Affinity By Sarah Waters

AFFINITY by Sarah Waters
After reading Sarah Waters’ wonderfully written book FINGERSMITH, I had to get a hold of her other two novels TIPPING THE VELVET and AFFINITY. As with FINGERSMITH, I came away from AFFINITY with a very satisfied feeling of having read yet another great book. AFFINITY is a complex story set in Victorian England about a young woman, Margaret Prior, who has been suffering from bouts of depression and loneliness. She has just suffered from a breakdown shortly after her father’s death, and because of a suicide attempt, her mother, with the hopes of making a full recovery keeps her secluded in the house and administered with medications.

When it is suggested that Margaret visit the local woman’s gaol (prison) as a form of therapy, she agrees and begins her frequent visits. She is known as a “lady visitor”, one of many that come to the prisons to read and talk to the prisoners as a form of goodwill and charity. Soon she finds herself meeting and conversing with the various women that are being held in this gaol. She meets women from all walks of life and sees the horrible conditions in which they now live. And then she meets Selina Dawes. Margaret takes extra notice of this quiet sad woman. The reader immediately knows that she finds Selina special, and soon she becomes obsessed with the prisoner, and her story. It is all she can think of day and night. It becomes her life.
Selina Dawes is a medium, who is able to talk to the dead and perform acts of the paranormal. She is in prison due to the death of a friend of hers, Mrs. Brink, who allowed Selina to live with her as she helped Mrs. Brink contact the netherworld. Mrs. Brink died during one of Selina’s paranormal sessions, and is being charged for assault and fraud. Learning about Selina’s “crime”, Margaret is in total sympathy with Selina and knows that Selina is in prison for a crime she did not commit, and soon the two become close.
The viewpoints of both women are seen through the journals of each of them respectively. Selina’s journal-entries lead to the day of the supposed crime, while Margaret’s journal takes us through the present story. And, as the book becomes more and more complicated, the journals begin to reveal more and more secret thoughts of these two women. The ending, as with FINGERSMITH, will totally shock the reader. Sarah Waters is the master of the double-twisted plot device, and although the story started on a slow note, the pace of the book picked up and did not let up until the very last page. Beautifully written with subtle undertones of lesbianism, this reviewer highly recommends AFFINITY.

The affinity takes a while to build.

The story is a series of journal entries made by the two protagonists – one chronicling the life of Margaret Prior, a lady and the other, the life of Selina Dawes, a young spiritual medium.

Margaret’s entries are in real-time. She pours into her book her secrets and her heart. She’s a troubled woman who seeks to gain a new interest in life.

Selina’s entries predate her incarceration at Millbank Penitentiary. They give us a glimpse of her life as a spiritual medium and her petty transactions, gifts, as she refers to them.

Margaret visits the women’s wards as a Lady Visitor. It is during one such visit that she comes across the infamous Dawes. Her interest in the vilified girl is piqued by several visits to the grim prison. And there begins our tale of spirits, love, and yearning.

The book is slow to set the stage, unlike Fingersmith which captured my fancy right from the start. The book is grim, grimmer than Grimm! It nearly put me off but I persisted and wow, was I rewarded.

Even though, I guessed the end and suspected the right things, the book still managed to rattle me. Sarah Waters works her magic through the pages, ensnaring us, (albeit a bit later in my case,) and resurrecting before us the cold Victorian London and the dreary Millbank prison.

This book was worth the patience it demanded and its climax makes up for much of the slow pace in the beginning. Another Awesome from Sarah Waters. ‘

Good condition

This mesmerizing story with its authentic characters is just a special kind of book: you cannot stop reading before it is is finished. The beginning is dark and nebulous and you dont really know what the writer wants to tell you. After a few pages the story sees a unanticipated acceleration which opens windows to different stories you would not have imagined. For me: a good choice to spend my precious spare time.