Rating: 
Summary: Anticlimax
Review: I was crushed - CRUSHED, I tell you! - by the ending of this book. It took me a month to read and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. I had read the reviews on Amazon about how it seems to just end without explaining some things, so I thought I was prepared for how it might end - boy, was I wrong! After spending so much time on the story and getting intimate with the characters to the point of actually caring about what happens to them, Faber cuts you off as if simply ending a chapter, but alas, it's the end of this 900-page epic altogether! I loved the character of Sugar and thought it was an excellent female character, especially being written by a man. But the fact that I came to like her so much, only to have the door of her fate slammed in my face, was just plain cruel. I've read that it took 20 years for this book to be written, but will we have to wait another 20 years for a sequel? And I'm still not convinced that the dead body was Agnes Rackham. To those of you that are thinking about reading this book - please understand, I'm not denouncing it at all. It's the fact that I loved the book so much that I'm upset by the ending. This is a highly entertaining, great read...just be prepared to settle in for a ride (and try not to be as disappointed as I was when it chucks you off without warning)!
Rating: 
Summary: AWESOME
Review: After reading the incredible reviews of this book (the ones IN the book, not these on Amazon!), I was sold. The reviewers didn't let me down -- this was a great story that I didn't want to end. Yes, there were plenty of questions left unanswered, but let's hope Michel writes the follow up -- I guess he is going to write about Sophie, all grown up? I'll be waiting with baited breath.
Rating: 
Summary: a whole lot of nothing
Review: I was so excited to begin this book! I was intrigued from the very beginning by the young prostitute's story and was looking forward to some sort of satisfying ending, whether for good or ill. However, 800-odd pages later, the story just ends, and in the most uninteresting way. I felt quite cheated. It was as if the author just decided, "I'm done. I'm tired of thinking up new things for her to do, and besides, I'm out of paper." Save yourself the trouble and the time unless you like endings that aren't really endings.
Rating: 
Summary: I need more than this!
Review: A friend recommended this book to me. I loved most of the details and many of the characters. I felt as if I actually knew Sugar and William. Are they in love? I truly believed Sugar loved William, but that William carried nothing more than lust for Sugar.
However, this story left me with too many unanswered questions. Was the dead body truly that of Agnes Rackham? Why was Henry even a part of this story at all? Where did Sugar take Sophie? How did they live? Were they ever caght? Too many "what ifs" for my taste.
All in all, this book is just too long for the actual story being told. There is no closure with many of the characters. Nothing of much importance takes place until the last chapter and then the reader is left to imagination.
Rating:
Summary: Defeated Me
Review: I bought this book with very high hopes. The praise heaped on it by the media seemed endless and most reader reviews were equally glowing. I expected to lose myself in a fascinating world populated by fascinating people who would lead me through a dark labyrinth otherwise known as the "Victorian" plot. Well, as my mother used to say, I was in for a rude awakening. The more I read of "The Crimson Petal and the White" the more I came to truly resent the book. By the time I reached the midpoint, I was in a dark, surly mood and people were going out of their way to avoid me. By the time I actually finished the thing, I felt both exhausted and defeated. What this book needed most was a good, ruthless editor. Even had 500 pages been cut, it still would have been a bit too long. I've read plenty of Dickens and believe me, this isn't a book Dickens would have written. I don't think it's a book Dickens would have even read. It isn't a book Dickens would have wanted to have anything to do with. Faber does indeed create a world in "The Crimson Petal and the White," but it's not the world of Victorian London. The Victorians didn't talk about their "bodily fluids" for 10 of their usual 16 waking hours of the day. Faber seems obsessed by them. This novel is replete with detail but most the those details are meaningless. I enjoyed them at first, but let's face it--835 pages of detail is about 800 pages too many. At times, the characters in this book were believable; at other times they acted in such an outlandish fashion that belief in them, while still maintaining some semblance of sanity, was impossible. The only one with any redeeming qualities at all was Agnes. And why were Henry and Emmaline even included in this book? Whey were really nothing more than window dressing or extraneous "filler." I really tried to like this book. I really wanted to like it. I felt much research and hard work had been expanded in bringing it to fruiton and I really tried to respect what it had to say. The trouble was, it didn't have anything to say. There was no story tension, no plot, no reason to keep turning the pages, except, of course, that each page turned mercifully brought one closer to the blessed relief of the final one. Faber seemed so very intent on creating a detailed world that he forgot one essential ingredient in any Victorian novel--plot. I know many readers were put off by the book's end. They seemed to find it too ambiguous and required more closure with Sugar, William and Company. I am not among those readers, ambiguous though the ending is. I was just glad to see the novel end and, Dear Reader, take my leave. Forever. There's been much speculation that the book's ambiguous ending will give rise to a sequel. I hope not; there are too many bad books out there already and too many good ones that go unpublished. If, however, a sequel does someday appear, I don't think I have to tell you that that book would certainly be anathema to me. I've learned my lesson. When I want a Victorian novel, I'll read a Victorian novel. A real one, written in Victorian times. And that, Dear Reader, is that.
