Rating:
Summary: A very fine piece of writing
Review: "Affinity" is a very good book, but not as much a tour de force as Waters' other two, "Tipping the Velvet" and "Fingersmith," both of which are broader in plot development and richer in detail. The two historical wells from which Waters draws material for "Affinity," namely, the women's prison system in Victorian England and the Spiritualist movement of the same period, are by definition specific and limited. Where "Tipping.." and "Fingersmith" are epic in scope as well as overflowing with strong characterizations, "Affinity" is a close, intimate, psychological portrait of a few individuals brought together in oppressive, stifling circumstances. By definition, "Affinity" is not a book which fills the reader with large, grand emotions and ideas. But it is, like its counterparts, an artfully written piece of English historical fiction, impeccably well-researched and sensitive to the issues of gender and class that inform all of Ms. Waters' work. It also contains other elements that will be familiar to Ms. Waters' readers - lesbian themes, either overt or implied; plot twists (here, a particularly juicy and unexpected ending); the juxtaposition of dual narratives; explorations of good and evil; and the alienation of women in patriarchal society - all held together by evocative descriptions that nail the reader visually and viscerally to the spot and hold you there. The descriptions of prison life are harrowing, tragic, gripping, brutal, and, unfortunately, based on hard research. This alone makes for a devastating and intense read.

"Affinity" starts slowly, and tried my patience for about the first 100 pages. I offer this comment to encourage the potential reader to stick with the book, because it will improve. I ended up reading the last 250 pages in one sitting, having been completely taken in. Once you fully enter the world of the two narrators, you will need to know how it turns out, and it will not be what you expected. Given the fact that Ms. Waters is such an exceptionally fine writer, when I say that "Affinity" is not the best of her works, still, it is a first-class piece of fiction nonetheless. (And, by the way, if you are expecting to be titillated by lesbian erotica or pornography, you have most definitely come to the wrong place.) Recommended.