What's so immediately compelling about our protagonist, Frances Wray, is that, in a way that doesn't seem at all anachronistic, she's comfortable in her own queer skin. Any reader familiar with Waters' earlier novels like Tipping the Velvet will know that she's especially drawn to the subject of lesbian relationships. As alert as Waters is to historical detail, she's also a superb storyteller with a gift for capturing the layered nuances of character and mood. Patmore, Frances is more than qualified.īut The Paying Guests is no simple period piece. If Downton Abbey needed an extra slave to work in the kitchen alongside Mrs. Raised to be a middle-class gentlewoman, Frances now cooks up inferior cuts of beef and empties bedpans and rubs her knuckles raw scrubbing the hallway floor. The Wray women have decidedly come down in the world: Frances' two brothers were killed in World War I and her recently deceased papa made some bad investments. The book opens in 1922: The Edwardian Age, with its high collars and long skirts, is dead the Jazz Age is waiting to be born - at least, that's the case in the suburban backwater of London where Waters' main character, a 26-year-old spinster named Frances Wray, lives with her mother. Sarah Waters' new novel, The Paying Guests, is a knockout, which isn't a word any of her characters would use. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title The Paying Guests Author Sarah Waters
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