Fingersmith is the story of Sue Trinder, adoptive daughter of a stolen-goods handler and a baby farmer. Sue is convinced by a con artist to go and work as a lady's maid and convince the lady she's working for to marry the con artist. Once married, he plans to dump the lady in an asylum and pocket her fortune, giving Sue a slice. Once Sue meets her mark, however, things start to unravel and she starts to unexpectedly care for her mark.
This book is exactly what I always think a Booker Prize nominee would be: dry, humour-free and concentrating more on the words than on the action. Nothing wrong with that, if that's your bag, but it's not what interests me. I knew this was a Booker nominee before I picked it up, but I thought my recent success with Girl, Woman, Other meant that I had matured as a reader. Turns out I haven't.
The main problem I had with this book is that it is over-long. The first third is told from Sue's viewpoint. Then the second third is told from Maud's viewpoint, but just recaps what Sue has already told us. Yes, it's told from a different perspective, but there aren't enough differences in the narrative to make 90% of the second third worth reading. In fact, most of the book is overkill. Scenes happen without much actual plot going on, just the internal ramblings of two unfortunate girls. And their ramblings were just so tedious! Every now and then there would be an interesting passage (and no, I don't mean the sex scene - that was far too clouded with euphemisms and metaphor to even be particularly readable) but most of the book was just so damn boring. It reminded me of Dickens in the worst possible way (I'm not a fan of Dickens).
The second problem I had with this book is that Sue is, as far as I can tell, completely superfluous to Gentleman's plot. She is literally there to provide a plot twist. ***Spoiler*** I did see how Gentleman conned Sue into becoming Maud's maid (with money, and the fact that Maud needed a chaperone while Gentleman wooed her), but I didn't see why Maud, for her part of the con, needed Sue. There was a reason given, but it just seemed flimsy. Seriously, you can't honestly tell me her family would have found her if she really didn't want to be found. Why didn't Maud just agree to marry Gentleman and split her fortune with him? Because, of course, then there would be no made-for-TV plot twist.
The romance for me never really got going. Sue starts off by slightly despising Maud, then she thinks her sweet, and suddenly she's in love with her. The romance felt dry and clinical and as such unconvincing. There were certainly no internal musings about the impact of a same-sex relationship in a time when people were executed for sodomy within easy living memory.
Summary: boring. Not recommended.
1.5 stars