Frances
Wray and her mother live in a large but decaying house in London. It is 1922
and WWI has changed the world. Both brothers died in the trenches and when her
father died, he left Frances and her mother in debt. Now they cannot afford
servants and Frances has to do all the housework by herself. Frances was a
suffragette when she was younger, but now she settled into her role as
caretaker for her mother.
To earn
some money the Wray’s decided to take in paying guests. This couple, Lilian and
Leonard Barber are a lower class than the Wrays. He is a bragging man who
flirts with Frances and makes her feel uncomfortable and she is a superficial
woman who spends her time decorating her rooms with cheap trinkets. Frances and
her mother are having a hard time coming to terms having to share their house with
strangers.
But because
they often meet each other on the landing or the stairs, a friendship begins to
form between Frances and Lilian. This is the beginning of a deeper bond between
the two women, that will have consequences for all the people involved.
Sarah Waters is very good in creating an atmosphere and
sketching the historical era. She does this cleverly by giving many details
about the way things look and how things were done. Te relationship between
Frances and Lilian and how this progresses, is also well written. But sometimes
she takes too much time, the scenes for example where Lilian and Frances go to
a party and where Francis spends an evening with the Barbers take too long and
are quite boring to read.
Other
scenes also could have done with less details and less pages. There is at a
certain point a scene I could hardly read, because of all the gruesome and
bloody details. It is not necessary to dwell on these things, the situation was
horrible enough.
The paying guests is not just a love story, but also a thriller
and a court drama. It is only a pity I did not feel any sympathy for any of the
characters. This was mostly due because I really could not understand their
reactions after something horrible happened. That everything finally turned out
all right was not because the two main characters stepped up and did the right
thing, but a complete outsider did the right thing.
I do not
believe a relationship based on lies, cowardice and deceit can work, although Sarah Waters will have you believe it
might be possible for these two women to have their love and a good life. I
believe they will not escape justice forever.
In short,
as far as I am concerned, The paying
guests is a decent historical novel with some good period details, but with
two main characters who lack in moral courage.
Published in 2014
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