Korri reviewed on 11/21/2011 + 5 more book reviews

Set in 1831 Sunderland during the cholera epidemic, Holman's book plays with the conventions of the 19th century British novel. With a resourceful prostitute heroine and the vivid historical detail of The Crimson Petal and the White, a 'modern' man possessed of complicated or questionable morality as in The French Lieutenant's Woman, and a sprawling cast of characters a la Dickens, The Dress Lodger meditates on prostitution, pestilence, and class warfare in an unusual narrative. Though wrapped in period-specific details (maybe more details than you ever wanted to know about potteries), many of the situations Holman writes echo in the present: the economic uses to which the body is put; the status of medicine and the methods and motives of its arbiters; and the difficulty of creating alliances and bridging the gap between classes.

Guided by an mysterious (or irritating, depending on the reader) plural narrator, readers are swept around the city experiencing its sights, sounds, and smells. Gustine, a teenage potter's assistant by day and a dress lodger (prostitute in a fashionable rented gown) by night, works to keep her baby well-fed and comfortable. She assists Dr. Henry Chiver in procuring cadavers to study; the young doctor is obsessed with anatomy and dissection but is under a cloud for his connection to the murderers-cum-cadaver-providers Burke and Hare. As the paths of paupers and the privileged, humans and animals, and the living and the dead intersect, the fear, anger, and illness stalking Sunderland reach a boiling point.

It should be a fascinating book and I certainly enjoyed it but I didn't come to be particuarly emotionally invested in the characters and their lives. The upsetting events that befall the characters didn't have a big impact on me. But if historical fiction is your cup of tea, this is a diverting read.

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