Rating: 
Summary: Left flat
Review: I bought this book based on the reviews on Amazon and on the story description. The depiction of prostitution on Victorian London is intriguing and the main characters are interesting and well developed. However, the story left me flat and I found myself wanting to get done with the book and get on to something more intersting.
Rating: 
Summary: Working on so many levels, this is a great read
Review: This novel is both enjoyable and thought-provoking, which is exactly what I want in a book. Faber manages to be funny even while honestly confronting the tragedy of his character's lives. Although other reviewers found the book's beginning awkward, I did not. Rather I enjoyed the odd 2nd-person narration and the dual experience I had as the narrator both led me through the streets and into the book. I thought the experience of being both pulled into the world of the book and reminded that this is NOT reality worked. Especially given the way Faber both speaks to the conditions of Victorian society AND the world in which we live NOW. This is the book's real strength: it remains an engaging tale from another time while constantly asking the reader to examine contemporary life, and one's own life in particular. It does this quite seamlessly. And though other reviewers found the ending unsatisfying or grim, it would have been silly for Faber to "end" a story that is as much about the reader's own life as about Sugar, or William, or any of the other great characters. What a lovely, honest, fascinating read. Thanks Mr. Faber.
Rating: 
Summary: Yes, A True "Page Turner"
Review: Yes, "Dear Readers", a true page turner, that editorial reviewers have compared to Dickens most likely because of locale, time period, book length and plot. I would also compare it to Barth's "Sot-Weed Factor" (also excellent) or even Defoe's "Moll Flanders" (again, excellent). The beginning used a novel technique that swept me into the book until I was hooked --and I was through the book's conclusion. While long Victorian novels are not to everyone's taste, I believe few readers will fail to find this an enjoyable read. A note on the ending, which is abrupt, (and those not wishing to be informed about it should stop here), and about as non-Dickensian as one gets, but I simply choose to make up the closure the I believe the author intended; that Sugar is taking Sophie to meet her mother, and that without Sugar, William's Perfume business will go down the drain, as he was never smart enough to run the operation. As for Sophie, she will be successful in whatever endeavor she chooses. That would be the Dicken's ending in my estimation. I think it's not there just because the author believed it was the obvious answer. A prank perhaps, but from what I have read about Faber, it's consistent with his character.
Rating:
Summary: A Bouquet for the Senses
Review: Filled with heady descriptions of lavender fields, aromatic perfumeries, and wafting baked goods,THE CRIMSON PETAL AND THE WHITE could very easily have become a supplement to 1-800-Flowers or FTD. However, the celebration of all things scented and sensuous is undercut by horrific, realistic depictions of mud, blood, excrement, and bodily stains. The reader is led by the nose through this massive exploration of the seedy underbelly and the haute couture of Victorian England. A truly tremendous work, totalling 834 pages, this novel is not for the faint-hearted or the faint-wristed. You will be compelled to tote this book in your roomiest briefcase on your journeys to and from work. It is impossible to put this opus down once you have been bewitched by the narrator's keen positioning of his players. The protagonist of the tale is Sugar, a tall, thin, self-confident redheaded trollop who is book-smart and world-weary. Faced with the chance to supposedly improve her lot in life, the pragmatic prostitute puts her bed tricks aside and assumes the role of a governess. Effortlessly, the novel transforms from Emile Zola's NANA into Charlotte Bronte's JANE EYRE. The steamy, titillating glimpses into pornography and peccadilloes among the Dickensian set seamlessly becomes a voyeuristic study of mores and morality between the masters of a home and their paid, unappreciated underlings. Author Michael Faber is a genius at leading his readers through corridors, down staircases, and across cobblestoned streets--all the while we never know whether we will be witnessing brutal, brusque couplings in a bordello or off-key, merry-less Christmas carolling. Toward the book's end, the heroine Sugar gives her small charge a copy of Lewis Carroll's ALICE IN WONDERLAND, and that is the ideal complement to this adult epic. Just as Alice is continually switching sizes and changing perspectives, so does Faber's heroines, heroes, and villains. All of his populace is equally capable of vile acts as well as miracles, violence as well as tender mercies. This was a beautiful, involving, thrilling novel that is cinematic in scope and myopic in character detail. It cries out to be filmed (are you listening Miramax?)--let's just hope Nicole K. or Gwyneth P. aren't courted for the two female leads of Sugar and Agnes.
