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Summary: Falling Angels: a 1900s Soap Opera
Review: The problem with writing a great first novel is that the second is bound to disappoint. And Falling Angels certainly does. My fondness of Girl With a Pearl Earring compelled me to fight the impulse of putting Falling Angels down when I felt I couldn't take another minute. While the author did an amazing job of relating the story through numerous narrators, the story itself was not compelling. Picture Days of Our Lives in the 1900s and you've got a pretty good sense of what Falling Angels is about. Don't buy the book. If you want my copy, you can have it.
Rating: 
Summary: Zoomed through this, a great book
Review: I read the first 20-50 pages and didn't particularly care for the characters, but then, when I picked it up a day later, it completely pulled me in. I finished the rest in one sitting. I also fell in love with her writing style.
The plot is roughly as follows:
It shows the interweaving relationships of two families (and their servants) who meet, on the death of Queen Victoria, in their cemetary where they have adjoining plots. Two of the girls become friends, and meet a young boy who works in the cemetary. It continues as Kitty, one of the mothers, has a traumatic affair and eventually becomes involved in women's suffrage.
A great book (though sad) that you -need-
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Summary: The Naughty Noughties in the music hall tradition
Review: Falling Angels is Tracy Chevalier's third novel. It tells of how radically societies can change within the space of just a decade. The novel starts off with the death of Victoria. Unlike the death of Diana, a mere 90 or so years later, the Victorians had no trouble knowing how they were expected to behave in the face of death, since the rules of mourning were well-known to everyone. Kitty Coleman, however, hasn't read the script, since she wears a dress of dark blue, which is not quite dark enough, so it is sorely noticeable amongst the other mourners. Curiously, everyone decides that the best thing to do in the face of the Empress's passing is to visit their own family plots in their local cemetery. With mortality being so much higher than it is today, visits to the cemetery were far more frequent. However, this is the first time that the Colemans meet their neighbours in death (literally): the Waterhouses. More specifically, this is the first time that the two young daughters of the family meet: Maud Coleman, and Lavinia Waterhouse (she complains about her name being shortened to 'Livy', and ironically, she's obsessed with death). Despite their preference for calling their daughter after a Roman writer, the Waterhouses have chosen to adorn their family plot with a massive Angel (hence the title "Falling Angels"), whilst the more modern, progressive Colemans have chosen a large urn (Roman in origin).However, it is Kitty who points out to her husband that the practice of putting ashes into urns is a rather Pagan tradition. But then again, a lot of the graves in Highgate Cemetery also have Egyptian symbolism. This is a Cemetery of Empire, and with the steady abandonment of its rules and customs over the next decade, Chevalier conveys a little of how this Empire itself may have fallen. But Chevalier is mainly concerned with the gradual change in the role of women, the Fall of the Victorian Angel in the House. In truth, Richard Coleman has very little grounds for criticising his wife's behaviour, since the novel opens with a bout of wife swapping, instigated by him. This is, in the face of it, rather improbable: if Kitty has refused Richard access to her bed since the birth of Maud, then why does she consent to this early trial of swinging? More effective is Tracy Chevalier's depiction of how women have turned their sexuality to their advantage in the twentieth century. Kitty usurps the power of Richard's mother by judicial employment of her sexual wiles. Although, if Richard's mother is anything to go by, there never was an Angel in the House: but then again, I suppose that Mother-in-laws have always been demons, especially in the music hall tradition. It's Simon Fields, the gravedigger's son, who sings the songs of the music hall. Many of these songs and singers had a transatlantic following. 