Customer Reviews

Falling Angels

5 star:		(58)
4 star:		(57)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(18)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

I really had no idea what Falling Angels was even about when I started it ~ I only picked it up hoping I would enjoy it half as much as I did Chevalier's first novel, Girl With a Pearl Earring. Falling Angels not only met my expectations, it fully exceeded them. From page one (I didn't know Victorians did THAT!) I knew I was in for a rollercoaster ride of a book.

Neighbors Kitty Coleman and the Gertrude Waterhouse are as different as night and day. Kitty is forward thinking and restless in her role as wife and mother. Gertrude is firmly, and happily, ensconced in the oppressive Victorian mores of the day. To their horror their young daughters, Maude and Lavinia, become the best of friends and the two families are forced to interact. Over the course of nearly a decade, starting with the death of Queen Victoria, we watch as the Colemans and the Waterhouses struggle with each other, themselves, and the changing times as England moves into the new century.

Tracy Chevalier is an author I will seek out again and again ~ I can't wait to see where she takes us next.

I just finished Falling Angels, which I read mostly due to an interest in Victorian England but also because I enjoyed "Girl With the Pearl Earring" so much. I found myself deeply drawn into this book. I have to admit it made me a little moody - large parts of it take place in a cemetery and there is a pervading sense of mortality throughout, but I also enjoyed seeing the same story from the viewpoints of a variety of characters. I didn't feel that the commentary by Jenny and Mrs. Baker was "unnecessary," but that it added to a fuller understanding of all of the issues the characters were involved in. A very interesting commentary on English womanhood during the Victorian and Edwardian eras, taking age, class, and educational differences into account.

I read Girl With a Pearl Earring last year, and it became my book of the year. It was therefor with great anticipation I bought this book, another book from Tracy Chevalier had to be another winner.

Falling Angels is from the time period the years following the death of Queen Victoria in 1901. Two families meet at a cemetery, and this meeting has great influence on both families' lives. The story is told through several voices, all the members of the families, but also people around them. All the time we follow the same story though, the life of these two families, and how they react upon changes in society.

Girl With a Pearl Earring is told through one girl only, and in the beginning I had problems with all the voices in this book. But as the story went on this became the perfect way to enlighten the points the book wanted to enlighten. The gravedigger boy had one story to tell, the girls of the two families other stories, still it is all woven into a whole, using a rich mixture of colors.

I love Chevalier's way of writing. What made me give this book a four star instead of a five was the development of the story. The firts half of the book built up a family story, quite interesting in itselves, but then when the book became more and more a book about the suffragettes it lacked connection with the first part. All in all the book has some very good points though, and as several other reviewers have pointed out, the last hundred pages has alot of surprises.

I look forward to the next book bu Tracy Chevalier.

Britt Arnhild Lindland

I think of Falling Angels as a small treasure much the way I think of Chevalier's Girl With a Pearl Earring, two very different stories. Both are historical set pieces that have the gift of giving the reader a sense of immediacy. The reader is invited into the lives of two upper middle class families, particularly the females, one family following the status quo and one the unconventional as well as intellectual. The story spans a period of approximately ten years, the pivotal years between the death of Queen Victoria and her son King Edward VI, pivotal years for young girls coming of age in a new century with new rules, new possibilities, and new dangers. Each chapter is like a vignette into these lives that forces readers to draw their own conclusions as to what it all means. The story starts off slowly and much of it takes place in a cemetery in London modeled after the cemetery at Highgate. The physical and social life of the city come alive, cemetery and all, from the East End to the North of London, from Marble Arch to Hyde Park and a famous gathering of the Suffragette movement. It looks at first like a story about trivialities, about childhood games and squabbles and social snobbery, but ends with the deliverance of several punches that will leave the reader staggering and awed for a long time to come. A very moving work from a masterful storyteller.

For the longest time I stayed away from period fiction. I wasn't interested in reading stories from the early 1900s or stories from England. I'm happy to say that Tracy Chevalier has changed all that. I actually read "Falling Angels" first, then went back and read "...Pearl Earring." While there are similarities between the two stories, the one marked difference is that Pearl Earring was told from the sole point of view of the housemaid - Falling Angels is told from various points of view. You can read the book in the eyes of any one of the characters in the story. You will never get lost either - you will always know who's point of view you are reading since Ms. Chevalier uses headings and always informs the reader whose point of view the next chapter is from. This is a wonderful way to tell a story. When there are several characters on the canvas, it is easy to get lost in who's telling who what and when, but with Ms. Chevalier's writing style, you always know who's feeling what and why or why a character chooses to act as they do. You can grow to love a character you once disliked, and trust the characters you distrusted in the beginning. I am anxious to read more of Ms. Chevalier's work and understand she is currently working on her next novel. I'm hoping it's out soon (I'm also looking for some of her earlier pieces of work which I understand are short stories), but in the meantime, I have Ms. Chevalier to thank for opening the door to stories told around this time period - I've since read some wonderful novels written about England and the early 1900s, late 1800s and I'm currently reading and enjoying "Girl in Hyacinth Blue." (about the painter Vermeer featured in Pearl Earring) My eyes have been opened to some wonderful story telling! Thank you and keep 'em coming!

