After spending a vacation underground in the family's bomb shelter, three sisters find a family photo album with three years missing and some evidence that there was a fourth child.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Canadian writer Gowdy's ( Through the Green Valley ) second novel offers many satisfactions. Scrupulously and evocatively wrought, with fully formed characters, it poses but does not quite resolve an intriguing mystery rooted in character and fate. The book opens in 1969, at a funeral of a woman who either jumped or fell from the roof of her track house. The time frame then shifts to a decade earlier, when the woman's daughters discover that years before she had thrown or dropped an infant son over Niagara Falls. The girls--Norma, Lou and Sandy--are fascinated by this unknown sibling and by a parent who spends her life drunk, facing a TV, while the girls' father, a used-car salesman, maintains household order, such as it is. One Christmas, he promises a trip to Disneyland but instead builds, with Norma's help, a bomb shelter, and persuades the family to hole up in it for two weeks. The girls get through the fetid underground days by sipping from their mother's mug of whiskey, which their father keeps topped off. Through it all, the siblings create their own mechanisms for coping. Originally published in Canada to critical acclaim, this novel, a portion of which appeared in The Best American Short Stories 1989 , brilliantly celebrates the bonding that occurs even in dysfunctional families.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Disenchanted eccentrics wending their way through eerie situations seem to be the dominant theme in most of the postmodern "new fiction." Troublesome as these forays into nihilism's gloomy landscapes are, an effective work of new fiction is as bracing as a dive into a chilly pond, offering more than a few surprises with its odd meld of quirky characters and wickedly audacious scenes. Gowdy's is one such dark gem of a novel. Through a series of vignettes it charts the lives of the Field family, recounting bouts of alcoholism, neglect, and verbal abuse. A story otherwise laden with sad escapades, Fallen Angels remains lively throughout because of the inventiveness and strength of its main characters: Lou, Norma, and Sandy. These three unfortunate sisters will amaze readers with their ability to endure the many traumas of childhood and adolescence, despite the antics of their even more unfortunate parents. This coming-of-age novel is not likely to appeal to those who wear a shield of optimism.
-Lauren Bielski,"Printing News"
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
-Lauren Bielski,"Printing News"
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"Snappy Dialogue, richly worded",
By A Customer
This review is from: Falling Angels (Paperback)
I loved this book. The three main charactures of this book are sisters growing up in a very disfunctual family in the 60's. I caught myself laughing out loud so many times, at the authors use of humor during some very un-humorous moments in the book. The characters are real, and reminded me of the different emotions I felt growing up. I think it is a gift for an author to write of shrewd and tragic situations with a sense of humor at the same time. If you enjoy a book that "you cant put down"...this is a book for you. I am excited to read more from this author.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Brutal and bizarre,
By Sharlene T (USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Falling Angels (Paperback)
Poor Norma, Sandy and Louise. The three Field sisters growing up in 1960s suburban Toronto live in a gloomy, comfortless world. Their father is demanding, difficult, and has dalliances on the side, and their mother, who dropped her baby son over the Niagara Falls many years ago, seeks solace in alcohol. The girls are the ones who take care of her and the house, going for groceries, cooking and cleaning, and trying to stop her from heading for the roof. But one day, one early morning, she does, and they cannot stop her.Barbara Gowdy seems to like the weird, the eccentric, the crazies. Falling Angelsis a tale of a dysfunctional family, with weird and unexpected events that lurk around every corner. It is a sad life these girls lead, and they each have their own coping mechanisms to deal with their family's problems, resulting in a book that is dark, honest, brutal, a little bizarre and funny at the same time.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Rarity!,
By
This review is from: Falling Angels (Paperback)
Falling Angels is a rare novel. Well-developed characters, wonderfully compact prose, and a simple but interesting premise. If you read one book this year, read this one.
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