1910, the year the book ends, was the year of the first film made in California, when popular culture first began to flow from West to East, rather than vice versa. Simon sings of "'Appy 'Ampstead" on p. 55, and one begins to suspect Tracy Chevalier's own transatlantic origins when one learns that the composer of this song and its singer were no other than Albert Chevalier (a distant relation perhaps, as strange as that which exists between Camilla and Mrs. Keppel?). Tracy Chevalier's knowledge of the local history of Hampstead is superb: we have the opening of Highgate Library and the Hampstead Scientific Society's Observatory, and much lore, such as that concerning Guy Fawkes and Parliament Hill. Although I had envisioned a much more modern, open plan cemetery, Highgate's various nooks and crannies and the shenanigans that go on within, do suit the plot of the book rather well (I've created a page about the cultural context of Fallen Angels for interested readers, which contains photos of the rather dark Highgate Cemetery). Halfway through the novel, Kitty Coleman is regenerated somewhat incredulously by an encounter with a Suffragette, the comic Caroline Black. Much more powerful than Black's cowardly plotting is the rather darker back alleys of Victorian sexuality that took half a decade of female enfranchisement before being properly regulated. As Kitty Coleman strives to assert her own individuality, she leaves the role of Angel far behind. Lavinia, who professes that the old customs must be defended and performed faithfully, is artless in her delicious attempt at blackmail. The suffragette Captain with whom Kitty places Lavinia, Maud and Ivy May at the Hyde Park rally is just as devoid of maternal instinct as she. With the rise of radicalism in the suffragettes, there is more than a hint that just as women are behaving differently, so they are being treated differently. There's the underused, but the delightful Albert Waterhouse, who has a couple of honest Freudian slips here and there (was Chevalier thinking of a different suitor for Kitty originally?). I also liked the voices of Mrs. Baker and Jenny Whitby, who although they don't have much, can afford to be more honest and less self-deceiving. Highgate Cemetery is supposed to be where Bram Stoker got the inspiration for a rather infamous scene from Dracula, and perhaps 'Whitby' is a reference to that novel. Whilst Stoker had the fall of the Angel in the House down as something to be feared with horror, Tracy Chevalier sees it more as a black comedy, because the Angel was always rather too ephemeral to be real. The novel ends with the visit of Halley's Comet during King Edward's death, an omen that was also sighted at the death of Edward the Confessor in 1066...
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Summary: refreshing but definitely different
Review: Like everyone else I loved girl with a pearl earring. And when I picked up the book I assumed that it would another girl with a pearl earring. It's not and that is where the shock comes. It's a different book but at the same time Chevalier's knack for riding is still intact. It's the story of a disillusioned housewife and her struggle to find herself but at the sametime it's a story about a young daughter trying to understand her mother. There's so much that goes on throughout the book all told through the eyes of several people. I guess that's what I love best about the book. Several people giving their sides to one particular incident. I'm suggesting this book to the customers that frequent the bookstore where I work at but as well as bookclubs. If you loved Girl with a pearl earring then I suggest you go out and get this book. But be warned it is not Girl with a pearl earring with a new cover. It's completely different. But what remains the same is the simple yet elegant writing style with complex characters that is her trademark.
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Summary: A Change from the Normal
Review: When I picked up this book, I expected it to be much like Girl with a Pearl Earring, but in fact is was quite different. Not only are there far more characters that are being trusted but also the children in this story take a much bigger role. I can't say I was disappointed but I surely was surprised. While I didn't like it nearly as much as Girl with a Pearl Earring I felt that the same things happened while reading this book.
1. I was transported to this time with these people.
2. I was engaged by the characters and their actions; There were things I was wishing would happen, but I was disappointed with the outcome.
3. I found the style, character development, and plot easy to understand and the twists and turns not obvious.
Great book, I highly recommend.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable
Review: "Falling Angels" is not nearly as good as "Girl with a Pearl Earring," but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I have read Barbara Kingsolver's "Poisonwood Bible" and I liked the way the chapters were written from the points of view of different characters, and I think Chevalier did a fine job going back and forth between perspectives. This is not my favorite writing style, but it's nice to read something different every now and then. I tend to get attached to characters, and I found myself hoping for a bit more character development. One of the reviewers made the comment that Maude and Livy would never be friends. I don't know if that's true, but it did seem to me that maybe the author went to great lengths to make them complete opposites, which came off as forced. If you enjoy historical fiction (I would read a novel set in the 19th century over one set in the 21st any day), then I think you'll like this. It's entertaining.
