Ah, but the parts are “miraculously undamaged.”
What the heck. <shrug>
I’m no connoisseur of crotches, but William was. If he’s convinced, so am I.
No, I’m not saying you don’t have a right to your interpretation – I’m just marveling that we both read the same two sentences and came to such radically different conclusions.
Sorry if I came across as a jerk.
Jerk? Not at all. But I must have sounded a bit testy. Sorry for that.
I think it was the <shrug> – I don’t think I’ll use that anymore, it’s too much like saying “whatever” and that’s not the tone I meant to convey.
I can see William conjuring up that image of Agnes over and over during his marriage until he knows every fold, pore and hair follicle.
But Faber never said he did that.
Now I’m undecided again.
LOL I’m with you AuntiePam. I keep flipfloping back and forth. Did he really know her, or not? Does Sugar become a postitute again? What happens to Sophie? It is all very frustrating, and I think Faber meant to do this to us all.
I do like your conjecture, twickster. I hadn’t thought it through that far, but it certainly is a possibility
(Phew, AuntiePam, I’m just glad we’re still friends – hey, have you ever noticed that the whole tone of voice thing can get completely lost on a message board?)
I hope Faber doesn’t do a sequel – I love that we’re having this passionate a discussion about this book, and think that the power of the book would be dissipated if he gave us his version of what happened next (or what happened before, in Agnes’s case).
I think the ambiguity and open-endedness is part of his overall(ahem) artistic vision – that London is this huge, roiling whirlpool of people and events, and that even the omniscient narrator can only follow a person who bobs to the top for so long before he or she gets sucked back into the swirl.
Very astute. I like this a lot!
I can’t remember the last time characters in a book came alive like this.
Just found this thread, finished the book last week. I agree with you, twicks, I think the ending was part and parcel of the overall feel of the book, and would not have worked any other way.
I posted a review of the book on my LJ, and in reference to the open-endedness of the novel I wrote:
"It’s a long tale, travelling quite a circuitous route through the streets of 19th century London. It is at times a harsh, gritty view, but it more than makes up for it in other areas. The last few chapters of the book were the most gripping - I cannot say that I was left completely satisfied, nor can I say I was left wanting, but much like the services proffered by the main character I feel as though I have been taken advantage of in a way I most thoroughly approve of. "
I really enjoyed this book. I enjoyed it so much, in fact, that I hope a sequel is not made, for it can do nothing but spoil everything I thought I knew about the characters.
I see in Sugar a sort of determination wrought from grief and hardship that will make it impossible for her to return to a life of prostitution. I think the feelings of repulsion and hatred for her johns of days past have now been set to rights, that is to say the anger she used to direct at men in general I think she now turns towards her mother, where most of it belongs. I think she will make a fairly decent life with Sophie, and I believe the two will share an incredible bond, something neither of them has ever known before.
I’m a little torn on the subject of Agnes’ body. I don’t think that there was enough left for William to be able to positively identify her, but I also believe that the story up to that point gave some omens as to Agnes’ impeding death. I think the way she went on about her ‘second body’ and her predeilection for mysticism and supernatural study foreshadowed her demise, but whether she actually found the convent of health or her second body is impossible to determine.
All in all I was incredibly impressed with the vivid imagery, and look forward to reading it again in due time. I’m sure there’s much I missed the first go-round.
Sorry to bump this up again, but there’s no point, really, in starting an entirely new thread.
It took me a few chapters to fully settle into the second-person narration but I completely fell into it. It also gave the novel the feel of a cautionary tale, but without any direct moral compass. It wasn’t advocating any particular perspective, I thought; more sort of drawing attention to the interconnectedness of individual lives and the ways in which one’s decisions, however rash or selfish, do affect other people.
Poor Sophie. Poor, poor Sophie. As messed up as Sugar became I was happy she took Sophie out of that house. I want to believe they went far away, overseas; where Sophie could use her spyglass and become a real explorer. I thought Sugar was too smart to become a prostitute again, but also smart enough to realize that sometimes sex is a convenient means to an end (i.e., her encounter with Cheesman).
Agnes was a fascinating character. I liked how she was so disconnected from her body she didn’t understand pregnancy or even menstruation, and later became obsessed with the idea of her eternal soul and her other bodies. I think Faber did an excellent job of bringing the reader into Agnes’s mind and her hallucinations, especially in how she perceived Sugar’s presence at the gates to be her guardian angel. I’d like to think Agnes made it to a convent, but I doubt–based on her health and the amount of laudanum Clara gave her–she could effectively navigate the real world. I believe Agnes would be better off dead.
Oooh, thanks for bumping, Judith! I really like what you said about the “cautionary tale without a moral compass” – that really articulates some things I’d kind of inchoately felt about the book. Let me think about that for a while – may be back with something more to say about that!