Rating:
Summary: A Classic even if slow going in parts....
Review: Worthy of the acclaim. Must read for the ages.
Rating:
Summary: Thoroughly Satisfying
Review: I first heard about this book and its author in an NPR interview. I said to myself " I must read it!"
The book was immensely enjoyable. Mr. Faber gives a vivid account of Victorian life in England as seen through several characters in different strata of society. The research he must have done for this book is astonishing. The reader is made to feel sympathy for all of the characters, without actually having to like them, though by the end of the book, you come to like some more than others. One feels respect for the characters that strive to change and improve their lot in life, and pity for those who cannot seem to do so. I say this book is a satisfying read because everyone gets their just desserts in the end. I felt the abrupt ending was acceptable because the author gave clues to the main characters fates before the last page. If a sequel appears, that will be fine, but if not, I won't cry over it. At 800+ pages it took me almost a week to read, but even that was stretched out because I hated for it to end!
Rating:
Summary: An insult to the book reading public
Review: How does a book like this get selected for publication? The characters are unidimensional. The plot is so trite as to be inconsequential. The only apparent possible appeal is the very frank graphic descriptions of sex and various revolting aspects of life and hygeine in 19th century England. The prurient parts will probably appeal to some pubescent adolescents but have no allure for a mature adult. It is admirable to attempt to write a long Victorian novel in the present day if it is a good novel. Some years ago "The Quincunx" was a successful example. This one isn't. How a major publisher invests in trash like this and hypes it with numerous print and radio ads is frankly revolting. I only gave it a one star rating because there is no selection for zero.
Rating:
Summary: I wanted this to be better . . . and it could have been
Review: Sugar is easily among the best recent female characters I've read written by a man. She has depth, beauty, emotion and honesty. Unfortunately, she is like a still picture from a video or something- an intricate character designed for motion, but frozen in staticity.
I felt that so much was left unresolved by the novel, so much that could have been explored and felt and drawn to a proper close. I would have been happy to read another hundred pages if the book could have brought any kind of real closure. Instead, it practically shoves your coat in your hands and points to the door. I liked Sugar too much to have her story end in such a way. I give it three stars for the ride (an alternately beautiful, grotesque, ethereal, involving and disgusting ride), but after 800 pages, I wanted something more.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully Entertaining
Review: There's a glut of historical fiction on the market these days, but rarely is it done this well. Period detail is everywhere: bits of trivia, rules of etiquette, slang you won't have heard before. Faber's writing is full of sly humor and literary references, a pleasure to read. This is a wonderfully entertaining, panoramic view of Victorian-era London society and its many hypocrisies and social ills, The Crimson Petal and the White deserves every bit of praise it gets. Also recommended: THE LOSERS' CLUB by Richard Perez
| 
