Tipping The Velvet by Sarah Waters

Piercing the shadows of the naked stage was a single shaft of rosy limelight, and in the centre of this was a girl: the most marvellous girl - I knew it at once! - that I had ever seen. 'Erotic and absorbing . . . Written with startling power' New York Times Book Review Nan King, an oyster girl, is captivated by the music hall phenomenon Kitty Butler, a male impersonator extraordinaire treading the boards in Canterbury. Through a friend at the box office, Nan manages to visit all her shows and finally meet her heroine. Soon after, she becomes Kitty's dresser and the two head for the bright lights of Leicester Square where they begin a glittering career as music-hall stars in an all-singing and dancing double act. At the same time, behind closed doors, they admit their attraction to each other and their affair begins.

I feel like I was supposed to like this more than I did... It was fine. The first half was better than the second (unlike a lot of the reviews, though, I didn't dislike the ending. It was more all the middle stuff that wasn't good and just went on tooooo long). It was all just a bit much for me (it didn't help that I didn't really like Nan and reading her story became tiresome) and didn't seem true to the period (which it doesn't have to all the time, but some verisimilitude would be great...). I'll probably give Waters another chance, but... meh.

Really strong start, in the first third of the book, with some truly lovely prose and a very sweet story. The second third and most of the third third are a different story (snort):
- A character that started out melting my heart turned into someone whose motivations and logic I couldn't understand—at all—and for whom I very quickly lost sympathy.
- Waters does this thing where she enjoys using alternate definitions of words common in the queer lexicon. It's quite clever and amusing, but the words are overused and the ploy gets a bit tiresome. In the first part of the book, we see this happen with “queer”; later, we see it with “gay.”
- I really can't wrap my head around the choices Nan made and how she ended up being this selfish, manipulative, hateful, petty little twit. I'm still so flummoxed that I had to note it twice.

At the end, we are offered a bit of redemption, some tying up of loose ends, and a tentative assurance of happily ever after. Because I'm not actually very difficult to please, this is enough for the story to earn back a star. Other stars awarded for several brilliant turns of phrase, pleasantly surprising historical accuracy, and ultimately an admirable first novel.

I picked this book up randomly off the shelf of the woman a babysit for–who has a huge thing for historical fiction. Apparently this is THE lesbian fiction novel to read, and I have to say, it's a good novel to boot. The setting (fin de siecle London) is delightful, the plot intruiguing, and yes, the sex was hot. It was definitely one of those books that I put off doing important stuff to read.

Wow. What a story!

At a shallow glance, it's lesbian erotica, and the 4 and 5 star reviews convinced me to read on despite not being the authors target audience. I'm so glad I did. Everything you think it is, it is, but also not.

Nancy, the main character, is so lovable but often unlikeable. It's a coming of age/love story that you can relate to but also not relate to at all. It's a bit slow in the beginning, but by the end I was up all night just to see what happens next. It's raunchy, but also sweet. Above all, it's beautifully written.

Loved it.