A Dangerous Business
by Jane Smiley
In 1851, the Californian coast-town of Monterey draws to it adventurers and fortune-seekers, settlers who are escaping their past and others seeking a prosperous gold-dust-blessed future. After the death of her husband in a bar brawl, Eliza resorts to the oldest profession to survive and discovers with some surprise that she is quite taken to it. Being a prostitute can be “a dangerous business”, but brothel keeper Mrs Parks protects her girls, and most of the men who visit Eliza are more considerate than her late husband ever was. Eliza strikes up a friendship with Jean, a lesbian prostitute who works in another establishment which services women. They share a love for the works of Edgar Allan Poe, particularly the adventures of his detective Dupin. It is not long before Eliza and Jean need to start applying Dupin’s skills in detection to a real-life mystery. Someone is killing young women in the area, and the authorities do not seem too interested. It is up to the two intrepid friends to discover the culprit before they become the next victims.
If it wasn’t for the dark subject matter and the spectre of domestic abuse and sexual violence which haunts this novel, I would describe Jane Smiley’s A Dangerous Business as a divertissement. Smiley crafts a relatively brief but entertaining historical novel which exploits many tropes of popular fiction, including genres popular at the time in which the story is set. The mention of Poe’s detective and horror stories not only serves as an element of the plot but also as a meta-fictional stylistic point of reference.
As one would expect from a seasoned, Pulitzer-Prize winning author, the “historical” aspect is nicely done. With her evocative descriptions and attention to detail, Smiley evokes the smells, sounds and sounds of a town in Gold Rush California. Some key scenes stand out – such as Eliza going out around the deserted streets in a storm. More than just the physical feel of the place, the novel also expresses a sense of societal change. The West is a land of opportunity but also one blighted by violence and a sense of unease on the brink of civil war.
As for the other “genre elements” garnishing the dish, A Dangerous Business combines the “Western” with the detective novel, but also adds references to Gothic and horror fiction – both Eliza and Jean repeatedly visit the cemetery, and they see or sense ghosts at various points in the story, although this intriguing supernatural strand is never really exploited.
Indeed, my chief
reservation about this novel is that it promises more than it actually delivers.
The “ghostly” sub-plot falls by the
wayside, leading one to question why it was included in the first place, except,
possibly, to further justify the references to Poe. As for the mystery itself, it mainly involves
Eliza and Jean tailing clients whom Eliza thinks might be the murderer, eventually
leading to a fairly underwhelming resolution.
I must also admit that, by the end of the book, I was rather weary of Eliza’s
encounters with the “fellows” who come to “do their business” with her. The descriptions
of these visits are at once graphic and coy, sometimes to cringeworthy effect (a
taste - “it had to be said that Lucas managed to present her with his prick
three different times, and every time, she welcomed it...”). Don’t
get me wrong: this is a book I would still recommend for a lazy summer
afternoon or, better still, a wintry evening, but I was expecting more.
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