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The Fair Fight
For fans of Sarah Waters and The Crimson Petal and the White, a vibrant tale of female boxers and their scheming patrons in 18th-century Bristol.
Some call the prize ring a nursery for vice . . .
Born into a brothel, Ruth's future looks bleak until she catches the eye of Mr. Dryer. A rich Bristol merchant and enthusiast of the ring, he trains gutsy Ruth as a puglist. Soon she rules the blood-spattered sawdust at the infamous Hatchet Inn.
Dryer's wife Charlotte lives in the shadows. A grieving orphan, she hides away, scarred by smallpox, ignored by Dryer, and engaged in dangerous mind games with her brother.
When Dryer sidelines Ruth after a disastrous fight, and focuses on training her husband Tom, Charlotte presents Ruth with an extraordinary proposition. As the tension mounts before Tom's Championship fight, two worlds collide with electrifying consequences.
The Fair Fight will take you from a filthy brothel to the finest houses in the town, from the world of street-fighters to the world of champions. Alive with the smells and the sounds of the streets, it is a raucous, intoxicating tale of courage, reinvention and fighting your way to the top.
Some call the prize ring a nursery for vice . . .
Born into a brothel, Ruth's future looks bleak until she catches the eye of Mr. Dryer. A rich Bristol merchant and enthusiast of the ring, he trains gutsy Ruth as a puglist. Soon she rules the blood-spattered sawdust at the infamous Hatchet Inn.
Dryer's wife Charlotte lives in the shadows. A grieving orphan, she hides away, scarred by smallpox, ignored by Dryer, and engaged in dangerous mind games with her brother.
When Dryer sidelines Ruth after a disastrous fight, and focuses on training her husband Tom, Charlotte presents Ruth with an extraordinary proposition. As the tension mounts before Tom's Championship fight, two worlds collide with electrifying consequences.
The Fair Fight will take you from a filthy brothel to the finest houses in the town, from the world of street-fighters to the world of champions. Alive with the smells and the sounds of the streets, it is a raucous, intoxicating tale of courage, reinvention and fighting your way to the top.
437 pages, Paperback
First published August 28, 2014
89 people are currently reading
8098 people want to read
About the author
Anna Freeman
26 books123 followersAnna Freeman is a lecturer in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University as well as a multiple slam-winning performance poet who has appeared at festivals across Britain including Latitude and Glastonbury. She lives in Bristol. The Fair Fight is her first novel.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 578 reviews
June 28, 2018
as a huge sarah waters fan, i feel comfortable declaring that any comparisons between this book and the excellent writing of waters are completely earned.
like waters, freeman's preoccupation is with the lives of women in a society which affords them few opportunities or diversions, and only the most sordid paths towards financial independence.
this takes place in georgian england, and tracks the twisting connections between ruth; a woman born to a brothel-owner who becomes a pugilist at the ago of ten, charlotte; a gentlewoman horribly scarred from a bout of childhood smallpox, and george; the lover of charlotte's dissipated brother perry, who has a hunger both for gambling and for the leisured life of the wealthy.
i found all three viewpoint-characters equally engaging, as well as the several dickensian secondary characters who aren't given their own voiced chapters, but who weave in and out of the stories, tightening connections between characters in a delicious way.
this is one of those detail-rich historical novels that just sucks you completely into the world; its smells and sights, its slang and frustrations. it's dense and textured, but with plenty of action to keep you completely riveted. i read it straight through to 4 in the morning and then woke up at 6 just so i could dive right back in.
the hook is obviously the female pugilist angle, but that's not the book's focus throughout. it's not just about women fighting with their fists, but also all the other fights women of that era faced. the lack of independence for women of the upper-class like charlotte, who required chaperoning to do anything at all, and whose most stimulating amusement was embroidery or a walk through the gardens on her own land. the seeming independence of the lower-class like ruth, who could swagger amongst men and bare her legs to punch men and women in the face, but who had no financial stability, nor safety net should fighting cease to be an option due to injury or loss of sponsor. marriage was always the surest means for a woman to attain security, and despite ruth being deemed too ugly to become a prostitute like her voluptuous sister dora, and charlotte's severe scarring, both women do find husbands. but marriage brings its own set of difficulties, particularly for charlotte.
despite their disparate backgrounds, ruth and charlotte build a friendship, and there are unexpected parallels in their circumstances, mostly in the tedium of their lives, where so much of their time is spent waiting in empty rooms for something to happen; waiting for a man to come home.
and for charlotte, the profound novelty in something that seems so trivial:
The key to the front door of the gatehouse was just where it should have been, tucked out of sight upon the lintel. I had never before made use of a key to open the front door of any kind of dwelling. Keys had been things to secure the doors of bedrooms, or music boxes. I felt like a housebreaker, and somehow like a grown woman - or perhaps I felt like a man. How odd to see my own hand turn the key and push open the door. Then I felt strange all over again as I stepped inside.
it's spectacular - the writing, the development of the characters, the structure - the way the story is doled out only to have additional details emerge from a different character's perspective later. it's a remarkably tight debut.
i realize i haven't said anything about george (nor dryer, tom, dora, perry, henry, jacky, ruth's mother, etc), but that's probably because his story requires too much detail to adequately discuss. but it's equally compelling and his immature, grasping personality is both reprehensible ad sympathetic.
ohhh, it's a good book - all seedy and bloody and dirty and lonesome and brash. a breathtaking debut.
*******************************************************
good lord, i am on such a great-book streak* lately. which probably means the next thing i pick up will be horrible, but i'll try to choose wisely.
* i mean, except for Space Raptor Butt Invasion.
come to my blog!
like waters, freeman's preoccupation is with the lives of women in a society which affords them few opportunities or diversions, and only the most sordid paths towards financial independence.
this takes place in georgian england, and tracks the twisting connections between ruth; a woman born to a brothel-owner who becomes a pugilist at the ago of ten, charlotte; a gentlewoman horribly scarred from a bout of childhood smallpox, and george; the lover of charlotte's dissipated brother perry, who has a hunger both for gambling and for the leisured life of the wealthy.
i found all three viewpoint-characters equally engaging, as well as the several dickensian secondary characters who aren't given their own voiced chapters, but who weave in and out of the stories, tightening connections between characters in a delicious way.
this is one of those detail-rich historical novels that just sucks you completely into the world; its smells and sights, its slang and frustrations. it's dense and textured, but with plenty of action to keep you completely riveted. i read it straight through to 4 in the morning and then woke up at 6 just so i could dive right back in.
the hook is obviously the female pugilist angle, but that's not the book's focus throughout. it's not just about women fighting with their fists, but also all the other fights women of that era faced. the lack of independence for women of the upper-class like charlotte, who required chaperoning to do anything at all, and whose most stimulating amusement was embroidery or a walk through the gardens on her own land. the seeming independence of the lower-class like ruth, who could swagger amongst men and bare her legs to punch men and women in the face, but who had no financial stability, nor safety net should fighting cease to be an option due to injury or loss of sponsor. marriage was always the surest means for a woman to attain security, and despite ruth being deemed too ugly to become a prostitute like her voluptuous sister dora, and charlotte's severe scarring, both women do find husbands. but marriage brings its own set of difficulties, particularly for charlotte.
despite their disparate backgrounds, ruth and charlotte build a friendship, and there are unexpected parallels in their circumstances, mostly in the tedium of their lives, where so much of their time is spent waiting in empty rooms for something to happen; waiting for a man to come home.
and for charlotte, the profound novelty in something that seems so trivial:
The key to the front door of the gatehouse was just where it should have been, tucked out of sight upon the lintel. I had never before made use of a key to open the front door of any kind of dwelling. Keys had been things to secure the doors of bedrooms, or music boxes. I felt like a housebreaker, and somehow like a grown woman - or perhaps I felt like a man. How odd to see my own hand turn the key and push open the door. Then I felt strange all over again as I stepped inside.
it's spectacular - the writing, the development of the characters, the structure - the way the story is doled out only to have additional details emerge from a different character's perspective later. it's a remarkably tight debut.
i realize i haven't said anything about george (nor dryer, tom, dora, perry, henry, jacky, ruth's mother, etc), but that's probably because his story requires too much detail to adequately discuss. but it's equally compelling and his immature, grasping personality is both reprehensible ad sympathetic.
ohhh, it's a good book - all seedy and bloody and dirty and lonesome and brash. a breathtaking debut.
*******************************************************
good lord, i am on such a great-book streak* lately. which probably means the next thing i pick up will be horrible, but i'll try to choose wisely.
* i mean, except for Space Raptor Butt Invasion.
come to my blog!
September 18, 2015
THIS BOOK IS SO AWESOME!
I LOVE THIS AWESOME BOOK!
In fact, I just climbed out of my bed late at night due to intrusive, spinning thoughts about how great this book was, and as it seems I can't sleep from the excitement, hopefully writing this will help. I got this out of the library but now that I'm done I think I'd better buy my own copy, not so much because I need to own it as because I should give the lovely and talented Anna Freeman some money. She's almost certainly a wonderful person and deserves handsome remuneration and many prestigious honors and awards! I definitely feel in her debt having enjoyed so much what she's written.
Okay so at first glance this isn't a book I'd normally pick up, I guess because books about certain old-timey eras and topics make me think of those other books we used to pass around in sixth grade... you know, the ones with gold foil cutaway covers that depicted a breathtakingly lovely lady with amazing boobs spilling out of her gown as she clung rapturously to Fabio's loins? Yes I know not all historical novels are salacious tales of indomitable heiresses being deliciously savaged by "purple-headed warriors" and then teaching great hairy brutes how to love, but I'll admit to being suspicious and judging by its cover, this looked like an upmarket version of those, with a bust of an old-timey pretty lady melded into an impressionistic skyline, bleagh. I never would've chosen this on the cover alone, only a friend recommended it because in actual fact it is about a LADY BOXER and I am a lady boxer of sorts, though certainly not like the one in this book and after reading all that she went through I've resolved to stop whining so much about how I can't get good sparring at my gym.
So, The Fair Fight is just a ridiculous amount of fun. It's fun in the way that Dickens is fun, if you crossed Dickens with Rocky and, I don't know, The Slits?