Rating:
Summary: Dallas Meets Victoriana
Review: Faber's Crimson Petal is universal in the sense that the same plot and characters could just as easily have been set in 2000s Dallas rather than 1870s London. The central players are a middle-aged man who is not motivated to work until he falls hard for a notorious prostitute. Substitute a 'Sugar' daddy oil man who becomes infatuated with a stripper at a trendy 'gentleman's' club on the North Tollway, and Anna Nicole could be your 'Sugar'. The third leg of the love triangle is said man's wife, a materially obsessed housewife teetering on the edge of madness in part because her life is built upon the melting foundation of expensive clothing and social approval (Junior League, here we come). Throw into this bonfire of the vanities two religious fanatics who suppress their own love for each other on moral grounds (about the only real love in the book), and we might as well be at a Southern Baptist social. Finally, the daughter of the couple is being raised by nurses and governesses, not unlike how most dual income families raise their children these days. Is Faber really intending to recreate the society and sexual politics of Victoriana, or is he trying to magnify what he sees around him today by placing us in another time? Whatever the case, Faber gives the reader plenty to think about. Oh, how a desirable woman can motivate, and manipulate, a man. How superficial and empty are so many people's lives. How sad it is when we let our true feelings be suppressed until it is too late. What impressions do strangers leave on our children. At 800+ pages, it did make me long for a faster read. A nice repose from Faber is Scott Gaille's 170 page The Law Review about a 20th century love triangle at The University of Chicago. If you want even more of the above themes, though, try the even better The Danish Girl (David Ebershoff).
Rating:
Summary: A Character You Can Really Care About
Review: It's been a long time since I've cared so much about a fictional character as I have cared about Sugar. Contrary to the description of her in the Publishers Weekly review, Sugar's no beauty. Faber states over and over that she's "scrawny" and has an incurable skin condition. But she has other attributes that draw men to her at Mrs Castaway's house of ill repute, namely her willingness to do anything her customers request. Yet this is the least of her talents. Sugar's clever mind and resourceful spunkiness are what kept me rooting for her from the start of this intriguing novel through to the surprising, to me, conclusion. Can we hope Mr Faber will write a sequel? A word about William Rackham, the wealthy owner of Rachkam Perfumeries, who takes Sugar as his mistress: We learn a lot about his unlovely traits. He's self-centered, weak, whiny and seems to have not one original thought in his head. He's ill tempered and tubby. He is in no way ready to defy the relentless conventions of Victorian society. But to be honest, is he really so much different from a lot of us?
Rating:
Summary: Flawed but enjoyable
Review: Let me start by saying that I am a Kubrick fan: I like the ending that leaves you hanging. But this book doesn't seem to really END anywhere at all: it seems that after 800 or so pages, the author had simply run out of steam. The 800 pages preceding that, however, are sheer genius. This is a tour de force of a book. You'd think that somewhere in 800 pages of descriptions of Victorian dresses and parties and social life, you'd inevitably slip into a deep and peaceful coma: but Faber's imaginative writing and quirky twists keep you wide awake(amazing how a paragraph can go from a description of cake icing on a dress to a slightly...well, seedier comparison of the same stain, a la Monica). The plot itself is complicated but not ridiculous, and it is refreshing to see an author that will tackle such hefty matter with such grace and aplomb. However, the abrupt and rather muddled ending leaves you feeling like a long, amazing meal has been spoiled by a rather frumpy dessert.
Rating:
Summary: When will the sequel be published?
Review: This is a wonderful book that gained momentum until I really couldn't stop reading. But the ending seems so abrupt. Did Mr. Faber write a 1,600 page book of which this is the 1st installment? My only complaint is Sugar's name. Sugar conjures a blonde. Cinnamon or Ginger are better names for a redhead.
Rating: 
Summary: Plotus Interruptus
Review: I was prepared to love this book. It has a Dickensian air, titillating subject matter, some decent London history, and even an interesting firsthand look at perfume manufacturing in the late 1800s. What this book does NOT have, however, is a single satisfactory resolution to any of its many conflicts. Indeed, the reader, after investing himself in its heroine--the captivating and complex Sugar, a 19th century "girl of the streets"--finds that it was all for nothing when the novel simply and abruptly STOPS. Not "ends"--no, it simply STOPS. I got the distinct impression that Mr. Faber, rather than bother with resolution, conveniently fast-forwards several days, weeks, or months, obliquely mentioning here and there that a character dies, goes missing, or miraculously recovers from a fatal illness. Add to this the distinctly off-putting second person narration in the first section of the book, and I am loathe to recommend it to anyone without a heartfelt caveat. "The Crimson Petal and the White" is the unfinished rough draft of what could have been a truly exceptional and outstanding book: a modern day "Tess" or "Mill on the Floss." Instead, it is like the cliffhanger episode of a week-long miniseries, the final instalment of which will never be televised.
Rating:
Summary: Totally engrossing
Review: A big, long book where not a whole lot happens . . . and I was engrossed with every page. Captivating portrayl of late 1800s London. I had no idea where the book was leading, and went with it every step of the way. .... In spite of a prostitute as the lead character, sexual content is minimal and only adds to the sense of the time and motivates the plot.
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