THE PAYING GUESTS by Sarah Waters

This book was very well plotted and executed. It was recommended to me by our book store's sales assistant. She said she loved all the books written by Sarah Waters. What I didn't know is that this author is known for novels set in Victorian society and featuring lesbian protagonists. She has won the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction. The story was incredibly clever and the characters very believable. Despite my aversion to lesbian sexual encounters I appreciated the authenticity of the period the book was set in and the dynamics of a lesbian relationship within it. Set in early 1920's, following the Great War, a mother and daughter left without male support in middle class England find themselves obliged to rent spare rooms in their house to keep them financially viable. The rooms are rented to a young married couple who transform Wray's lives forever. A love affair blossoms between Frances Wray and the married Lilian Barber which not only leads them to the dangerous and uncertain future but also to crime. What starts off as a view into hardships of a genteel family slipping into demise ends with suspense and reflection on complexities of a lesbian relationship in a society that offers no recognition of such liaisons. Sarah Waters is an excellent writer who has found her niche in the literary world and for that I admire her.

WE ARE WATER by Wally Lamb

I was conflicted reading this book. My love of Wally Lamb's style of writing conflicted highly with my aversion for swearing and non-acceptance of homosexuality. This book, however, captured my attention and I could not put it down once I started it because of its' perfect portrayal of the complexities of our society. Wally Lamb is a brilliant writer and a master of introspection which he employs as a medium for his storytelling. It was clear to me as I read this captivating story, that this book exposes the effects of our attempt to emancipate ourselves from God and His laws. As a society we have successfully removed ourselves from good old Christian values we used to live by and in the process we have shot ourselves in the foot. I think, however, that this was not Wally Lamb's intention. He cites on several occasions 'it is what it is', meaning this is the way things are, without judgement and prejudice, because nothing is ever simple, or can be justified or can be explained away. To me as a Christian striving to adhere to God's very wisely given commandments, it IS simple. If we had not removed God from our lives we would not have filled our world with crime, violence, unwanted pregnancies, addictions, alcoholism, drug abuse, pornography, sexual diseases, murder, rape, pedophilia and the list goes on. This book deals with most of these. Annie Oh, the protagonist, is a sexual abuse victim who turns to a lesbian lifestyle after 27 years of marriage; her husband Orion Oh, is a product of an unwanted pregnancy of his teenage mother and married father who would not face his fatherhood responsibility and would have nothing to do with his unwanted child; their oldest daughter, Ariane, is desperate for a child with a string of failed relationships with men who refuse to marry her (and why would they when sex is so freely given) so she resorts to artificial insemination; their son Andrew who is physically abused by his mother during his growing up years and ends us murdering his mother's childhood abuser; their youngest daughter Marissa, is a sexually promiscuous alcoholic; Annie's father is a chronic alcoholic who could never get over his wife's death; Annie's cousin and abuser, Ken, was abandoned by his father in his youth and abused on ongoing basis by the babysitter turning him into a pedophile. As I said, this book is heavy going but so accurately indicative of the world we live in. It is confronting but in my opinion also a call to examine the standards and values we are living by in this 21st century and where they are leading us.