My favorite thing about this book (and there are so many other things in it I love) is that neither of the two main female characters is attractive. This is ridiculously rare and incredibly important, and is the reason I hope to God they never make a Hollywood movie of this book even though I do badly want Anna Freeman to become rich. Much has been made recently of the new Mad Max remake's pop-feminist cred, to which I would point out that the movie is about a truckful of models and that those characters only matter because of their perfect looks. It's almost unheard of for a Hollywood movie to treat a female character as important if she isn't gorgeous, and the same is true for a lot of books and not just those aforementioned bodice-rippers with their creamy-skinned emerald-eyed ingenues. Having recently become a mother, I think even more than I did before about how screwed up I've been by all of this my whole life and I worry about my daughter. I don't want her to spend the amount of time I have agonizing about how she doesn't look like Charlize Theron and feeling like her story means less than those of girls who do (this is assuming my daughter does not, in fact, grow up to look like Charlize Theron, which, well, I guess we don't know for sure yet but I'd feel pretty safe betting with those odds).
The heroines of The Fair Fight aren't just "not beautiful' in the way we were promised Scarlett O'Hara wasn't; they're terrible looking by the standards of their day and ours. Ruth, the boxer born in a brothel, is missing most of her teeth and has a nose that's been knocked sideways in addition to all the other scars and damage inflicted by her brutal pre-Queensberry fight career. All this after not being initially attractive enough as a ten-year-old to follow her prettier thirteen-year-old sister into the family prostitution business... Our other girl -- awkward, lonely drunk Charlotte -- starts off with all the advantages of wealth and good looks but is horribly scarred by the smallpox that kills most of her family and (spoiler alert!) unlike Esther Summerson of Bleak House her scars don't magically fade away towards the end of the book.
These two narrators and a third, handsome bisexual gambling addict and layabout George Bowdon, take their turns relaying the action. There are three other central characters -- Ruth's sister Dora; Charlotte's brother Perry; and George's schoolmate Granville, who arguably does most structurally to tie all the characters together -- who we don't hear from directly but get to know well, who interact with each other in various complex ways. The world they live in has shades of Mad Max in a sense, not in being a dystopian Australian future (it's set in Bristol around the beginning of the nineteenth century) but in being an extremely brutal and unforgiving environment. The characters experience mostly hostility, neglect, and even violence from their families and a lot of the people in their lives, and all (in particular the women and the poor ones) are terribly constrained by their circumstances.
Yet the novel isn't a sob story but instead is rough after rough and tough round of pure fun. That's because Freeman can sure write and she's nailed the voices here, in particular Ruth's. Her use of slang in particular stands out (at the gym this afternoon I kept calling punches "fibs" in my head, as she does!) but all the diction throughout it is just so fucking great and I should think of another way to say this but I can't: FUN. This book was just so much fun! And that's great.
If you're not interested in boxing you might not be quite as ridiculously, idiotically thrilled over this as I am, but that is certainly no obstacle to your enjoyment at all. I don't remember the last time I had this much fun reading a book -- it was infinitely more fun than that Mad Max remake, which I personally found dull and not nearly as good as its incredible preview. You might disagree with me about that and you might not be so crazy about A Fair Fight, but if you like the idea of an updated Dickensy/Thackerayish/whatever British novelist of two-hundred-or-so-years-ago kind of thing with every kind of scum and underbelly and vice they could only allude to in most books written at that time and a grimy spirited feminist kick to it, I'd recommend buying (not just checking out) this book.
Wheeeee!
I LOVE THIS AWESOME BOOK!
In fact, I just climbed out of my bed late at night due to intrusive, spinning thoughts about how great this book was, and as it seems I can't sleep from the excitement, hopefully writing this will help. I got this out of the library but now that I'm done I think I'd better buy my own copy, not so much because I need to own it as because I should give the lovely and talented Anna Freeman some money. She's almost certainly a wonderful person and deserves handsome remuneration and many prestigious honors and awards! I definitely feel in her debt having enjoyed so much what she's written.
Okay so at first glance this isn't a book I'd normally pick up, I guess because books about certain old-timey eras and topics make me think of those other books we used to pass around in sixth grade... you know, the ones with gold foil cutaway covers that depicted a breathtakingly lovely lady with amazing boobs spilling out of her gown as she clung rapturously to Fabio's loins? Yes I know not all historical novels are salacious tales of indomitable heiresses being deliciously savaged by "purple-headed warriors" and then teaching great hairy brutes how to love, but I'll admit to being suspicious and judging by its cover, this looked like an upmarket version of those, with a bust of an old-timey pretty lady melded into an impressionistic skyline, bleagh. I never would've chosen this on the cover alone, only a friend recommended it because in actual fact it is about a LADY BOXER and I am a lady boxer of sorts, though certainly not like the one in this book and after reading all that she went through I've resolved to stop whining so much about how I can't get good sparring at my gym.
So, The Fair Fight is just a ridiculous amount of fun. It's fun in the way that Dickens is fun, if you crossed Dickens with Rocky and, I don't know, The Slits?
My favorite thing about this book (and there are so many other things in it I love) is that neither of the two main female characters is attractive. This is ridiculously rare and incredibly important, and is the reason I hope to God they never make a Hollywood movie of this book even though I do badly want Anna Freeman to become rich. Much has been made recently of the new Mad Max remake's pop-feminist cred, to which I would point out that the movie is about a truckful of models and that those characters only matter because of their perfect looks. It's almost unheard of for a Hollywood movie to treat a female character as important if she isn't gorgeous, and the same is true for a lot of books and not just those aforementioned bodice-rippers with their creamy-skinned emerald-eyed ingenues. Having recently become a mother, I think even more than I did before about how screwed up I've been by all of this my whole life and I worry about my daughter. I don't want her to spend the amount of time I have agonizing about how she doesn't look like Charlize Theron and feeling like her story means less than those of girls who do (this is assuming my daughter does not, in fact, grow up to look like Charlize Theron, which, well, I guess we don't know for sure yet but I'd feel pretty safe betting with those odds).
The heroines of The Fair Fight aren't just "not beautiful' in the way we were promised Scarlett O'Hara wasn't; they're terrible looking by the standards of their day and ours. Ruth, the boxer born in a brothel, is missing most of her teeth and has a nose that's been knocked sideways in addition to all the other scars and damage inflicted by her brutal pre-Queensberry fight career. All this after not being initially attractive enough as a ten-year-old to follow her prettier thirteen-year-old sister into the family prostitution business... Our other girl -- awkward, lonely drunk Charlotte -- starts off with all the advantages of wealth and good looks but is horribly scarred by the smallpox that kills most of her family and (spoiler alert!) unlike Esther Summerson of Bleak House her scars don't magically fade away towards the end of the book.
These two narrators and a third, handsome bisexual gambling addict and layabout George Bowdon, take their turns relaying the action. There are three other central characters -- Ruth's sister Dora; Charlotte's brother Perry; and George's schoolmate Granville, who arguably does most structurally to tie all the characters together -- who we don't hear from directly but get to know well, who interact with each other in various complex ways. The world they live in has shades of Mad Max in a sense, not in being a dystopian Australian future (it's set in Bristol around the beginning of the nineteenth century) but in being an extremely brutal and unforgiving environment. The characters experience mostly hostility, neglect, and even violence from their families and a lot of the people in their lives, and all (in particular the women and the poor ones) are terribly constrained by their circumstances.
Yet the novel isn't a sob story but instead is rough after rough and tough round of pure fun. That's because Freeman can sure write and she's nailed the voices here, in particular Ruth's. Her use of slang in particular stands out (at the gym this afternoon I kept calling punches "fibs" in my head, as she does!) but all the diction throughout it is just so fucking great and I should think of another way to say this but I can't: FUN. This book was just so much fun! And that's great.
If you're not interested in boxing you might not be quite as ridiculously, idiotically thrilled over this as I am, but that is certainly no obstacle to your enjoyment at all. I don't remember the last time I had this much fun reading a book -- it was infinitely more fun than that Mad Max remake, which I personally found dull and not nearly as good as its incredible preview. You might disagree with me about that and you might not be so crazy about A Fair Fight, but if you like the idea of an updated Dickensy/Thackerayish/whatever British novelist of two-hundred-or-so-years-ago kind of thing with every kind of scum and underbelly and vice they could only allude to in most books written at that time and a grimy spirited feminist kick to it, I'd recommend buying (not just checking out) this book.
Wheeeee!
August 2, 2015
This book is classed as historical Fiction which is a genre I do actually tend to enjoy a lot, I just don't often have time to get around to it or feel in the mood for it. However, despite all that being said when I heard that not only was this a book a lot of people I know and trust seemed to love, but it was also a debut, I wanted to pick it up and try it out.
I went into this book not knowing much about it really, and I think that that is probably the best way to enter it. It's an Edwardian England setting and we follow a host of different characters as they get on with their various different, but interwoven, lives. Each of the characters is very different and comes from both different backgrounds, different classes, and is a unique person with their own personality and motives. I felt like Freeman did a great job of making each of these characters feel genuine, real and unique, and I never had a problem knowing who was who or what was what.
The misconception with this book is that it's focused upon female boxing. There IS mention and focus of this early in the book and it's written well and with an interesting story so as to draws you in, however, this is not, ultimately, the focus of the book. The book itself is about the characters and the way that they have been moulded and affected by the world and events of their life into the people we come to read about. Boxing as a whole is a large focus, but specifically 'female' boxing is not the overall focus and whilst we do have 2 female lead character who's stories are great, we also follow three men.
I found that the storylines all started out equally engaging but I ended up enjoying the stories of Charlotte and Ruth the most overall. I think each character, no matter how dislikable or annoying at times, did have some redeeming qualities, which made the dislikable parts of their story even more shocking and brutal to read.
This book did make me a little emotional at times. Not so much that I teared up, but there were moments where I was as angry as the characters, as shocked as could be or as passionate and heart-warmed as them. I think that the writing of this book was flawless and the fact that it made me feel all of these emotions for these 5 characters meant that it truly was a captivating read throughout.
