The Crimson Petal and the White, Michel Faber (3)
I was drawn to this book from a review of Mr. Faber’s
current release in which it was referred to as ‘Dickensian’. While it is set in
a familiar Dickenson-like time and place (late 1800’s London), and had a number
of colorful characters, missing was the balance of strife with comic relief and
magically wonderful phraseology. This book does have a lot of strife. The main
character is Sugar, a 19-year-old prostitute who (against the odds of growing
up in a brothel) has managed to differentiate herself as a clean, smart, canny
whore who will ‘do anything’ asked of her. She is atypical from the other
prostitutes in every physical way as well – very tall, boyish figure,
lizard-like skin and flaming red hair. At least the author has used her smarts
and uniqueness to set her apart and give her a power that the reader hopes will
get her out of her dismal life. The second character, William Rackham is the
hapless heir to a perfume business who needs a good woman (Sugar?) to
straighten him out. The fact that Sugar ‘will do anything’ first draws him to
her. He also has a wife and lonely, isolated daughter. The wife is a strange
child-like woman spiraling into insanity as the book progresses. At 800+ pages
long, surprisingly one of the biggest criticisms I have read has to do with the
abrupt and somewhat dangling ending. My disappointment had more to do with the
length’s proportion to the plot. I did not feel enough happened in the book to
warrant that many pages. Mr. Faber does a good job painting a picture of the
social and physical London of the time, creating a strong female character and some
interesting side characters, but overall I found the plot unsatisfactory.
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