Another mini book rant (these are becoming a bit of a habit and I’m quite enjoying them). I’m reading this at the moment (The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber) – it’s really good. Some of you UK folks may have caught the recent TV series they made based on the book. Full respect for Ramola Garai, I think she plays the character Sugar incredibly well. It’s quite gritty, which is to be expected due to the subject matter. To my own embarrassment the day I picked up my copy I was quizzed by an old man on the bus ride home. It went something like this:
Old man: “Oooo you bought yourself a book?”
Me: “Yep” [nervous smile]
Old man: “What’s it about?”
Me: “Um” (it’s about Victorian London’s Ladies of the night, but I didn’t have the courage to admit this so I was as vague as vague can be and said…) “It’s about London-?”
Old man: “Oh, right. What happens then?”
Me: “Err…” (by this point I’m turning an apt shade of crimson and since I have a good 15 minute bus ride ahead of me with this chap I couldn’t help but tell a pork pie… hoping the fib might put him off asking me any more questions) “Shopping?”
Old man: “Riiiight…” (fortunately he went on to tell me all about his reading habits… and I felt far more comfortable discussing that, phew!)
Anyway, so far I’m only a quarter of the way in but it’s a page turner (and I’m hoping it continues to be during all 894 pages… gulp) I’d love to hear what you think of it if you have read it already.