I would highly recommend this as a fun, slightly slow burning (but fast at the end) read which details the lives of 5 unique individuals from all walks of life. It's fun, it's approachable and it's an easy entrance to Historical fiction of this time period. It's nothing revolutionary, but it's not dull. It's beautifully written, and it's captivating throughout. A wonderful 4.5* read, and highly recommended :)
I went into this book not knowing much about it really, and I think that that is probably the best way to enter it. It's an Edwardian England setting and we follow a host of different characters as they get on with their various different, but interwoven, lives. Each of the characters is very different and comes from both different backgrounds, different classes, and is a unique person with their own personality and motives. I felt like Freeman did a great job of making each of these characters feel genuine, real and unique, and I never had a problem knowing who was who or what was what.
The misconception with this book is that it's focused upon female boxing. There IS mention and focus of this early in the book and it's written well and with an interesting story so as to draws you in, however, this is not, ultimately, the focus of the book. The book itself is about the characters and the way that they have been moulded and affected by the world and events of their life into the people we come to read about. Boxing as a whole is a large focus, but specifically 'female' boxing is not the overall focus and whilst we do have 2 female lead character who's stories are great, we also follow three men.
I found that the storylines all started out equally engaging but I ended up enjoying the stories of Charlotte and Ruth the most overall. I think each character, no matter how dislikable or annoying at times, did have some redeeming qualities, which made the dislikable parts of their story even more shocking and brutal to read.
This book did make me a little emotional at times. Not so much that I teared up, but there were moments where I was as angry as the characters, as shocked as could be or as passionate and heart-warmed as them. I think that the writing of this book was flawless and the fact that it made me feel all of these emotions for these 5 characters meant that it truly was a captivating read throughout.
I would highly recommend this as a fun, slightly slow burning (but fast at the end) read which details the lives of 5 unique individuals from all walks of life. It's fun, it's approachable and it's an easy entrance to Historical fiction of this time period. It's nothing revolutionary, but it's not dull. It's beautifully written, and it's captivating throughout. A wonderful 4.5* read, and highly recommended :)
June 28, 2021
check out all my thoughts here: https://youtu.be/peRtVjsR9yo
July 10, 2017
My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars
“I’d like to say that my beginnings were humble, but they weren’t beginnings, because I never really left them but for a short while."
The Fair Fight is told from three separate points of view that details the way of life for three very different individuals in diverse social classes in 18th century Bristol. We’re first given Ruth’s tale which starts this book off with a bang. Born in a brothel, Ruth never had any aspirations of ever rising her station until one day she’s seen fighting her sister and she’s suddenly being trained and thrust into a boxing ring. She becomes near unstoppable and becomes known everywhere as Miss Matchet from The Hatchet. Ruth was quite a compelling and gutsy woman with a gripping story told in lower-class slang and I would have gladly read this book told entirely from her point of view. In fact, I think I actually would have preferred it.
Next, we shift down a few gears and are taken inside the walls of an English boarding school where we are introduced to roommates and friends, George and Perry. Their tale was extremely long and sordid and went on for so long that I quickly lost interest after Ruth’s fascinating tale. We’re then given the story of Perry’s sister, Charlotte. Her story is one chock full of torment at the hands of her brother. After surviving the pox yet being left dreadfully scarred, her scars becomes the sole focus of Perry’s cruelty. It was a vast change from the Perry we see through the “rose-colored” eyes of George. The multiple storylines left things quite convoluted and excessively long and drawn out and none of them quite compared to the fascinating parts of the story centered around Ruth.
When a book is being called the “female Fight Club“, well, those are some mighty big boots to fill. Also, it’s a bit misleading since in all actuality very little of this story truly focused on female pugilists (I felt more focus actually ended up being given to the male fighters when it was all said and done). The majority of the story is comprised of nothing more than Victorian drama and of the way of life in the 18th century. It wasn’t that it was all terribly uninteresting because there were aspects that I did enjoy, the problem was that everything was all so long and drawn out. I understand the need to set the scene, explain everyone’s back-story, but it was so overdone that it threw off the pacing, caused me to get a bit lost in the detail and detracted from my ultimate enjoyment of the story itself. The writing was brilliant at times and I got definite Sarah Waters vibes but while there were parts of this that I thoroughly enjoyed, there were much more that I didn’t.
I received this book free from First to Read Program in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
“I’d like to say that my beginnings were humble, but they weren’t beginnings, because I never really left them but for a short while."
The Fair Fight is told from three separate points of view that details the way of life for three very different individuals in diverse social classes in 18th century Bristol. We’re first given Ruth’s tale which starts this book off with a bang. Born in a brothel, Ruth never had any aspirations of ever rising her station until one day she’s seen fighting her sister and she’s suddenly being trained and thrust into a boxing ring. She becomes near unstoppable and becomes known everywhere as Miss Matchet from The Hatchet. Ruth was quite a compelling and gutsy woman with a gripping story told in lower-class slang and I would have gladly read this book told entirely from her point of view. In fact, I think I actually would have preferred it.
Next, we shift down a few gears and are taken inside the walls of an English boarding school where we are introduced to roommates and friends, George and Perry. Their tale was extremely long and sordid and went on for so long that I quickly lost interest after Ruth’s fascinating tale. We’re then given the story of Perry’s sister, Charlotte. Her story is one chock full of torment at the hands of her brother. After surviving the pox yet being left dreadfully scarred, her scars becomes the sole focus of Perry’s cruelty. It was a vast change from the Perry we see through the “rose-colored” eyes of George. The multiple storylines left things quite convoluted and excessively long and drawn out and none of them quite compared to the fascinating parts of the story centered around Ruth.
When a book is being called the “female Fight Club“, well, those are some mighty big boots to fill. Also, it’s a bit misleading since in all actuality very little of this story truly focused on female pugilists (I felt more focus actually ended up being given to the male fighters when it was all said and done). The majority of the story is comprised of nothing more than Victorian drama and of the way of life in the 18th century. It wasn’t that it was all terribly uninteresting because there were aspects that I did enjoy, the problem was that everything was all so long and drawn out. I understand the need to set the scene, explain everyone’s back-story, but it was so overdone that it threw off the pacing, caused me to get a bit lost in the detail and detracted from my ultimate enjoyment of the story itself. The writing was brilliant at times and I got definite Sarah Waters vibes but while there were parts of this that I thoroughly enjoyed, there were much more that I didn’t.
I received this book free from First to Read Program in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Read
February 2, 2015Ruth is born in a brothel in Victorian England and makes her way in life by bare-knuckle boxing. Charlotte is born to money and status, but her existence is a total ruin. Their paths converge and they must fight- often literally- against the men who would rule them and decide their fates. This is the ballsiest book I’ve read in a long time, and I inhaled all 480 pages in a sitting (a long sitting, but an engrossing one). It’s brash and brave and unflinching- a violently satisfying read drawn as tight as corset stays. –Amanda Nelson
From The Best Books We Read in January: http://bookriot.com/2015/02/02/riot-r...
From The Best Books We Read in January: http://bookriot.com/2015/02/02/riot-r...
January 7, 2015
The book blurb from the back cover of the book says this is the story of two women from different circumstances and how they profoundly change each other's lives when they meet. But the two women don't meet until we are far into the story, though one does have an effect on the other before they are introduced, the description only tells part of the story.
There are three narrators each telling this story from their own point of view; Ruth, born to the heartless madam of a brothel, at ten years old is put in the ring to fight, she's tough and fast and keeps fighting for years; George, a handsome gambler who loves to make money on the fights; Charlotte, married to Ruth's manager, Mr. Dryer, discovers there's something horrifying and exciting about pugilism.
The story is about much more than the two women and how their meeting affects their lives. I think the story is about life itself, about being loved, being unloved, even being hated. It's about having no chance at life, then finding a chance, it's about betting on your chances and trying to make your dreams happen. It's about having your dreams shattered and still going on. It's about what you do when you're sick and full of sorrow, or when you are suffocated by life, love and expectations. It's about being human and ugly and flawed, but still having hope for something that will bring you a little joy.
I loved this book, I thoroughly enjoyed reading every page. While I didn't always enjoy these characters, some of them are really horrible and cruel to each other. I wanted to know what they would do next and how things would turn out, would there be any justice for them, would they have any real lasting happiness. The way I felt about them when I was first introduced to them was not the way I felt about them when I said goodbye. My feelings really grew and changed as more about each one was revealed.
This is my kind of book. I like books that have a bit of grit and edge to them, I really like books set in England and I enjoy first person narration, so in those aspects this book was a good fit for my reading tastes. I also didn't have a problem reading about the violence of the pugilist's world, though I wouldn't be able to watch boxers in real life or on tv, I didn't mind reading about their battles and brawls.
The pacing of the story was perfect, the characters as I've said were realistic and human and flawed, the dialogue was well done and felt authentic. I cared about these characters and especially loved Charlotte Dryer. I also enjoyed the way the author created some overlap of the characters narration so the reader could see what one character thought of events that had already been described by another character. That was a really nice touch.
The Fair Fight reminds me of Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, The Nursemaid's Tale by Erica Eisdorfer and The Fiend in Human by John MacLachlan Gray. There's a similar quality of grit juxtaposed with tenderness in all of these stories. All of them wonderful stories that I highly recommend.
Thank you to the publisher, Riverhead Books, and the Amazon Vine program for making the advanced reader copy available to me in exchange for an honest review.
There are three narrators each telling this story from their own point of view; Ruth, born to the heartless madam of a brothel, at ten years old is put in the ring to fight, she's tough and fast and keeps fighting for years; George, a handsome gambler who loves to make money on the fights; Charlotte, married to Ruth's manager, Mr. Dryer, discovers there's something horrifying and exciting about pugilism.
The story is about much more than the two women and how their meeting affects their lives. I think the story is about life itself, about being loved, being unloved, even being hated. It's about having no chance at life, then finding a chance, it's about betting on your chances and trying to make your dreams happen. It's about having your dreams shattered and still going on. It's about what you do when you're sick and full of sorrow, or when you are suffocated by life, love and expectations. It's about being human and ugly and flawed, but still having hope for something that will bring you a little joy.
