Rating: 
Summary: Don't believe the hype
Review: Based upon the early word of mouth, I couldn't wait to read this book. Boy was I disappointed. The narrative style at the beginning of this book is awful. The beginning of the book has a narrator (that disappears in later chapters) that says things like, "Look, there is person x enjoying a roll, but he is of no consequence, instead let us follow person y. See her walk down the street. Look, she is entering a building. Does she live here?". Infuriating. Thankfully, the narrator goes away. Be warned though, the awful writing style continues. I can't say enough bad things about this book. I've sold my copy of this book, and I feel bad for inflicting its bulk on someone else. Run away!
Rating: 
Summary: Suggestions for Readers
Review: This book is seriously overrated. It is way too long and the writing style is incredibly contrived and annoying for the reader. What the book is hailed for is its thorough description of the era. I agree that is well done but one does not need 800 pages to do that. I do not mind long books (in fact love them) if there is something (anything!) to hold my interest. Suggestions: 1) a book about a similar subject and time and much more interesting: Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue. 2) a book with the same contrived writing style on the same subject and era, try The Dress Lodger by Sheri Holman.
Rating:
Summary: What's the point?
Review: I read and read, not wanting to put it down, waiting to get to the point. The author could certainly write. However, my true test of a book is, when it is all said and done, am I happy I read it or do I feel cheated? I felt cheated. The ending killed the book. I wish I had not spent so much time on this one.
Rating: 
Summary: A perfect 19th century novel written today
Review: I loved this book. The author captured perfectly well and with a lot of elegance the 19th century novel style.
Rating:
Summary: Truly a book you don't want to see end!!!
Review: A full emersion into the world of late 19th century, early industrial England. Through the eyes of an unusually clever prostitute names Sugar and her "long term customer" Rackham, we see the moral turmoil, social climbing and seedy conditions of this fascinating era. We also get to delve into some details of everyday life, such as the relationships between servants and the households they serve, the role of nannies, the evolution of industry and marketing, etc. etc. But best of all we get to meet some VERY flawed but fascinating major characters. The prostitute Sugar leads the way...she's richly detailed for us, yet her character is elusive nonetheless. Our feelings towards her change constantly, but she is always engaging. A great creation, in my opinion. There is Rackham, a major mover and shaker in world of perfume, soaps, etc. His wife is slowly going insane, and his brother is already mad with the desire to be pious enough to become a minister. I know this brief, haphazard description makes it sound weird, but trust me, this is a juicy story with juicy characters. It is NOT for children. Parts are VERY explicit, and the general tone of the book is very obsessed with things sexual. But the storytelling is strong and draws the reader fully into its world. This was a book I didn't want to put down...and it's a big book!! I highly recommend it. Two comments inspired by other reviews here: 1) The ending: it's a disappointment because it is abrupt. It is a "fair" ending given the manner in which the "storyteller" has treated us up to this point, but I admit, it would have been nice to have a little better closure. 2) The device of having a narrator occasionally speak directly to the reader: This sort of device as often used in "older" novels and Michael Faber is using it here to help evoke that era too. He also uses it less and less as the book goes on. Frankly, after about two pages to get used to it, it never bothered me again. I don't know what people are complaining about!
Rating: 
Summary: Where's the sequel?
