The Paying Guests, a story of post-WWI

我看完第一遍，不應劇透。

深深覺得我有一種被華老師迫害妄想症，尤其是我已熟悉她所有作品。依照往例，我不可以相信主角表白的「我愛你」。在這本書裡，「我愛你」有種奇特的驗證方式，已經不是「是,不是」的層面，而是「那又如何」。要說是愛情浪漫故事，實在殘忍至極，後半段我被壓得喘不過氣。

華老師除了第一本書之外，從不偏愛快樂結局。Fingersmith雖然團圓，卻是傷痕累累。這本書結局有點開放式，相信很多人會想接手寫fan fiction.但其傷痕累累更甚Fingersmith. 唉.

2014/9/9更新兩則書評小段

• The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters, book review: Novel tackles big themes but lacks bite

這篇是負評，不過這不是我會在意的事情。其中有一段提到莉莉安的心理轉變，正如我預料，很容易引起討論。

Yet the love story’s progression – to say more would give too much away – is not entirely convincing by the end. While Frances’s passion and later, pain, is entirely believable – and here, Waters excels at presenting the raw interiority of a quietly heroic woman, slightly too ahead of her time – there is something under-investigated about Lilian’s “turning”, especially over the question of going public.

• Sarah Waters interview: 'I pay attention to women's secret history and lives'

The ambition that drives Len and Lil never turns into parody – in fact she looks pained when I say I didn’t like or trust Lillian at first. “Oh no, didn’t you?” she exclaims, as if I had just slighted a child. “Oh, I grew to really like her,” I reply quickly, and she looks relieved.

華老師的確打算把莉莉安寫得堅貞不移，但是大部份人和我一樣總是心存懷疑。看來華老師會面對許多讀者同樣的疑問。

Frances’ and Lillian’s love affair is at the heart of The Paying Guests. Lesbians are central to all her novels, apart from the last, the Booker-shortlisted The Little Stranger. Was the decision to return to a lesbian relationship conscious? “It sort of was, because I missed it,” answers the author noted for creating scenes electric1 with passion. “I missed writing about love. Once I realised that, at its heart, I was writing a love story, I was very excited, because I have never really written a love story before.” Before I pick up on the comment, she explains that the book is grand love story rather than sexy romp (Tipping the Velvet) or doomed passion (The Night Watch).

華老師作了產品定位分析，The Paying Guests是部充滿愛情的故事。

2014/9/7更新BBC訪問及圖片

華老師出來信心喊話：這本小說有拉子讀者期望的愛情故事。


華老師的小說一向具有很濃的歷史氛圍，時間背景在1922年，一次大戰結束後，城市上班族興起的年代。看著書中的生活描述，決定找出當時的紀錄片，營造臨場感。