I loved this book, I thoroughly enjoyed reading every page. While I didn't always enjoy these characters, some of them are really horrible and cruel to each other. I wanted to know what they would do next and how things would turn out, would there be any justice for them, would they have any real lasting happiness. The way I felt about them when I was first introduced to them was not the way I felt about them when I said goodbye. My feelings really grew and changed as more about each one was revealed.
This is my kind of book. I like books that have a bit of grit and edge to them, I really like books set in England and I enjoy first person narration, so in those aspects this book was a good fit for my reading tastes. I also didn't have a problem reading about the violence of the pugilist's world, though I wouldn't be able to watch boxers in real life or on tv, I didn't mind reading about their battles and brawls.
The pacing of the story was perfect, the characters as I've said were realistic and human and flawed, the dialogue was well done and felt authentic. I cared about these characters and especially loved Charlotte Dryer. I also enjoyed the way the author created some overlap of the characters narration so the reader could see what one character thought of events that had already been described by another character. That was a really nice touch.
The Fair Fight reminds me of Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, The Nursemaid's Tale by Erica Eisdorfer and The Fiend in Human by John MacLachlan Gray. There's a similar quality of grit juxtaposed with tenderness in all of these stories. All of them wonderful stories that I highly recommend.
Thank you to the publisher, Riverhead Books, and the Amazon Vine program for making the advanced reader copy available to me in exchange for an honest review.
July 8, 2015
This book was not for me, which is sad because I know of a lot of people who really liked it. However, I got off to a wrong start as I didn't really get on with the very first chapter. I understood what was going on, but I felt like it was very confusing and I couldn't really connect with Ruth.
I was happy to see that the next chapter followed another person's perspective - a person that I actually liked reading about and that actually kept my attention. This was the part of the book that I ended up liking the most. The rest of it was a blur of descriptions, long and dull passages about the same scene and hardly no women boxing at all.
That leads me to another problem I had with this book. I had expected a story about women boxing and therefore a different take on women back hundred of years ago, and while we do get some women boxing (along with heavily detailed descriptions), most of the book is about men and them boxing while their wives are waiting for them at home.
By the end of the book I felt so frustrated that I wanted to throw the book across the room. It was 100 pages till the end, so I didn't want to stop reading, but it was a long way to the hidden gems I found in the beginning of the book. The last 20 pages I had to scim read as I felt like some of the characters' destinies were to ridiculous.
Would I recommend this book despite my rating? I would recommend that you at least check it out because as I wrote, a lot of people seem to love this book. However, no books are for everyone and this one was definitely not for me :(
I was happy to see that the next chapter followed another person's perspective - a person that I actually liked reading about and that actually kept my attention. This was the part of the book that I ended up liking the most. The rest of it was a blur of descriptions, long and dull passages about the same scene and hardly no women boxing at all.
That leads me to another problem I had with this book. I had expected a story about women boxing and therefore a different take on women back hundred of years ago, and while we do get some women boxing (along with heavily detailed descriptions), most of the book is about men and them boxing while their wives are waiting for them at home.
By the end of the book I felt so frustrated that I wanted to throw the book across the room. It was 100 pages till the end, so I didn't want to stop reading, but it was a long way to the hidden gems I found in the beginning of the book. The last 20 pages I had to scim read as I felt like some of the characters' destinies were to ridiculous.
Would I recommend this book despite my rating? I would recommend that you at least check it out because as I wrote, a lot of people seem to love this book. However, no books are for everyone and this one was definitely not for me :(
May 10, 2016
Definitely one of the best, if not the best novel I've read this year so far.
July 22, 2018
I thoroughly enjoyed this book - it is set in 18th-century Bristol and begins with the story of Ruth who is born in a brothel and upon meeting Mr Dryer is set to prize-fighting in local pubs and fairs as she tries to win her freedom.
Told through multiple points of view we get Ruth's story depicting what it's like to be poor and powerless; George's story who is a childhood friend of Mr Dryer and although is not poor is a hopeless gambler and cad who makes his way through life using others; and Charlotte's story who is rich but ultimately as powerless as Ruth in many ways.
All these threads are intertwined as their lives and fortunes are linked in various ways to Ruth's and Ruth's husband's successes in the ring.
It is a wonderful story with good characters that invoke a mixture of emotions and a complex and intriguing plot.
I love the depiction of this time in history and found the descriptions hugely evocative without being overwhelming or repetitive.
I can't recommend this enough; it is one of my favourite books this year and will probably make my all-time favourites list. No skim-reading or downsides for me - I could not put this book down.
Told through multiple points of view we get Ruth's story depicting what it's like to be poor and powerless; George's story who is a childhood friend of Mr Dryer and although is not poor is a hopeless gambler and cad who makes his way through life using others; and Charlotte's story who is rich but ultimately as powerless as Ruth in many ways.
All these threads are intertwined as their lives and fortunes are linked in various ways to Ruth's and Ruth's husband's successes in the ring.
It is a wonderful story with good characters that invoke a mixture of emotions and a complex and intriguing plot.
I love the depiction of this time in history and found the descriptions hugely evocative without being overwhelming or repetitive.
I can't recommend this enough; it is one of my favourite books this year and will probably make my all-time favourites list. No skim-reading or downsides for me - I could not put this book down.
August 26, 2014
'It seemed so odd - and brilliant - that women were boxing on stage at the same time that other ladies were fanning themselves and embroidering...'
It's easy to see how this won the Tibor Jones Page-turner award in 2013; if nothing else (and it is much besides), The Fair Fight is a page-turner; slow to start (George in his boarding school is a chapter to be endured for the sake of the story, rather than enjoyed), it took a while for me to get completely absorbed in this odd tale of eighteenth century pugilism, but once I was, I was absolutely, irretrievably, hooked.
A first-person story told in three voices, we first meet Ruth, the rough-hewn lady boxer - 'barely a woman at all', with legs stocky and solid as a sows, arms thick as logs - who works in the brothel that has always been her home, until she discovers she has a skill for a fight. Next we meet George, an impoverished, unsuccessful young gentleman; the boyhood-friend turned lover of Perry, a vile, brutal, louche young aristocrat and brother of Charlotte, the next voice in the tale. Charlotte is a cruelly neglected, shrinking, used and abused young thing, her looks ruined by smallpox and married-off by her brother against her will. These three larger-than-life characters are joined by others - husbands, children, siblings, servants - all doing extraordinary things as if they were the most ordinary things in the world. There are heroes and villains to be sure, but not even the worst of them are entirely black and white and beyond empathy: disparate characters and strangely fated lives that mesh and merge to tell a hugely entertaining fiction of love and hate, ambition and revenge, fortune and destiny.
As historical fiction, this is gritty, down and dirty, but never gratuitously so. Description is pertinent and sparse; enough to paint a detailed picture, but it never so much as to trip-up the story. 18th century Bristol, which one can smell before you reach it - a stink, 'of the docks and the slow brown river' - makes a wonderful backdrop, where one can 'taste the very cobbles, the congested water of the industrial quays.' The 'pleasures' (rich-men's pleasures in the struggles and endeavour of the poor) of the brothel - a place 'hung with feathers and cushions and drapes', 'boots on the stairs' and 'sheets crusted stiff' - and boxing ring - where burning torches light the crowd strangely... 'a shifting mass of murmurs and hats' - are described in grim, glittering detail: 'The girl's right hand was surely lamed as well as bloody... The hulk in the ring accepted her strikes upon him as thought they were kisses... the beast on the stage... his gloved hand a monstrous thing like a boiled ham... The crowd roared... the lady boxer shouted with us... she had struck him upon the other cheek... a tooth soared out of his mouth, trailing an arc of blood and spittle... I had never known such savage elation, nor known that it existed.'
This is a terrific piece of historical fiction, highly recommended to anyone who loves a fast-moving romp with fully-rounded, fully believable, characters with whom one can build genuine relationships and true sympathies.
It's easy to see how this won the Tibor Jones Page-turner award in 2013; if nothing else (and it is much besides), The Fair Fight is a page-turner; slow to start (George in his boarding school is a chapter to be endured for the sake of the story, rather than enjoyed), it took a while for me to get completely absorbed in this odd tale of eighteenth century pugilism, but once I was, I was absolutely, irretrievably, hooked.
A first-person story told in three voices, we first meet Ruth, the rough-hewn lady boxer - 'barely a woman at all', with legs stocky and solid as a sows, arms thick as logs - who works in the brothel that has always been her home, until she discovers she has a skill for a fight. Next we meet George, an impoverished, unsuccessful young gentleman; the boyhood-friend turned lover of Perry, a vile, brutal, louche young aristocrat and brother of Charlotte, the next voice in the tale. Charlotte is a cruelly neglected, shrinking, used and abused young thing, her looks ruined by smallpox and married-off by her brother against her will. These three larger-than-life characters are joined by others - husbands, children, siblings, servants - all doing extraordinary things as if they were the most ordinary things in the world. There are heroes and villains to be sure, but not even the worst of them are entirely black and white and beyond empathy: disparate characters and strangely fated lives that mesh and merge to tell a hugely entertaining fiction of love and hate, ambition and revenge, fortune and destiny.
As historical fiction, this is gritty, down and dirty, but never gratuitously so. Description is pertinent and sparse; enough to paint a detailed picture, but it never so much as to trip-up the story. 18th century Bristol, which one can smell before you reach it - a stink, 'of the docks and the slow brown river' - makes a wonderful backdrop, where one can 'taste the very cobbles, the congested water of the industrial quays.' The 'pleasures' (rich-men's pleasures in the struggles and endeavour of the poor) of the brothel - a place 'hung with feathers and cushions and drapes', 'boots on the stairs' and 'sheets crusted stiff' - and boxing ring - where burning torches light the crowd strangely... 'a shifting mass of murmurs and hats' - are described in grim, glittering detail: 'The girl's right hand was surely lamed as well as bloody... The hulk in the ring accepted her strikes upon him as thought they were kisses... the beast on the stage... his gloved hand a monstrous thing like a boiled ham... The crowd roared... the lady boxer shouted with us... she had struck him upon the other cheek... a tooth soared out of his mouth, trailing an arc of blood and spittle... I had never known such savage elation, nor known that it existed.'