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Summary: "Neighbors in life as well as in death."
Review:
Like a Robert Altman film, Chevalier writes character driven novels, each voice contributing to the whole of the story. In 1901 London, Queen Victoria finally expires and the country is in mourning. Walking the cemetery, the young daughters of the Coleman's and the Waterhouses's, Maud and Lavinia, make the acquaintance of an apprentice gravedigger, Simon. The two families have adjoining family plots in a century that reveres death and its attendant grieving period.
Soon after, the Waterhouse family becomes neighbors of the Coleman's, the girl's soon fast friends. There is a stark contrast between the beautiful Kitty Coleman, her affluent husband and dowdy daughter and the Waterhouse's attractive daughter Lavinia, whose incipient beauty separates her from her plain family. Over the years, the families grow more familiar, although the Coleman's are of a higher class in this status-conscious society. The girls continue their friendship, Lavinia tending toward the dramatic, Maud the practical. Meanwhile, behind the cemetery urns and angels, Simon watches the family visits, particularly drawn to Maud's elegant mother.
Kitty develops an attraction to the director of the cemetery, John Jackson, showing up frequently for innocent liaisons with her romantic fixation, while the girls explore the grounds with Simon. But the intrinsically moral Jackson will not be dissuaded by Kitty's charms. Kitty has taken precautions to avoid further pregnancies and she and her husband are not intimate, except on New Year's Eve, when they exchange partners with others of like mind. Yet a dark night of the soul descends upon Kitty, causing a crisis of conscience that is staggering in its impact. The post-Victorian mores are just as rigid as in the prior century and Kitty's behavior bespeaks an unhappy, if outwardly conforming life.
When she meets the leader of the suffragette movement, Kitty is renewed, throwing herself into the cause with unexpected passion. Richard Coleman is unable to control his impulsive wife, who is intoxicated with purpose, in thrall to new ideas that make her feel energetic for the first time in years. As the fates converge into one cataclysmic event that will change both families irrevocably, Chevalier deftly portrays the frustrations of intelligent women, ever more adamant that their opinions have validity in a male-dominated world.
Falling Angels is the essence of women's struggle for equality, Kitty no longer constrained by convention, free to champion emancipation and the vote. Meanwhile, Gertrude Waterhouse watches from the safety of her home, trussed in convention, fearful of social change. The daughters reflect the differences in their mothers: Maud, wistful, yearning to be loved, watching for a sign of affection from the dedicated Kitty; Lavinia, ever the spoiled and self-centered object of her own obsessions; and Ivy May, the obedient, observant child, aware of more that she lets on. And the outsider, Simon, history's witness, his future already proscribed by class.
With a precise eye, Chevalier creates another masterpiece of class struggle and the urgency of women's rights. Like an impressionist painting, the story fills up the canvas, each new chapter adding another dimension. Chevalier is a master of this subtle style, drawing all together to the climax, the piece de'resistance. Luan Gaines/ 2005.
Rating:
Summary: PERCEPTIONS AND DECEPTIONS...
Review: 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 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.
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Summary: A wonderful book.
Review: As an avid reader who enjoys all kinds of reading, I picked this book up a little while ago in the bargain bin with no knowledge of its writer and no expectations. To say it was wonderful is an understatement. Tracy Chevalier writes like an angel and the first person pespective of all the characters was beautifully done. It is difficult for me to summarize exactly what the book is about because it touches upon so many themes. It begins with the death of Queen Victoria and a new heir to the throne. It is a coming of age story, a story of friendship, love and social change, grief and loss and great courage. Two young girls meet at the cemetary (their families plots are next to each other) and become fast friends.) The mother of one of the girls is a beautiful, restless woman disatisfied with her marriage who seeks fulfillment in a disastrous love affair and finds her purpose in the women's movement. The mother from the other family is traditional and in equal parts intimidated and scandalized by the mother of her daughter's friend. I do not want to give away too much of the plot, but I hope this review will encourage someone to read it. This book was so unusual and original.
Rating:
Summary: An Amazing book!
Review: 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!
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