Rating: 
Summary: Can't Get This Book Out of My Head!
Review: I finished this book last week, and can not stop thinking about it! The development of character in this book is truly amazing. While there may not be excitement dripping off every page, this novel is well worth the time... Like all great novels, this book takes a little work. While the ending may not be "neat and tidy", it is completely how it should be. The entire story as well as the characters, would have been compromised if it had ended otherwise. Unique and beautifully written.
Rating:
Summary: Vivid and fantastic novel that I simply could not put down.
Review: This book has mixed reviews, like all great books until they are deemed classic. I thought the book was fantastic, perhaps it's a matter of taste. However, if you like books that have neat endings with all the loose ends tied up, I would firmly suggest you stop reading this review. In fact stop looking at this book and get a choose-your-own-adventure or anything by John Grisham. Also, it is a thick volume, it has many pages, if you like the novels you read to be short and fairly non-descriptive this is also not the book for you. You can read a description above, I will not comment on the story line.Reasons I liked this book:
- The scope of it was very grand and very all encompassing. Sugar's inner thoughts, secrets, and emotions are all divulged and explored and brought into context. As a character she was very interesting. She was selfish and flawed but I also understood where she was coming from and the events in her life that characterised her. I am one of those people who do not have to particularily *like* all the characters in a book for it to be a good book. I enjoy rather realistic depictions of human nature. This book has plenty of it.
- I like having to imagine the ending for myself. With a book this large it was completely unexpected, but there was enough resolution between William Rackham and Sugar's relationship that I felt *satisfied*
- It was very beautifully written. Faber took the time to let his characters breathe life and unravel instead of stick to plot structure charts. I devoured all the descriptions and read it compulsively and will probably read it several more times this year.
- I like long books if they are well written. I have eccelectic reading tastes and this book was dense, serious, irreverant, satirical and pulpy fiction. It had several tones to it instead of being written in a one-dimensional way.
- I don't know if you will enjoy this book as much as I did, but it is definately worth a try.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: I love the way Michel Faber has turned the Victorian novel on its head--it's brilliant.
Rating:
Summary: Being There!
Review: I loved this book! I like the way Michel Faber used the "second person". It makes you feel like you are there! He has a lot of interesting characters in this book from all walks of life. The two most talked about are William the son that took over the perfume business and Sugar the prostitute that he becomes involved with. There are many many more that are just as interesting. This book made me laugh and empathetic to the characters. Its a long read but I had a hard time putting it down so not so bad:-) You may want to keep a dictionary handy for some of the words that are used but dont let that discourage you.
Rating:
Summary: Grab a seat and enjoy the ride!
Review: This is my first review of a book on Amazon and I am relieved to be reviewing a book of this caliber for a start. This is a great story! The author, Mike Faber, asks for your permission to take you on a tour, the price of the ticket is to continue reading. There are many that may stand aghast at the sordidness within his descriptions, but if you read this and get sucked in right from the start, you'll be going on a trip throwing you in a place long gone...much like JRR Tolkien, Dickens and other great writers can only do. Faber's gift is shared and I'm very happy to have come across this. His juxtaposition of Victorian England's finest and dirtiest really makes you wonder which is worse. You can taste the smell of the streets in London, the ale houses, the malodorous scents of the people mixed with perfumes, flowers and sweat. The illustrations that are conjured in the mind are unequaled. I hope you enjoy the story!!
Rating: 
Summary: I'm mad that I bought this
Review: Why oh why didn't I read down further and explore more of the reviews of this book? The main characters are entirely unsympathetic and their actions make no sense. I found myself hoping that terrible things would befall all of them. The sex scenes were ridculously juvenile and not at all erotic. I would give my copy to a local thrift store, but I feel guilty about inflicting this on some other hapless individual. Perhaps the recycling bin.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a bad read, really
Review: I agree with a lot of the other sentiments expressed here--the constant use of the second person was annoying. It onlt served to alienate me: If someone tells me, "You do this." Well, perhaps I wouldn't do that! How dare they tell me what I do.
But if you can get beyond that, as I managed to do (eventually) there lies a beautifully woven story. I came to care for all of the characters, each of them sad in their own way. I wouldn't want to trade places with any of them, but it is intriguing to be a part of their lives.
My biggest complaint was the ending. In that there really wasn't one. I know the book was founded on the premise "Let's give you a little taste of this world," but to have it end so abruptly without any resolution was a bit maddening. If it had a more satisfying ending, perhaps it would have gotten a better rating. I found it quite absorbing, however, and not a bit too long as others contend. Of course, I am a fan of epic-type novels.
Rating:
Summary: Trashy Novel
Review: I must have missed something with this book, before I purchased it I read the reviews and they had 4 stars. I found the author to be arrogant to his readers. I found the writing to be wordy, it took forever to get through it. I skipped alot of pages just because they were degrading to women. You can't be in favor of womens rights and make it through this book. I would not purchase another novel by this author. Very disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a bad read, but an awful ending
Review: I wasn't offended by the graphic sex or language- I just didn't like it. After I invested hundreds of pages in getting to know and trying to like these characters, the ending was truly awful- sensational, unrealistic, a cliff-hanger in which none of the possible outcomes is worth hoping for. The novel does a great job of showing the seamy underbelly of Victorian society, and the dirty little secrets of "nice" gentlemen, but is ultimately unfair to William (who is absolutely right to finally, reluctantly decide to have his wife institutionalized- she's a danger to herself and others).
Rating:
Summary: A disappointed book club
Review: This book is a 300 page work painfully dragged out to 898 pages. The author's narrative technique of making comments directly to the reader didn't work for me -- it was just annoying. In my opinion, the book doesn't really get going until about the last 200 pages. Also, I didn't really find any of the main characters to be very likable so it was hard to get involved in the story. Although one can sympathize with Sugar for the way she was brought up, many of her later problems seemed to be brought on herself by her own greed, shallowness and insecurities. Even when she is in a comparatively better sitution she never helps any of her old acquaintances even though it is in her power to do so. Although some liked it better than others, everyone in our book club agreed that this was a bit of a disappointment
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