This is a terrific piece of historical fiction, highly recommended to anyone who loves a fast-moving romp with fully-rounded, fully believable, characters with whom one can build genuine relationships and true sympathies.
May 12, 2015
I'm doing something I haven't done before, give 5 stars to a book I feel is not perfect and had some structural flaws. The writing is too good, the characters too well drawn, the period so well captured, and the story too unique to not give the author her due.
A fabulous debut, centered around two main characters from different classes in the 18th century. One raised in a brothel, one in a wealthy household, but both are outsiders due to their physical appearances and their subservience to the men in their lives. Freeman does not let her characters fall into cliches, however, and the people surrounding these women are complex as well, both hateful and sympathetic at times.
The author gives us a fascinating look into the world of early boxing, and the role women played in the ring. How this theme plays outside the ring though is where the real interest lies. It's about inner turmoil and physical release, love and dependency, the class system, and basic survival.
Unlike many current debut novels I read where the beginning chapters were clearly workshopped, then the rest of the novel doesn't hold up, this novel gets a slow start. You don't much like the rough Ruth at first, or the plot. But hang in there. This novel builds till you can't put it down, and you fall for both of the women, who eventually meet.
I mentioned flaws. That slow start, plus there are a few chapters told from the pov of George, the bisexual lover. While I see why he is used (he reveals some important info from an outside pov), they are chapters to endure rather than enjoy. And I did not like that the final chapter was given to him. I would have ended it with Ruth's final line. But...that's just my opinion, and I still loved this book and highly recommend it to those who have the patience to read almost 500 pages and have an interest in women's roles and history.
I also have a beef with the cover of this edition. They have that partial view of a beautiful woman with her bodice hanging down. I don't feel it's true to what this book is trying to say about women. The publisher fell into the exact cliche that the author tried to avoid in her book. But my guess is, it will help sell the book in the end, and that's a good thing for Freeman.
I wonder what Freeman can do after this amazing debut. I will for sure be watching for her next book. She has a special gift.
A fabulous debut, centered around two main characters from different classes in the 18th century. One raised in a brothel, one in a wealthy household, but both are outsiders due to their physical appearances and their subservience to the men in their lives. Freeman does not let her characters fall into cliches, however, and the people surrounding these women are complex as well, both hateful and sympathetic at times.
The author gives us a fascinating look into the world of early boxing, and the role women played in the ring. How this theme plays outside the ring though is where the real interest lies. It's about inner turmoil and physical release, love and dependency, the class system, and basic survival.
Unlike many current debut novels I read where the beginning chapters were clearly workshopped, then the rest of the novel doesn't hold up, this novel gets a slow start. You don't much like the rough Ruth at first, or the plot. But hang in there. This novel builds till you can't put it down, and you fall for both of the women, who eventually meet.
I mentioned flaws. That slow start, plus there are a few chapters told from the pov of George, the bisexual lover. While I see why he is used (he reveals some important info from an outside pov), they are chapters to endure rather than enjoy. And I did not like that the final chapter was given to him. I would have ended it with Ruth's final line. But...that's just my opinion, and I still loved this book and highly recommend it to those who have the patience to read almost 500 pages and have an interest in women's roles and history.
I also have a beef with the cover of this edition. They have that partial view of a beautiful woman with her bodice hanging down. I don't feel it's true to what this book is trying to say about women. The publisher fell into the exact cliche that the author tried to avoid in her book. But my guess is, it will help sell the book in the end, and that's a good thing for Freeman.
I wonder what Freeman can do after this amazing debut. I will for sure be watching for her next book. She has a special gift.
June 29, 2019
Phwoar. New favourite.
May 28, 2024
Show me someone who hasn’t wanted to punch someone’s face in at some point and I’ll show you a liar as I’m sure someone said sometime because we’ve all had that urge and some of us have been content to make do with a pillow and some of us…
This is a Sarah Waters book by another name and this time set in the world of early 19th Century boxing. It is told by three narrators who all recount the same events but fill in any gaps that the other two weren’t privy to. It is a device that does the job but it is an inelegant way of providing an omniscient narration and in some cases the explanation doesn’t fully match or explain what has gone on.
The three narrator device means the characters are more plot device than believable creatures who evoke emotion in the reader which is a shame as the characters are interesting and deserve more.
Ruth is a plain girl, brought up in a brothel owned by her avaricious, cruel, exploitative mother. She watches her older sister turned into a prostitute and is envious of the finery bestowed on her by their mother and imagines that she will follow her family into the trade. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on your viewpoint) one of her sister’s regular customers sees Ruth at fisticuffs with her sister and, being a wealthy gentleman with a lot of money and a healthy gambling habit, decides to manage er and turn her into a prize fighter.
Added into the mix is the homosexual relationship between two school friends that has lasted into adulthood and turned into an unhealthy trap for both of them, a wealthy man who marries a woman cash poor but of noble stock and while he bets everything he has on the man he is training to be champion his wife is venting her hatred of him by putting on Ruth’s boxing gloves, pummelling punch bags and getting into fights.
It’s a good story with lots of action but it lacks finesse. While I admire the attention to detail of using vernacular of the time, the overuse of the word cully in the first few chapters made 2 Unlimited’s song No Limits seem restrained in the repetition Olympics. Characters were undeveloped in favour of using them as catalysts and clarifiers of the plot and so I think I’d rather read a factual book about the real lives of the people the author says her characters are based on.
This is a Sarah Waters book by another name and this time set in the world of early 19th Century boxing. It is told by three narrators who all recount the same events but fill in any gaps that the other two weren’t privy to. It is a device that does the job but it is an inelegant way of providing an omniscient narration and in some cases the explanation doesn’t fully match or explain what has gone on.
The three narrator device means the characters are more plot device than believable creatures who evoke emotion in the reader which is a shame as the characters are interesting and deserve more.
Ruth is a plain girl, brought up in a brothel owned by her avaricious, cruel, exploitative mother. She watches her older sister turned into a prostitute and is envious of the finery bestowed on her by their mother and imagines that she will follow her family into the trade. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on your viewpoint) one of her sister’s regular customers sees Ruth at fisticuffs with her sister and, being a wealthy gentleman with a lot of money and a healthy gambling habit, decides to manage er and turn her into a prize fighter.
Added into the mix is the homosexual relationship between two school friends that has lasted into adulthood and turned into an unhealthy trap for both of them, a wealthy man who marries a woman cash poor but of noble stock and while he bets everything he has on the man he is training to be champion his wife is venting her hatred of him by putting on Ruth’s boxing gloves, pummelling punch bags and getting into fights.
It’s a good story with lots of action but it lacks finesse. While I admire the attention to detail of using vernacular of the time, the overuse of the word cully in the first few chapters made 2 Unlimited’s song No Limits seem restrained in the repetition Olympics. Characters were undeveloped in favour of using them as catalysts and clarifiers of the plot and so I think I’d rather read a factual book about the real lives of the people the author says her characters are based on.
September 4, 2015
A fantastic, debut historical novel about a female pugilist (prize fighter) raised in a brothel and the unlikely friendship she forms with an upper-class woman. The horrifying examination of living conditions and social stratification in late 18th century England never overshadows a plot that one review calls "a ripping good yarn."
The point-of-view shifts between pugilist Ruth, lady Charlotte, and George, a handsome young friend of Charlotte's brother. There's quite a bit of overlap with the characters telling their own versions of events, but these repetitions are always worthwhile, and all three voices are distinct and believable. Ruth and Charlotte are both strong female characters despite circumstances that would overwhelm a lesser woman. Ruth's scrappiness saves her from a life of a servant or worse in her mother's brothel and she manages to find true love on her own terms. Charlotte, scarred by a pox outbreak that killed two of her siblings and eventually her parents, is limited by the societal norms she must follow, but learns to take control of her life. George is a worthless fop, even if he aspires to be more, and serves as a foil to the two heroines.
My one complaint is about the cover. The library copy I read features a lovely, but somewhat bawdy woman -- so she is neither Ruth (who describes herself as quite unattractive even before brawling takes its toll on her physically) nor Charlotte (who is scarred and wouldn't dress so slatternly). Possibly it's supposed to be Ruth's older sister, who their madam mother puts to work at a shockingly young age. At any rate, this cover is more suitable, in my opinion:
The point-of-view shifts between pugilist Ruth, lady Charlotte, and George, a handsome young friend of Charlotte's brother. There's quite a bit of overlap with the characters telling their own versions of events, but these repetitions are always worthwhile, and all three voices are distinct and believable. Ruth and Charlotte are both strong female characters despite circumstances that would overwhelm a lesser woman. Ruth's scrappiness saves her from a life of a servant or worse in her mother's brothel and she manages to find true love on her own terms. Charlotte, scarred by a pox outbreak that killed two of her siblings and eventually her parents, is limited by the societal norms she must follow, but learns to take control of her life. George is a worthless fop, even if he aspires to be more, and serves as a foil to the two heroines.
My one complaint is about the cover. The library copy I read features a lovely, but somewhat bawdy woman -- so she is neither Ruth (who describes herself as quite unattractive even before brawling takes its toll on her physically) nor Charlotte (who is scarred and wouldn't dress so slatternly). Possibly it's supposed to be Ruth's older sister, who their madam mother puts to work at a shockingly young age. At any rate, this cover is more suitable, in my opinion:
April 30, 2015
I can understand the mixed bag of reviews for this. It was exciting at times, compelling and often times brutal, I actually flinched when I read some of the descriptions of the fights especially with women fighting off beefy brutes in a ring. It was bawdy and sometimes lewd. I did like the way the stories of each person intersected with one another. I was oftentimes frustrated with George's back and forth yearning for Charlotte, then her brother, what gives? But, yes he was clearly a confused individual who also lusted/yearned after his friend's kept mistress. It lagged a bit in the middle for me, but the descriptions made this all very vivid.
April 7, 2019
2019 READING WOMEN Challenge
Task #10. A book about a woman athlete
This might be a bit of a stretch for this challenge, but ladies training one another and fighting chaps in the ring? I’ll flipping take it!
The one thing I did not like about this, though, was how the gay character was portrayed: this is the first time I come across such a vicious, downright nasty character, where to love is to possess and basically destroy all else.
