Although I said last week that I would start reading Uglies, I found myself unable to put down Sheri Holman’s The Dress Lodger. Needless to say, Uglies has fallen by the wayside.
I didn’t expect to like it. The cover was the first thing to put me off; it reminds me a bit too much of the bodice-ripping books’ covers, a genre that my mother is extensively familiar with. You know, the ones with Fabio trying to ravish a maiden? Yes, that’s the image that popped into my head, although that’s a bit unfair, since there’s no one being ravished on the cover. I guess what I’m saying is all that’s missing from the cover is Fabio dressed as a sensitive poet whom everyone thinks is a no-good scoundrel.
Thankfully, there are no maidens in distress here (at least not in the traditional romance novel sense), nor was its opening sentence, “It was a dark and stormy night.” Sheri Holman writes like a dream. Really. I’m only forty pages in, but she can set up conflicts and build drama like nobody’s business; the word Dickensian comes to mind. I realize that’s high praise to heap on something I just began to read, but if The Dress Lodger’s opening chapters are any indication, I think Ms. Holman can deliver.
The Dress Lodger tells the story of Gustine, a pretty (ravishing? Haha.) prostitute; the Eye, a deformed woman who shadows Gustine at all times; and Dr. Henry Chiver, a disgraced surgeon with a heart obsession (the organ, not the emotional girly stuff). Also involved are dead bodies, secrets and dark pasts (naturally!), and the brutality of 19th-century England. Initially, the use of the first person plural narrator was a bit jarring. The only other book I can recall reading that used a similar narrator was Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Virgin Suicides. In The Virgin Suicides, the narrators’ identity/identities were never revealed; it was a risky and unusual move, but I think it worked well; I’m curious to see what Ms. Holman will do with it, if anything.
Thus far, it’s a juicy, involving read, and for those who are turned off by the cover and are not fans of historical fiction (much like I was, although I’ve since revised my opinion as The Dress Lodger has made me realize that I’ve unfairly dismissed the genre), there’s also enough gruesome detail to satisfy your macabre reading habits; the novel does involve surgery in the 19th century, after all. That’s all I know so far, but I expect the plot will thicken, to borrow a phrase our man Sherlock once said, and I’m quite looking forward to being immersed in it.
4 Comments
May 11, 2008 | Sunday at 11:23 am
When ‘The Dress Lodger’ first came out my entire book group read it avidly. We have very different tastes but we all loved this, especially the quality of the writing. I hope you continue to enjoy it.
May 12, 2008 | Monday at 11:14 am
I haven’t read this one. But when I find a super good book like you did, I have a problem letting it go to read another.
May 12, 2008 | Monday at 11:15 am
Oh no, look at my avatar! (lol)
May 12, 2008 | Monday at 9:00 pm
@Ann: I was very surprised at how easy it is to read and how much I like it. So far, there hasn’t been any dull moments.
@J. Kaye: I know what you mean. But when a book is as solid and consistent as The Dress Lodger has been, I’d be foolish to stop once I started.