Review: This book is a bit difficult to get in to as there is a distracting third party narrator at the beginning whose voice, thankfully, finally fades. Unfortunately, he reasserts himself again at the end and manages to destroy the mood set by the entire story. After reading 900+ pages, the end feels like a bucket of cold water. At the beginning, the characters are very difficult to sympathize with yet the author does a wonderful job of letting the characters mature and become humans, alive with contradictions. The reviews are correct, it is a difficult book to put down as it contains so much detail and nuance that the story is literally brought to life before one's eyes. But... while, unfortunatley, in "real life" people's stories may be abruptly left unfinished, it seems to me that an author who sits down to create and animate characters should not leave the job unfinished. I suppose the reader may invent their own ending but why? After so meticulously detailing the minute aspects of Victorian life from chamber pots to pigeon hats, why is the ending so abrupt? What has really happened to Agnes, to Sophie & to Sugar, will William hit rock bottom and finally value life, will all the Christian references of forgiveness & humilty serve any purpose, what about Emmeline and Caroline? To sum it up, the beginning and end are irritating and the vast middle is riveting. Oh well. I hope he finishes the story in Book II.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliantly Engaging
Review: Be prepared to be drawn into a world of 1876 London so detailed and engrossing that you will gasp for fresh air. The story begins in the world of the disenfranchised. Prostitutes who have more money than labourers, but are so low as to be written up in a men's guidebook to the brothels of old London. Faber creates his heroine from this clay, and follows her winding rise from the cruelty of the street to the mirror-image cruelty of the upper classes. The plot weaves its way around love, fear, lust, and power. Yet Faber is able to craft his tale in such sensual detail that you can taste, and feel, and believe that you have actually physically been to 19th century London.
Rating:
Summary: Neither fish nor fowl
Review: I read this novel expecting a contemporary recreation of Collins or Trollope, but was ready for something different should it arrive. Alas, having finished the read, I am left somewhat confused. The stars are earned on the prose and structure, remeniscent of a 19th century English novel, say, Radcliffe. Borrowing from classic style, the story is presented by a narrator, an anonymous entity who occasionally breaks the stylized classic structure into a casually directed glance at a contemporary observer, the reader. The effect is, mildly put, distracting. As described elsewhere, the characters are, if nothing else, classic: a shallow rakestraw husband (today we might call him bipolar), a self-made invalid wife, a whore-savant, and a supporting cast of the affected, the disaffected and the religious addicted. They behave and the plot is structured as one might anticipate. The conflicts are predictable, but hardly trite, and that it meanders is symptomatic of the time and not the novel. Also as other reviewers have noted the story degenerates to brutal and unwelcomly frequent descriptions of intimacies, that left me wondering if Mr. Faber's purpose in this work is to pander the modern reader in a setting of classical decency - a sort of literary wrapping one's Playboy in National Geographic. What we are left with is something a little to frank to be Dickensian, and a little to self-conscious to be contemporary. Mr. Faber earns four stars for creating a colorful tableau of Victorian London, but shys from greatness and misses the fifth star by not deciding to whom he was writing.
Rating:
Summary: The only thing I didn't like was the title.
Review: and, I suppose, the ending was somewhat ambiguous. But I found that this book created a real world inhabited by real people. I love fiction that seems real, and this book did that for me. I must disagree with those who say we never learn anything new about Sugar--I'd say we learn pretty much all about her. Rackham's behaviors are clear as well, if not completely served up on a platter. I was initially resistant because of the title and cover, which seemed to indicate a dry, "proper" read, perhaps even something of a "Harlequin Romance." Fortunately, I was wrong on all counts, and this is a fresh, lively, enthralling book.
Rating:
Summary: Broad, sweeping, huge, and well worth the effort
Review: This is a huge (833 page) novel set in Victorian London, cnetering on Sugar, and unusual and intelligent prostitute; and William Rackham, the man who makes himself and business success to keep her as his lover. There is an immense cast of characters - dandies, crones, mad wives, up-right religious reformers, the high and low classes. In a few places the book feels a bit wordy, and in most cases Faber carries it off well. There are some big themes explored in this book - Victorian hypocrasy, sexuality, gender, family - but none of it gets int he way of a good story. At first Sugar seemed annoyingly too good to be true, but as the book progressed she became reassuringly human. There were some very annoying characters - William's wife Agnes is the ultimate spoiled middle class woman, and he is a close second ont he need-to-slap stakes - but Faber does a good job of making them well rounded characters rather than stereotypes or caricatures. The book doesn't keep the pace up the whole way through, but has a good attempt trying to. The ending is great - you will agree that there was not much else the author could do. This book is long but very rewarding - this is a convincing look at Victorian London and the varying strata of its society
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