December 29, 2014
I thought this was going to be about ladies boxing in 18th-century England. While it contains some boxing amongst females, only a very small amount of the story actually focuses on the subject. Most of the story seems to center around a theme of addiction and dependency. Gambling addiction. Alcohol addiction. Dependency on both the mentioned vices and on other people. Laziness--unwillingness to make do for oneself--seems to be another theme as it's common amongst almost all the characters.
Ruth is the toughest one, the one who despite the fact she comes from a house of ill repute, learns to make her fortune using her fists rather than her...well, you know. And I greatly admired her despite the fact she is mostly under Mr. Dryer's thumb until she's left to her own devices without food or water and then becomes a shell of herself. She can't look after herself at all, can't find help, look for work, gather stuff for burning. When not fighting she's useless and dependent. HOWEVER, in the end I was really impressed with her once again. She is by far my favorite character. Just like people in real life, the characters in this novel face set-backs.
Charlotte is raised to be a lady but had the pox and now lives with a man who doesn't care for her at all. She imprisons herself in an alcoholic haze of being miserable and picking at her scars. (What a gross and weird habit). She replaces one addiction (or two if you count the picking at herself) with another: fighting. As a matter of fact, when Ruth and Charlotte began training together--that's the best part of the book, in my opinion. But it isn't till the end. Regardless, Charlotte, too, impresses me in the end. Besides being about addictions and fighting, this is a story of women making the best of their situations in a male-dominated world.
George is a dandy with the gambling addiction, completely dependent on Perry, another dandy (and alcoholic dependent on a fortune left to him and unable to care for himself) and Charlotte's brother, for everything but the air he breathes. This is my number-one issue with the book. What is the point of George? While he nicely fills in the blanks between Charlotte and Ruth's bits, as to what's happening, I feel the book would have been a lot better had it just stuck to Ruth and Charlotte's POVs. I disliked George immensely and felt his POV did not add to the story at all but rather detracted.
Then there's Mr. Dryer, not a POV, just a character and a major one, dependent on the fists of others for his fortune and Tom dependent on Mr. Dryer and another lady, Ruth's sister, also dependent on Mr. Dryer. When you look at all the dependency here, it's like a circle of dependency, one person unable to live their life without the other and so on...
I feel like I'm missing something here, some moral, some food for thought. The theme of dependency just keeps striking out at me. Are any of us really "tough" whether we fight with our fists or words? Or are we all dependent in some manner on others? Are we all in some way or form using someone else?
And if I come off as complaining, I'm actually not. Though not what I expected, I found this book very engrossing and it completely transported me to another time and place. I took away new words I'd never read before--I now know what a catch-fart is! I had a few good chuckles despite the darkness of the stories.
Full review and funny bits: http://wwwbookbabe.blogspot.com/2014/...
Ruth is the toughest one, the one who despite the fact she comes from a house of ill repute, learns to make her fortune using her fists rather than her...well, you know. And I greatly admired her despite the fact she is mostly under Mr. Dryer's thumb until she's left to her own devices without food or water and then becomes a shell of herself. She can't look after herself at all, can't find help, look for work, gather stuff for burning. When not fighting she's useless and dependent. HOWEVER, in the end I was really impressed with her once again. She is by far my favorite character. Just like people in real life, the characters in this novel face set-backs.
Charlotte is raised to be a lady but had the pox and now lives with a man who doesn't care for her at all. She imprisons herself in an alcoholic haze of being miserable and picking at her scars. (What a gross and weird habit). She replaces one addiction (or two if you count the picking at herself) with another: fighting. As a matter of fact, when Ruth and Charlotte began training together--that's the best part of the book, in my opinion. But it isn't till the end. Regardless, Charlotte, too, impresses me in the end. Besides being about addictions and fighting, this is a story of women making the best of their situations in a male-dominated world.
George is a dandy with the gambling addiction, completely dependent on Perry, another dandy (and alcoholic dependent on a fortune left to him and unable to care for himself) and Charlotte's brother, for everything but the air he breathes. This is my number-one issue with the book. What is the point of George? While he nicely fills in the blanks between Charlotte and Ruth's bits, as to what's happening, I feel the book would have been a lot better had it just stuck to Ruth and Charlotte's POVs. I disliked George immensely and felt his POV did not add to the story at all but rather detracted.
Then there's Mr. Dryer, not a POV, just a character and a major one, dependent on the fists of others for his fortune and Tom dependent on Mr. Dryer and another lady, Ruth's sister, also dependent on Mr. Dryer. When you look at all the dependency here, it's like a circle of dependency, one person unable to live their life without the other and so on...
I feel like I'm missing something here, some moral, some food for thought. The theme of dependency just keeps striking out at me. Are any of us really "tough" whether we fight with our fists or words? Or are we all dependent in some manner on others? Are we all in some way or form using someone else?
And if I come off as complaining, I'm actually not. Though not what I expected, I found this book very engrossing and it completely transported me to another time and place. I took away new words I'd never read before--I now know what a catch-fart is! I had a few good chuckles despite the darkness of the stories.
Full review and funny bits: http://wwwbookbabe.blogspot.com/2014/...
August 26, 2014
just seemed so odd – and brilliant – that women were boxing on stage at the same time that other ladies were fanning themselves and embroidering.”
Those words - from Horrible Histories - inspired Anna Freeman to write a colourful and compelling debut novel.
It's set in Bristol in 1799, and it moves between backstreets, brothels and grand houses of the city, as it weaves an elaborate tale of fighters, entrepreneurs, gamblers and spectators, all caught up in the world of boxing.
At the centre of the story are two very different women - Ruth and Charlotte.
Ruth Webber grew up in ‘the Convent’, a brothel run first by her mother and later by her sister Dora. There was no work there for Ruth - who was too plain, too ungainly - but Ruth she had spirit and she was always going to stand up for herself. Her sister's regular client, Grenville Dryer, has a fascination with boxing and when he saw a sisterly scuffle between Dora and Ruth, he saw that Ruth’s potential as a prize fighter in the fashionable world of women’s boxing, and that he was in the perfect position to make money from her.
He was right, and Ruth's success brought respect, admirers, love, things that she had never thought would be hers.
Until something went wrong, and Mr Dyer turned his attention elsewhere .....
Charlotte grew up in a grand house, but she was horribly scarred by the smallpox that took all her family, save the brother who was away at school. Sadly that brother, who inherited the family home and fortune, grew up into a cruel drunk, who thought that tormenting his sister was wonderful sport. Every little thing she had, every dream she dreamed, he took away.
And he gave his sister away, when her lost a bet with Granville Dyer .....
The stories of the two women - which eventually crossed - were set against a third narrative.
George was a friend of George and Perry, who had eased his way into Perry's life, as his steward and his lover. But George wanted more that that ....
Anna Freeman deployed her three narrators well, allowing them to give different interpretation, different impressions, of the same events. And she chose well, picking the right characters to tell their tales and the right characters to be simply seen through their eyes.
The characters are vividly drawn and their stories are colourful. The fights are compelling - and painful - reading.
I appreciated that this was as much a story about women fighting for their place in the world as women fighting in the ring.
But, as a whole, the book felt overblown, with too much detail, too many drawn-out scenes, and too many moments that stretched credibility a little too far.
It's a good book, a very readable book, but I can't help feeling that there was a better novel that might have been inspired by those words from 'Horrible Histories' ....
Those words - from Horrible Histories - inspired Anna Freeman to write a colourful and compelling debut novel.
It's set in Bristol in 1799, and it moves between backstreets, brothels and grand houses of the city, as it weaves an elaborate tale of fighters, entrepreneurs, gamblers and spectators, all caught up in the world of boxing.
At the centre of the story are two very different women - Ruth and Charlotte.
Ruth Webber grew up in ‘the Convent’, a brothel run first by her mother and later by her sister Dora. There was no work there for Ruth - who was too plain, too ungainly - but Ruth she had spirit and she was always going to stand up for herself. Her sister's regular client, Grenville Dryer, has a fascination with boxing and when he saw a sisterly scuffle between Dora and Ruth, he saw that Ruth’s potential as a prize fighter in the fashionable world of women’s boxing, and that he was in the perfect position to make money from her.
He was right, and Ruth's success brought respect, admirers, love, things that she had never thought would be hers.
Until something went wrong, and Mr Dyer turned his attention elsewhere .....
Charlotte grew up in a grand house, but she was horribly scarred by the smallpox that took all her family, save the brother who was away at school. Sadly that brother, who inherited the family home and fortune, grew up into a cruel drunk, who thought that tormenting his sister was wonderful sport. Every little thing she had, every dream she dreamed, he took away.
And he gave his sister away, when her lost a bet with Granville Dyer .....
The stories of the two women - which eventually crossed - were set against a third narrative.
George was a friend of George and Perry, who had eased his way into Perry's life, as his steward and his lover. But George wanted more that that ....
Anna Freeman deployed her three narrators well, allowing them to give different interpretation, different impressions, of the same events. And she chose well, picking the right characters to tell their tales and the right characters to be simply seen through their eyes.
The characters are vividly drawn and their stories are colourful. The fights are compelling - and painful - reading.
I appreciated that this was as much a story about women fighting for their place in the world as women fighting in the ring.
But, as a whole, the book felt overblown, with too much detail, too many drawn-out scenes, and too many moments that stretched credibility a little too far.
It's a good book, a very readable book, but I can't help feeling that there was a better novel that might have been inspired by those words from 'Horrible Histories' ....
February 7, 2017
Well this one is definitely making my favorite books of 2015 list. It has everything a person could wish for in a book: Female pugilists! Gambling dens! Orphans growing up in brothels! Handsome fops! Ladies in corsets! Scoundrels everywhere! As a huge Jane Austen fan, it was really fun to read something taking place during the same time period in a completely different context, something that’s not afraid to delve into the seedy underbelly of English society.
