Fingersmith

By Sarah Waters

London, 1862. 17-year-old Sue Trinder is an orphan. She has grown up in Lant Street, living with Mrs. Sucksby and Mr. Ibbs. However, Sue’s fate is linked to another orphan growing up in a gloomy mansion not too many miles away.

“My name, in those days, was Susan Trinder. People called me Sue. I know the year I was born in, but for many years I did not know the date, and took my birthday at Christmas. I believe I am an orphan.”

Sue’s mother arrived pregnant on Mrs. Sucksby’s doorstep and stayed with her until the police found her, arrested her and hanged her for murder. Mr. Ibbs makes his living melting down silver and gold stolen by the thieves around London. In fact, the word, fingersmith, was slang for pickpockets in 19th century London. Mrs. Sucksby is a ‘baby farmer’, taking in unwed mothers and orphaned babies, selling the babies. However, Mrs. Sucksby has kept Sue close, as if she were her own daughter, and she knows of little beyond Lant Street and petty thievery.

One day “Gentleman” shows up. He is a 28 year-old con man, well-known among the London thieves. Quite good-looking, but penniless.

“We called him Gentleman, because he really was a gent -- had been, he said to a real gent’s school, and had a father and a mother and a sister -- all swells -- whose heart he had just about broke. He had money once, and lost it all gambling…”

“Gentleman” has come to request Sue's assistance in a swindle with great potential. He has acquired a position at a country estate mounting the owner’s, Christopher Lilly’s, art collection onto frames. Mr. Lilly, who is an old scholarly man with a huge collection of books, has an orphaned niece, 17-year-old Maud. She lives at the estate, helping him with his library. “Gentleman”, who is known as Richard Rivers to the Lillys, plans on courting Maud and secretly marrying her without her uncle’s knowledge. Then he is to put her into an insane asylum, keeping her inheritance for himself.

“Gentleman” has come to London to get Sue’s assistance. She is to become Maud’s maid and chaperon. This will give “Gentleman” more freedom to court Maud and Sue will be able to convince Maud that eloping with “Richard” is the right thing to do. Sue agrees to the plan. She is to receive a 3,000 pound payment (half of which is to go to the greedy Mrs. Sucksby) once Maud has been placed in the asylum - but once Sue meets Maud and gets to know her, she could never imagine that her heart would interfere with the carefully laid plans to fleece the vulnerable and lonely Maud. She begins to pity Maud Lilly and care for her in unexpected ways, as the intimacies between a lady and her personal maid take on an increasingly erotic turn.

Set in Victorian England this was an absolutely perfect novel for me! The plot is good with a rather surprising twist at the end. But it is also a story that gives the reader a great historical peak into insane asylums, prisons and the public spectacle of hangings during the Victorian Era - although Victorian pornography also has a significant presence in this novel.

Brick Lane

By Monica Ali

This is the story of Nazneen. She comes to England at the age of 18, from a village in Bangladesh, to marry 40-year-old Chanu, a marriage her father has arranged after the death of her mother. Having always been the ‘good daughter’ she accepts her fate and travels to London. When she arrives, she can speak only two words of English: sorry and thank you. She soon falls into the role of dutiful wife and mother, accepting the miserably lonely existence fate has bestowed on her in a London council flat. Not only is she always an outsider but her Bangladeshi roots keep her in a subservient role in her marriage and family. Her husband does not allow her to have much contact with the other Bangladeshi immigrants living there, as he believes them to be uneducated, illiterate and uncultured. However, she does become friends with the other Bangladeshi woman on the estate. All of whom are struggling to bring up their children and assimilate into English society.

In Bangladesh, Nazneen’s sister, Hasina, has eloped with her lover, spurning her arranged marriage. This has caused her to be disowned, resulted in heartbreak and tragedy.

The story follows both Nazneen as she experiences her new culture, and her sister Hasina's life back in Bangladesh where she has fled her violent husband and found work in a garment factory. Her letters in very broken English to Nazneen are interspersed throughout the novel and we learn of her descent into prostitution in order to survive.

Nazneen, now a mother of two daughters, Bibi and Shahana, is forced to start sewing to make ends meet. This is how she meets the young and charismatic Karim, who almost every day drops off work for Nazneen’s sewing job. Nazneen finds herself caught between the comforts of her family and the excitement the world her young lover provides. As a Muslim activist Karim also encourages her participation in community politics. The book explores a little of the Muslim backlash following the 9-11 attacks and the ensuing race riots experienced in England.

I have nothing bad to say about this book, but think I would have enjoyed it more had I not already read White Teeth. I found the books to be very similar both in the story that they tell and the problems which are highlighted and talked about. Like White Teeth this novel is also about the yearning for a sense of belonging in a foreign land. It is not a uninteresting story, nor is it badly written, but somehow I kept comparing the two as I went along, and ended up liking White Teeth better.