Book Title: Affinity Reviewed By: K.A. Corlett Written By: Sarah Waters Genre: Historical Publisher: Riverhead Books/Penguin Putnam ISBN: 1-57322-873-7 Date: June 2000 Price: $11.20

In "Affinity", Sarah Waters has produced an elegant work of historical fiction. A mite predictable, according to a couple of other readers I've consulted. Hmm well, perhaps I'm thick as a phone book, but I was quite taken in by the story. Then again, "Affinity" was right up my alley; ole KAC has a love of things dark, gothic-flavoured, and lugubrious.      Waters' story is set in appropriately foggy London, and told in two female voices that carry the reader back and forth between the years 1872 and 1874. The plot focuses on the plight of Margaret Prior, the eldest daughter of a wealthy scholar's family. After the death of her beloved father, Margaret tries to commit suicide, and part of her recovery ritual at the suggestion of a family acquaintance is to take on the role of 'lady visitor' at forbidding Millbank Prison. Ah, charity work, so uplifting. NOT.      As it turns out, Millbank is a dismal, freezing gaol where prisoners are not allowed to speak to one another and are forced to work until their fingers bleed. Thank you for your suggestions on prison reform, Mr. Jeremy Bentham! Apparently the real Millbank was founded on Benthamite principles, coupling physical and mental isolation with 'rehabilitative' hard work. Waters has clearly done extensive research on the daily routine of female prisoners. It shows forth in her atmospheric, almost sinister descriptions of everything from the sparse contents of cells to the fabric of the inmates' dresses. Apparently an act of Parliament in 1823 restricted Millbank to men only (see Millbank Prison or Weinreb, B., Hibbert, C. (eds).The London Encyclopaedia, 1993), but I've found a reference regarding female incarceration at Millbank at least as late as 1843 (Emma Eugenia log). A keen researcher would have to check the dates.      At any rate, on with the story: Margaret is particularly taken with one of the female inmates, a spirit medium named Selina Dawes. We get to know Selina through Margaret's eyes and through entries from Selina's own journal. Along with Margaret the reader pieces together the story of the spirit medium's life before Millbank. In revealing Selina's personality by increments, the author means to keep the reader in suspense about this odd woman's true nature. As Margaret is drawn further into Selina's spirit ethos, the reader begins to feel tenuously convinced of that otherworld's reality. But only tenuously. Having discussed the book with a reading group, I found that seemed to be dependent on the reader's ability and willingness to suspend disbelief.      Margaret Prior is a vulnerable character, for a number of reasons. The most interesting is that she knows she prefers women. The author expresses the frustrations of being a lesbian (if one might employ the modern terminology for the sake of clarity) in the straightjacket of Victorian society masterfully. Few things are spoken outright--instead they are alluded to. Waters' characters are well drawn. While one senses Margaret's helplessness and desperation, there is rarely need of a fainting couch; the author doesn't lapse into wrist-to-the-forehead whininess to capture the reader's sympathy for her women. Instead Waters plays with the imagery of imprisonment, whether the bars be physical or psychological. As a reader one is led to meditate on the nature of personal freedom.      If you are a believer in the validity of spiritualism and don't want any mysteries debunked, "Affinity" may not be the book for you. Indeed, by the last page I was feeling quite depressed and rather spiritually slimy. But that's a testament to Sarah Waters' ability to entice the reader into her world. I'm still glad I read the book. The prose flows along without a hitch; the author establishes a kind of dialectic through the device of contrasting Margaret and Selina's journals. Overall "Affinity" is a dark but highly engaging work. K.A. Corlett

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