The three main characters in this story are all connected through the sport of boxing. I don’t even really like boxing, but it’s the scaffolding that brings these characters together. Ruth is the ugly daughter of a brothel madam who makes her way in the world by fighting. She’s brave and coarse and very good with her fists. George is a handsome gentleman lacking inheritance (he’s the youngest son) and obsessed with gambling. Charlotte is a strong-willed lady trapped and cut off from the world by the controlling men in her life. The characters in The Fair Fight are so well-written. They’re all interesting and the reader gets to see them from many different angles because the story is told from three perspectives. None of them are perfect and some of them are downright awful, but they’re all compelling.
The plot is propelling and there is real depth to the novel’s themes. I loved that the book examines deeply what it really means to be free and the different circumstances that can trap people: poverty, class, gender, sexuality, race, physical appearance, etc. For as awful as some of the people and their choices are, this was a really enjoyable read. There’s grimness, but hope and humor too.
Anna Freeman must have done so much research to put this book together. The setting feels very real and plausible. Sometimes I can’t read historical fiction because the dialogue is so badly written from an obviously modern perspective, but Freeman’s writing sounds authentic. It couldn’t have been easy to capture so many classes of English society so realistically. With her tight, dense plotting and seemingly effortless prose, Freeman is definitely an author to watch. Can’t wait to see what she writes next.
The three main characters in this story are all connected through the sport of boxing. I don’t even really like boxing, but it’s the scaffolding that brings these characters together. Ruth is the ugly daughter of a brothel madam who makes her way in the world by fighting. She’s brave and coarse and very good with her fists. George is a handsome gentleman lacking inheritance (he’s the youngest son) and obsessed with gambling. Charlotte is a strong-willed lady trapped and cut off from the world by the controlling men in her life. The characters in The Fair Fight are so well-written. They’re all interesting and the reader gets to see them from many different angles because the story is told from three perspectives. None of them are perfect and some of them are downright awful, but they’re all compelling.
The plot is propelling and there is real depth to the novel’s themes. I loved that the book examines deeply what it really means to be free and the different circumstances that can trap people: poverty, class, gender, sexuality, race, physical appearance, etc. For as awful as some of the people and their choices are, this was a really enjoyable read. There’s grimness, but hope and humor too.
Anna Freeman must have done so much research to put this book together. The setting feels very real and plausible. Sometimes I can’t read historical fiction because the dialogue is so badly written from an obviously modern perspective, but Freeman’s writing sounds authentic. It couldn’t have been easy to capture so many classes of English society so realistically. With her tight, dense plotting and seemingly effortless prose, Freeman is definitely an author to watch. Can’t wait to see what she writes next.
December 18, 2014
Actually 4.5/5
The Fair Fight by Anna Freeman tells the tale of a part of eighteenth century Britain I had no previous knowledge of, woman pugilists and their patrons, and as a fan of historical fiction, I could not pass up the opportunity to read The Fair Fight, which is set to release in April 2015. Anna Freeman takes the reader through the class structure of England from manor homes to brothels, and the struggle for women to survive, told in a three person narrative, this was a difficult book to set down. The two woman who the reader become the most acquainted with are diametrically opposites; Charlotte is manor born, appears to have a fairly charmed existence on the surface, however scarred from smallpox, she is not the most desired by suitors, scorned by much of society, and trapped by her cruel brother, she longs for a new life. On the lower echelon is Ruth, who was born in a brothel and expects nothing much out of life, except abuse, while her sister gets by with her looks, Ruth does not even have that and her prospects are dire until she is discovered by pugilist patron George Dryer, Ruth’s life is set on a new trajectory as she rises in the bare-knuckle fighting rings of Bristol. I can quite honestly say if this was a modern day book about boxing I would never have given it a second glance, I truly lack the desire to know about the sport, however Freeman’s writing, strong female characters, apt descriptions, and intertwining storylines utterly captivated me and I longed to learn more about Ruth and Charlotte. The Fair Fight is a longer tome, coming in around 470 pages, making it the length I like in books, yet many readers tend to shy away from longer books, to which I must say, please do not, this story needs the time to develop and grow and is so utterly captivating time flies by and all too soon the story has ended. My only regret was I did not have a book discussion group to read The Fair Fight with.
August 10, 2017
What an interesting read.. The beginning I really didn't like, mostly because of the format than the content. The format was less annoying for the second half of the book and was able to enjoy it a bit. I didn't really see the need for the male perspective, I was almost compelled to skip over his part because I didn't care for it.
The women of the book are what made this book a 3 star. Ruth was strong and almost felt other-worldly because of her up bringing when interacting with other characters. Charlotte was much more interesting in the second half and I grew to love her.
I think it's interesting that Anna Freeman had such a focus on isolation for pretty much every character, elder or child, or whatever in between.
I think there's a lot going on for this book, for example, poverty, gender roles, isolation, mental health, conforming to society and rebelling against it.
The women of the book are what made this book a 3 star. Ruth was strong and almost felt other-worldly because of her up bringing when interacting with other characters. Charlotte was much more interesting in the second half and I grew to love her.
I think it's interesting that Anna Freeman had such a focus on isolation for pretty much every character, elder or child, or whatever in between.
I think there's a lot going on for this book, for example, poverty, gender roles, isolation, mental health, conforming to society and rebelling against it.
March 31, 2016
Amazing!!!!!!
I loved this book. Such rich detail and who doesn't want to read a book about girls beating the crap out of each other?! This historical fiction look at women's boxing was superb. I normally wouldn't be interested in a sports book, but this one was not like other's I have read.
I loved this book. Such rich detail and who doesn't want to read a book about girls beating the crap out of each other?! This historical fiction look at women's boxing was superb. I normally wouldn't be interested in a sports book, but this one was not like other's I have read.
January 10, 2021
this was just *chef's kiss* historical fiction
January 12, 2019
"there was a city full of people not so very far away, all of them living different lives, and all of them as real as i. i had never before understood how many different paths there were to take in this life. it was as if at that moment i looked up and realised that for years i had had my eyes on my lap.
i was not entirely comfortable with this new view of things. have you ever half frozen your feet and then held them before a fire, to watch the blue skin blush and grow pink? the flesh screams as it wakes; it is painful to go so quick from death to life.
i sat before my tambour hoop but i did not sew. i only sipped at a glass of wine. i thought of crowds and mud, maidens and monsters. i thought of split lips, flying teeth and red blood on white linen."
this was such a strange, contradictory reading experience, and even though i can recognise that i was fascinated by it, i'm not entirely sure that i ever truly enjoyed it. at some of its most emotionally grotesque moments, it reminded me of as meat loves salt and the awful choking feeling of watching characters torture each other and themselves with bitterness, resentment, barely suppressed rage and sometimes explosive violence; at its tenderest it reminded me of the crimson petal and the white, or maybe fingersmith, and the promise of intimacy that can grow between women experiencing neglect, abuse and manipulation at the hands of men.
on a technical level, i think the fair fight is also structurally contradictory, and perhaps this added weight to my uncertainty. the narrative perspective switches between three characters, ruth webber, the daughter of a bawd, now a female boxer, george bowden, a gentleman in possession of nothing but gambling debts, and charlotte sinclair, the victim of small pox and of her brother's relentless bullying; these three characters are drawn close fairly early in the novel, and so begins a strange hitching rhythm where the same episode of a few weeks is repeated across three voices, so that it feels like a stitch is made and then gone over twice in slightly different colours before another can follow. it's not redundant exactly, each new perspective adds or obscures something, but it sits at odds with the energy of the book, which is punchy and brutal.
more thoughts to come, perhaps.
i was not entirely comfortable with this new view of things. have you ever half frozen your feet and then held them before a fire, to watch the blue skin blush and grow pink? the flesh screams as it wakes; it is painful to go so quick from death to life.
i sat before my tambour hoop but i did not sew. i only sipped at a glass of wine. i thought of crowds and mud, maidens and monsters. i thought of split lips, flying teeth and red blood on white linen."
this was such a strange, contradictory reading experience, and even though i can recognise that i was fascinated by it, i'm not entirely sure that i ever truly enjoyed it. at some of its most emotionally grotesque moments, it reminded me of as meat loves salt and the awful choking feeling of watching characters torture each other and themselves with bitterness, resentment, barely suppressed rage and sometimes explosive violence; at its tenderest it reminded me of the crimson petal and the white, or maybe fingersmith, and the promise of intimacy that can grow between women experiencing neglect, abuse and manipulation at the hands of men.
on a technical level, i think the fair fight is also structurally contradictory, and perhaps this added weight to my uncertainty. the narrative perspective switches between three characters, ruth webber, the daughter of a bawd, now a female boxer, george bowden, a gentleman in possession of nothing but gambling debts, and charlotte sinclair, the victim of small pox and of her brother's relentless bullying; these three characters are drawn close fairly early in the novel, and so begins a strange hitching rhythm where the same episode of a few weeks is repeated across three voices, so that it feels like a stitch is made and then gone over twice in slightly different colours before another can follow. it's not redundant exactly, each new perspective adds or obscures something, but it sits at odds with the energy of the book, which is punchy and brutal.
more thoughts to come, perhaps.
August 18, 2019
4.25 stars. An extremely well researched and brilliantly written historical novel with complex characters and multiple plots. I would have given this book five stars if it weren’t too draggy. Overall, a truly enjoyable read. :)
May 24, 2017
After a very strange and unusual two weeks during which I couldn’t seem to get into a book, finally I’ve remembered how to read. Goodreads recommended me ‘The Fair Fight’ based on something else I’d read, quite possibly Golden Hill. For once, the algorithms that recommended me Extraordinary Chickens because I’m reading Quantum: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate About the Nature of Reality came up with a sensible suggestion. I enjoyed this novel immensely, as it combines a beautifully evoked late 18th century with a cast of angry, complicated characters. They are not unconvincing machiavellian plotters, but people frustrated by difficult circumstances. First among them is Ruth, a boxer brought up in a brothel. While all three narrators have strong voices, hers is the most strident, powerful, and memorable. I was delighted that the narrative respects her expertise at fighting, without minimising its difficulty and brutality. She is a fascinating and appealing character. Likewise Charlotte, although she is a stifled upper class woman of a type found more often. Ruth’s unapologetic cursing and toughness are much rarer to find in historical fiction. Undoubtedly my favourite part of the book was the friendship between Ruth and Charlotte, as they find common interests and mutual sympathy despite the class gulf.