This book is of a totally different style to "Girl with a Pearl Earring" but is just as enticing! Tracy Chevalier has again managed to capture a period in time and tells a remarkable story through the voices of the different characters. Each chapter is devoted to a separate person and the story unfolds through the eyes of the working class, the middleclass and the new emerging women's movement of the time. The setting is around the local cemetry in England just after Queen Victoria's death. How times have changed! It's hard to imagine people truly lived and felt like this.Well worth a read.

This book covers the period in the lives of two families that stretches from January 1901, the end of the Victorian era, to May 1910, the end of the Edwardian one. The lives of these two families, the Colemans and the Waterhouses, converge and become inextricably woven together when they inadvertently meet at a cemetery while paying their respects to deceased loved ones. Unbeknownst to them, their lives are moving inexorably towards a tragic denouement, one that is to have ramifications for both families.

Two of the daughters of these respective families, Lavinia Waterhouse and Maude Coleman, find that they have formed the beginning of a friendship during the brief interlude at the cemetery. The two girls also befriend Simon Field, the son of one of the gravediggers at the cemetery. The friendship of the two girls is cemented when they later discover that they are to be neighbors, as through happenstance the Waterhouse family moves onto a property adjacent to that of the Colemans. Despite differences in social class and personal taste, as the Waterhouses are definitely sentimentally bourgeois and the Colemans have pretensions to more refinement, the families are brought together, however unwillingly, through the friendship between Lavinia and Maude.

The mothers of these two girls are unable to form a true friendship, as stolid Gertrude Waterhouse and pretty Kitty Coleman are unable to find much common ground. Gertrude is bound in tradition, while Kitty, dissatisfied with her marriage and her life, is looking to escape tradition and expand the role allotted in society to women. Never the twain shall meet, as these women will never see eye-to-eye, despite the friendship between Lavinia and Maude.

This is a well-plotted novel with each character adding his or her perspective to the events that unfold, many of which are of a secretive nature. Even the husbands, Albert Waterhouse and Richard Coleman, have something to say that contributes to the development of the story, as does Richard Coleman's mother, Edith, as do the Coleman's maid, Jenny Whitby, and their cook, Dorothy Baker. Lavinia's younger sister, Ivy May, who plays a small but pivotal role, also has her say, as does Kitty's admirer, John Jackson. There are also a number of twists and turns in the tale.

The story is told in the clean, spare prose that fans of the author have come to expect. It is told through first person narratives, and it is almost as if the narratives were taken from the personal diary or journal of each character. Therein lies the rub, as the author is unable to make the voice of each character truly distinguishable from that of the others. The book suffers somewhat from the failure of the author to develop a truly unique voice for each one. This is, however, the only failing of this otherwise absorbing and intriguing story that is suffused with period detail. This is an otherwise excellent book that fans of the author will enjoy, as will those who love historical fiction.

"Girl With A Pearl Earring", by Tracy Chevalier was a tremendously successful book that meant her second effort would have very high expectations waiting for it. Her second novel, "Falling Angels", is a very good work for a variety of reasons.

The author did not take the easy and often traveled path of just repeating a formula that was a success for her. Ms. Chevalier could easily have picked a new piece of art and spun another well-conceived narrative. The number of books that could be written in this manner is nearly infinite. As a writer she had both the confidence in herself, and the respect for her readers to present an entirely different type of tale, and to utilize a very different format from her first work. This story is related by the characters themselves, the reader is not given a single point of view, rather is the beneficiary of the views of many on the same event. The experience is made more interesting as the reader hears from characters that range in age from their first decade, to their seventh or eighth. Author Julian Barnes also used this format with great skill in, "Talking It Over", and the sequel, "Love Etc." The characters were not as far ranging, however the stories were wonderful.

"Falling Angels", begins with the death of both Queen Victoria, and the time period that adopted her name. It is here that the writer introduces us to two families, both with daughters, but from different stations in the English view of society. Much of what the reader experiences is the youthful view of the daughters, which is, combined with the thought of a young man, a gravedigger's son. And much of what we read of takes place in, around, or as the result of events in a cemetery. An odd locale perhaps, however it is not used a locale for evil, or other familiar themes that easily come to mind. Ms. Chevalier uses this space as a focal point for the development of the younger players in the work, as well as an area that should not, but does, bring out the lesser qualities of the adults.

This is also the era of women marching and being imprisoned for their desire to vote. This is again used to show the divisiveness amongst otherwise friendly relations, and the tragedy to which extreme opinion can lead.

Those expecting a variation on her first book may at first be disappointed. However for those who continue with the work I believe they will find the novel well conceived, well written, and finally will be pleased to know that this writer is not going to rest on her laurels and churn out repetitive work. The book may not be without flaws, however, happily this is a writer at the beginning of her career, a career that promises a great many wonderful books.

I couldn't wait for this book to arrive in the USA so I bought mine from Amazon.co.uk during the summer.

