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122 of 124 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pickpocketing the Pages of History, October 18, 2002
Sarah Waters' third novel begins simply enough. Sue Trinder is a teenage orphan who lives amongst a group of confidence men, thieves, baby farmers and fingersmiths (a 19th-century term for a pickpockets). An unscrupulous man commonly and ironically known as Gentleman compels Sue to join in his plot to win the heart of an elderly bookish man's niece named Maud. Maud is heiress to a fortune, but she can only claim it if she marries. The plan is: win the lady, ditch the wife in an insane asylum and split the fortune. Sue becomes Maud's maid and when the plot is reaching its timely conclusion is the exact point where it is fractured and split like a forest path into numerous twisting paths revealing long held secrets and hidden strife. Sue and Maud are made to endure separate trials in their journey including the incarceration in a mad house, the subjection of reading and transcribing appalling pornography to a perverted old man and a dangerous journey through treacherous London in search of a friend in order for them to discover what their true pasts consist of and what predestined traits may tweak their futures. It is fitting that at the beginning of this novel a reference is made to Dickens' Oliver Twist. Fingersmith is a novel descended from Dickens voluminous library as well as much 19th century sensualist fiction. Waters skilled use of language to evoke characters and a sense of place through physical detail and psychological mapping of experience is a distinct characteristic of this descent. She also has a tremendous ability to use fabulous names such as (Mrs Sucksby and Miss Bacon) as Dickens did to mark poignant traits of her characters. Where Waters veers from Dickens is in her conjuring of robust female characters who can dominate the novel, not through the circumstances of their plight and their representation of certain social injustice, but through the powerful voice they use to assert their individual positions. Of course the great descriptions and plotting Waters uses to conjure this tale of a 19th century English plot to capture a family fortune makes a great many statements about the ways in which women were marginalised and the bizarre social positions they were forced to inhabit. However, the great strength of her brilliant protagonists Sue and Maud is in the way their actions are guided more by their impulsive desire to survive rather than to spur the trim, thrilling plot or subscribe to any societal roles presented to them. Their struggles led by these natures produces a longing for a happy resolution built not out of sentimentally contrived conventions, but a deserved reward for revealing to us their faulty human natures. Sue and Maud are not angels. They both deceive and betray each other, but they discover in this Darwinian world a rare affection for each other and a chance to share confidence when one's closest family is apt to betray you. The curious mirroring effect Waters uses with them, mixing pasts and characteristics of them, is descended from a more recent literary genius, Angela Carter. There are elements of her ideas (particularly realised in her novel Wise Children) on the way identity can be splintered, performed and reimagined which correspond to the ways Susan and Maud's fates are intertwined. Their relationship is drawn out as a struggle to express their mutual love and define their suppressed lesbian desires. But this is also presented as an arduous task to realise the aspects which make them powerful individuals. This novel makes the remote past enticingly familiar and relates a harrowing story that makes you wish it to continue on and on.
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63 of 68 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another great novel from Sarah Waters, June 10, 2002
After reading and enjoying Sarah Waters's previous novels, I knew Fingersmith would meet my expectations. However, I had no idea! Fingersmith, as usual, had the gorgeous, atmospheric qualities that I think is Sarah Waters's trademark. And of course, the writing is simply genius. But more than that, Fingersmith is fantastic -- this novel told a darn good story. Set again in 19th century London, Fingersmith begins with Sue Trinder's tale as an orphan and a thief. She lives in a house filled with other orphaned babies and an assortment of pickpockets, or "fingersmiths," along with the lady of the house, Mrs. Sucksby, who took care of Sue since she was an infant. Now 17, Sue's opportunity to show her appreciation to Mrs. Sucksby finally comes -- in the form of Gentleman, a seedy con man and friend of the household. Gentleman is armed with a plan to make them all rich and enlists Sue as his helper. But things aren't always what they seem, and as the plan unfolds, all sorts of secrets and twists come unraveled. Fingersmith is everything I had hoped it would be -- beautiful writing, a stunning cast of characters, and a riveting, compelling storyline. I was helplessly drawn into the slums of London as well as the drab, solemn English countryside where Sue and Gentleman spend their days spinning their treacherous web. I will admit that there weren't as many shocking surprises (for me, anyway) like Affinity, but this novel was much like Tipping the Velvet in how it pulls in the reader from the beginning with a rousing good story. I can't enough good things about Sarah Waters, her novels, and her talent. She's exceptional, and Fingersmith is nothing less than stellar.
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59 of 66 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The sublime Sarah Waters is god, March 5, 2002
By A Customer
This third book of hers clinches it. Sarah Waters is god. There is nothing she can't do. Tipping the Velvet was great; Affinity was beyond great; Fingersmith is sublime. Reading it took over my life. Okay, that's happened once in a while before with a really fine book. But I don't recall this ever happening before: being so engulfed by a book that it made me dizzy, feverish, downright sickened--and hey, if you don't get that these are good things then you're not a serious reader--in sum, it rendered me virtually incapable of going about my daily life, my head and heart were spinning so over Sue and Maud and their story. Waters has singlehandedly reinvented--no, no, she transcends--lesbian fiction, a genre that up to now has consisted almost exclusively of embarrassing, dim, dismal, dumbed-down dreck. Her writing is literary, her plots are engrossing, her feel for time and place is flawless, and sheesh, she even pulls off incredibly sexy sex scenes that are beautiful, believable, move the story forward and leave the reader's heart pounding. Fingersmith is breathtaking. Waters is an awesome talent. Goddamn. She does us lesbians proud.
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