In fact, the range of relationships in the novel is another great strength. Sibling and friendship bonds are given, if anything, more attention than romantic ones, which is refreshing. Where there is romance, it is always tempered with pragmatism. Indeed, the strongest and longest-lasting romantic bonds in the book aren’t traditional, or even that stable. Familial relationships are generally bad-tempered, often due to resentment about money. The darker sides of 18th century life are exposed: gambling, prostitution, drinking, violence, illness of various types. There is no sensationalism about this, though. Perhaps though clever use of slang and characterisation, these things just seem like facts of life at the time. The judicious use of violence is especially interesting, now that I think about it. The choice of narrators and themes results in a book with many fights inside and outside the ring. Notably, though, all the fights between men take place in or around boxing rings, while fights between men and women or women and women also occur in many other locales. ‘The Fair Fight’ is an ingenious title, as it both contains a neat pun and frames a central question in the narrative: whether the way to take control in a violent world is to fight back aggressively. This question is far more literal for the female characters, while also cropping up repeatedly in the men’s narratives.
In short, I was delighted by ‘The Fair Fight’ and impressed that it is a first novel. The writing, characterisation, and plot are all very involving. I think it's sufficiently original and thought-provoking to merit five stars.
In fact, the range of relationships in the novel is another great strength. Sibling and friendship bonds are given, if anything, more attention than romantic ones, which is refreshing. Where there is romance, it is always tempered with pragmatism. Indeed, the strongest and longest-lasting romantic bonds in the book aren’t traditional, or even that stable. Familial relationships are generally bad-tempered, often due to resentment about money. The darker sides of 18th century life are exposed: gambling, prostitution, drinking, violence, illness of various types. There is no sensationalism about this, though. Perhaps though clever use of slang and characterisation, these things just seem like facts of life at the time. The judicious use of violence is especially interesting, now that I think about it. The choice of narrators and themes results in a book with many fights inside and outside the ring. Notably, though, all the fights between men take place in or around boxing rings, while fights between men and women or women and women also occur in many other locales. ‘The Fair Fight’ is an ingenious title, as it both contains a neat pun and frames a central question in the narrative: whether the way to take control in a violent world is to fight back aggressively. This question is far more literal for the female characters, while also cropping up repeatedly in the men’s narratives.
In short, I was delighted by ‘The Fair Fight’ and impressed that it is a first novel. The writing, characterisation, and plot are all very involving. I think it's sufficiently original and thought-provoking to merit five stars.
August 28, 2014
Previously reviewed on The Good, the Bad and the Unread:
Every so often I come across a really different sort of historical novel, and this is one of them. Of course, ‘different’ doesn’t always equate to well-written or enjoyable, but I’m pleased to report that The Fair Fight stands up very well on both counts, although explaining the plot of such a complex, well-populated novel isn’t necessarily as easy as just telling readers to rush out and experience the story for themselves. However, I shall try to give you a feel for it without giving away too much of the plot.
Ruth is the plain-featured younger daughter of a kept-woman turned brothel owner in late-18th Century Bristol. After her sister follows in their mother’s footsteps by becoming the mistress of a wealthy young man, Ruth’s jealousy leads her into a very different career as a female boxer, managed by her sister’s lover, Mr Dryer. Meanwhile, two of Dryer’s school friends are leading a dissolute life in the house inherited by one of them after his family die in two pox outbreaks – all except his sister Charlotte, who was withdrawn before and now is badly scarred and at the mercy of her brother’s taunts. She has also come to the attention of her brother’s lover-since-school, who wants both siblings – and their fortune – for himself and is prepared to marry Charlotte in order to move his plans forward.
Charlotte longs to escape, while her brother is determined to prevent her from distracting his lover away from his side; and so he arranges for her to be married off to the nouveau riche Dryer. Finding she has exchanged one near prison for another, Charlotte tries to make the best of things until the day she accompanies Dryer and his friends to the fair, where she witnesses a boxing match between Ruth and a male opponent. Following a less-than-spectacular outcome, Dryer decides that Ruth’s husband Tom is the better fighter and more likely to increase Dryer’s fortune and standing among the boxing fans of the class he aspires to be accepted by.
Ruth and Tom are moved into a house on Dryer’s estate, and, when Charlotte eventually finds out, she and Ruth bond over Dryer’s inconstancy. They slowly become friends, although fate has more surprises in store for them before any of them can achieve any kind of stable and happy future. As for the others, most of the less-deserving characters get their comeuppance at some point, but not always in the way I was expecting.
I love the strength and determination of Charlotte, Ruth, and Tom, which contrasted richly with the general loathsomeness of Dryer and his friends. The book shows us a side of 18th Century life that I find particularly interesting and doesn’t spare readers from the seediness that abounds in the areas where the wealthy and poor of Bristol intersect. Need I mention that it is refreshing to read a historical novel set in Bristol for a change? This is a debut novel, I gather, but I’ll definitely be looking out for subsequent books by the author.
Every so often I come across a really different sort of historical novel, and this is one of them. Of course, ‘different’ doesn’t always equate to well-written or enjoyable, but I’m pleased to report that The Fair Fight stands up very well on both counts, although explaining the plot of such a complex, well-populated novel isn’t necessarily as easy as just telling readers to rush out and experience the story for themselves. However, I shall try to give you a feel for it without giving away too much of the plot.
Ruth is the plain-featured younger daughter of a kept-woman turned brothel owner in late-18th Century Bristol. After her sister follows in their mother’s footsteps by becoming the mistress of a wealthy young man, Ruth’s jealousy leads her into a very different career as a female boxer, managed by her sister’s lover, Mr Dryer. Meanwhile, two of Dryer’s school friends are leading a dissolute life in the house inherited by one of them after his family die in two pox outbreaks – all except his sister Charlotte, who was withdrawn before and now is badly scarred and at the mercy of her brother’s taunts. She has also come to the attention of her brother’s lover-since-school, who wants both siblings – and their fortune – for himself and is prepared to marry Charlotte in order to move his plans forward.
Charlotte longs to escape, while her brother is determined to prevent her from distracting his lover away from his side; and so he arranges for her to be married off to the nouveau riche Dryer. Finding she has exchanged one near prison for another, Charlotte tries to make the best of things until the day she accompanies Dryer and his friends to the fair, where she witnesses a boxing match between Ruth and a male opponent. Following a less-than-spectacular outcome, Dryer decides that Ruth’s husband Tom is the better fighter and more likely to increase Dryer’s fortune and standing among the boxing fans of the class he aspires to be accepted by.
Ruth and Tom are moved into a house on Dryer’s estate, and, when Charlotte eventually finds out, she and Ruth bond over Dryer’s inconstancy. They slowly become friends, although fate has more surprises in store for them before any of them can achieve any kind of stable and happy future. As for the others, most of the less-deserving characters get their comeuppance at some point, but not always in the way I was expecting.
I love the strength and determination of Charlotte, Ruth, and Tom, which contrasted richly with the general loathsomeness of Dryer and his friends. The book shows us a side of 18th Century life that I find particularly interesting and doesn’t spare readers from the seediness that abounds in the areas where the wealthy and poor of Bristol intersect. Need I mention that it is refreshing to read a historical novel set in Bristol for a change? This is a debut novel, I gather, but I’ll definitely be looking out for subsequent books by the author.
April 17, 2015
**Disclaimer: I received a free ARC from Riverhead Books via Penguin Random House in exchange for an honest review.
I had high hopes for this book since so many others rated it with 4 & 5 stars. I entered the ring thinking that this book would be a barnburner...intense, exciting, a real nail biter like a good boxing match.
Unfortunately...it fell short.
I feel as though I've been sucker punched by other reviewers. Or as if I'm the dope on a rope...exhausted from turning pages weighed down with heavy language & unlikeable flat characters.
Weighing in at 469 pages...this book is a heavyweight brawler. It moves slow, lacks mobility & has a predictable punching pattern. I was definitely totally knocked out...unfortunately...it was due to boredom...not the power of the story.
Boredom consistently delivered blows to my intellect that had me down for the count each time I entered the ring & attempted to finish this book. I was only able to survive 250 pages before throwing in the towel.
I had high hopes for this book since so many others rated it with 4 & 5 stars. I entered the ring thinking that this book would be a barnburner...intense, exciting, a real nail biter like a good boxing match.
Unfortunately...it fell short.
I feel as though I've been sucker punched by other reviewers. Or as if I'm the dope on a rope...exhausted from turning pages weighed down with heavy language & unlikeable flat characters.
Weighing in at 469 pages...this book is a heavyweight brawler. It moves slow, lacks mobility & has a predictable punching pattern. I was definitely totally knocked out...unfortunately...it was due to boredom...not the power of the story.
Boredom consistently delivered blows to my intellect that had me down for the count each time I entered the ring & attempted to finish this book. I was only able to survive 250 pages before throwing in the towel.
March 16, 2018
DNF at page 166.
I did something I don't usually do. When I could not decide early on, whether to continue, I went and read some reviews on the book. A good percentage of them said that Ruth's chapters were the best. I was currently reading Ruth's POV and was not impressed. As I was about to give in, I came upon a George chapter, it was a little more interesting. This lead me to try a chapter by Charlotte. Again, a bit more interesting. But ultimately, a little bit more interesting plus a little more interesting just didn't equal keeping my attention.
This has been dubbed historical fiction meets Fight Club. I'm not sure that the marketing department has ever read Fight Club. Regardless, I can see where someone might enjoy this immensely. It just didn't have the punch to keep me going.
I did something I don't usually do. When I could not decide early on, whether to continue, I went and read some reviews on the book. A good percentage of them said that Ruth's chapters were the best. I was currently reading Ruth's POV and was not impressed. As I was about to give in, I came upon a George chapter, it was a little more interesting. This lead me to try a chapter by Charlotte. Again, a bit more interesting. But ultimately, a little bit more interesting plus a little more interesting just didn't equal keeping my attention.
This has been dubbed historical fiction meets Fight Club. I'm not sure that the marketing department has ever read Fight Club. Regardless, I can see where someone might enjoy this immensely. It just didn't have the punch to keep me going.
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