Scandal, death & ashes. The graveyard is a playground in post-Victorian England! Yes, pretty enticing stuff.

But first, picture this...

This is a book with more than 90 chapters. Some contain a single line of text. All chapters present each character's point of view, all told in the first person. Quickly you're halfway through the book.

Someone else once said (HBO's "Six Feet Under," in fact), death makes life important. Chevalier's wonderful third novel accomplishes, without a sledgehammer, to deliver the message that if we do what in our hearts seems right, then we can ignore the burdens of judgment from a society that demands to define what is right.

"Falling Angels" is one of the more strangely accomplished novels of the new season. Its sullen title fools you into thinking of a Merchant-Ivory film, deftly paced with the usual examinations of class distinction and what is considered "right and proper." While this theme runs through "Falling Angels," Tracy Chevalier again demonstrates her skill at research and reinventing a familiar genre. If you didn't know, for example, how we buried our dead 100 years ago, you will here.

Chevalier is an atmospheric author. She isn't into mindless murder, action, explosions or venues set in courtrooms . She's more interested in implosions between people. So if you're into novels of such ilk, this isn't for you. Chevalier's last novel, the wildly popular "Girl with A Pearl Earring," was loaded with atmospheric poetry, calm romance and explorations of art and religion in a narrative tempo akin to the pace of 17th century Holland.

But in "Falling Angels," Chevalier dismisses the narrative style she used in "Earring" -- choosing to weave her meticulous research of graveyards, class distinction and the early 20th century suffragette movement in the United Kingdom -- into a tale of scandal, romance, death and betrayal. Her settings include a graveyard, homes of different classes, and a destructive event in central London that hurls the reader toward a bittersweet conclusion. That it all occurs in the aftermath of the death of Queen Victoria, who was an icon of an era steeped in moral values, magnifies the forbidden by ten-fold.

We follow two girls, Maude Coleman and Lavinia Waterhouse, from 1901 to 1910, as they age from 5 to 14. But "Falling Angels" forces you to make observations of the adult world around them and how they are affected by events beyond their control. Naturally as they age, they grow more confident. And as they age, we see that while appearances mean everything to the world, only personal thoughts and hidden actions represent real truth.

Despite its familiar theme, "Falling Angels" is a book about doing what is right and morally correct versus doing what truly makes one happy. The narrative moves forward, always in the first person, from the mouth of each major protagonist who commits his or her own brand of "against the grain" behavior and/or scandal.

"Falling Angels" seems to suggest that moral structure are inventions of man, the things that keep us in order. And simply put, such inventions are not natural. The better "angels" of our nature strive to do what is deemed correct, because this is the way we are "brought up." Yet the psychological, physiological and genetic codes of humans are not abstract. They are in constant conflict with moral structure. If we fail to recognize this, we let society cast us as "failures," even if we aren't.

Chevalier doesn't preach, and the grisly details of the scandalous portions of her story take place mostly "off camera," vividly residing in the imaginations of the reader. I like this. But the true mastery of "Falling Angels" is the abrupt change of pace that occupies the last third of her novel, a portion which carries the momentum of a locomotive. A cast of thousands, mostly nameless, gather for a pivotal event that proves devastating. Chevalier delivers a big "set piece" filled with thousands of activities going on at once -- and the surprise is -- even though they're told from different points of view, the reader is never confused.

This is where Chevalier has revealed a new dimension in her story-telling skills, using the narrative device of offering different points of view to best effect, moving forward with only minor cross references backward, avoiding going over old territory except to refresh the reader's memory. This last third sets the reader up for Chevalier's "home run."

Without giving it away, "Falling Angels" provides a conclusion whereby sadness and joy can co-exist. However, Chevalier seems to suggest that what's deemed "right and wrong" by society can shackle us beyond death. Sometimes, our true desires, even beyond our earthly lives, cannot be achieved except under the cloak of darkness.

So if it seems that most of the "angels" in "Falling Angels" fall, in fact, they all have the opportunity to rise. And wonderfully, there is redemption better left unsaid that concludes Chevalier's story that emotionally lifts the reader, without succumbing to the maudlin "Hollywood ending." Will this redemption require help from "scandalous" friends and/or "upstanding" individuals? And if so, what of it?

One comes away from "Falling Angels" feeling that "falling" in the eyes of society is just a state of mind, especially if we're the targets of harsh judgments. We have more control of our self-worth than we think.

We should all be glad we don't live in 1910. But truly, is today any different?

This book is thought provoking, creative and very orignal. Since this story is told from each characters point of view, the reader is able to know each character's personal thoughts and feelings. Set in England during the early 1900's, the book begins at Queen Victoria's funeral, where two families, the Waterhouses and Colemans meet. Their two young daughters Maude and Lavina, become best friends. This book tells of these families hardships, dreams, adventures and interactions with eachother. This novel also describes the womens sufferage movement when Maude's mother, Kitty Coleman, becomes a suffragette, hoping for a better life for herself and future for her daughter. This novel brought this time period and characters to life, and wasn't afraid to talk about death, abortion, and social class. This book makes you think about what is truly important, you won't regret reading it!