Falling Angels

Rating:
Summary: Very good idea...
Review: This was an intriguing story, although some of the writing
occasionally fell flat...inappropriate words here and there.
Mrs. Baker, a basically uneducated house cook, would not have referred to the heroines' "dramas." However, I thought the idea of the story - the ramifications of being an upper-middle class suffragette, especially the mother of a girl, visiting your politically-incarcerated mother in jail, being the traditional, chauvinistic husband of such a woman, and the "entertainment" factor of cemeteries in early twentieth century G.B....fascinating, rather unique subject matter.

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.

Rating:
Summary: I love this author!
Review: Tracy Chevalier's second work is just as enthralling as her first. Her knowledge of the history of the time period (Victorian to Edwardian England) is wonderful - it appears as though she did quite a bit of research, which as a lover of history I thoroughly appreciate. I especially enjoy the book's organization - she put the story together so that one can gain each character's perspective on the situations at hand. I love her style and stories, and I can't wait for her next book!

Rating:
Summary: Another Chevalier success!
Review: The end of the Victorian era is the setting for a social, historical commentary made engaging by two little girls who, by happenstance, meet at their families' gravesites.

Chevalier successfully moves the main characters, as well as peripheral characters, through ten years of social and familial upheavals. The reader is swiftly moved along the ten-year journey, via brief, individual commentaries made from the perspectives of various major and minor players. Interestingly, the very succinct perspectives, as voiced by such people as Richard Coleman, are as successful in mirroring his familial dissatisfactions and disapprovals as could have been conveyed in far longer passages. Chevalier has excelled in distinctly sketching each character via his or her brief and individual insights and expressions.

She successfully depicts the inner life of maturing young girls, caught up in the changes of the era, of their individual and intertwined families. Chevalier is also successful in illustrating the differences in social strata both among the two principal families and the lower social classes such as household servants and the cemetery staff.

All told, a fine read that moves along very rapidly through ten years because of the skillful style utilized by the author in whisking us along in a succinct, tightly woven style!

Rating:
Summary: On the brink of Modernism
Review: Tracy Chevalier transports the reader to turn of the 20th century England - to a society on the verge of turning from Victorianism to Modernism. Within this quick read, one is educated on mourning etiquette, history of suffragism, and cremation techniques. Most of the action focuses on the lives of several female characters - young and old - who have found themselves in a unique time in history, straddling the gap between the past and the modern period. Their society is one in transition, and some find themselves sacrificed in order for their society to push ahead. Although the novel focuses heavily on death (human and cultural), it is not dark. Unfortunately, there is not much insight into some of the more colorful characters. Again, as in "Girl with a Pearl Earring", Chevalier combines historical fact with interesting fiction in a fast, consuming read. I eagerly anticipate her next subject matter.

Rating:
Summary: Tracy Chevalier Writes Another Superb Story
Review: Beginning in January of 190l, this is the intense
story of two very different families. With the end
of the Victorian Era and the beginning of the
Edwardian Era, society was in the midst of social
change.

The initial meeting between the main characters,
sober Maude Coleman and self-centered Lavinia
Waterhouse takes place in a cemetery where the
families have adjoining burial plots. The friendship
begins when the two girls become neighbors. Their
mothers, the very conventional Gertrude Waterhouse
and the beautiful, but restless Kitty Coleman have
nothing in common and have a fervent dislike of each
other.

There's quite a bit going on in this story. The
preoccupation with the rigid rules of the post
Victorian era are very strict and the social
mores regarding death and mourning are unbelievable.
These various rules are often the cause of the
aversion between Gertrude and Kitty. As their two
daughters become older their own differences and
beliefs also become more apparent. The final
culminating element comes into play when Kitty
becomes involved with the suffragette movement.

The chapters are told from the view point of the
different characters. I found the narratives to
be refreshing. It was interesting to hear how the
various happenings are viewed through the eyes
and voices of the individual participants.

I enjoyed this book from the first to the last page,
and hated to have the story end.

Rating:
Summary: The Edwardian Period
Review: sets the context for this brilliant second novel by Chevalier. The book opens on New Year's Day, 1901 (and what a good opening it is) three weeks before the death of Queen Victoria. The book's ending takes place ten years later on the day of King Edward's death. Falling Angels chronicles the lives of two families that become interwined during the decade between Queen Victoria's death and King Edward's death. Chevalier conveys much about the staid conventionality that middle-class England embraced during Queen Victoria's reign, the social upheaval marked by the King's new reign and the change of century. Falling Angels brilliantly uses different points-of-view that serve to bridge the old conventions with the new. Deft use of detail, so apparent in Girl with a Pearl Earring, adds to the richness of this story. Ultimately the story is about life, death, friendship, motherhood, marriage, social conventions and politics. A lot to convey in a 300 page book. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Vivid sense of period
Review: Whether she is writing about 17th century painters or the late Victorian obssesion with mourning, Tracy Chevalier subtly and accurately portrays the lives and times of the characters she creates. Falling Angels is a very different story from Girl with a Pearl Earring, but both are rich, compelling novels.

Rating:
Summary: Angels come in many forms.
Review: This is evident in the newest book from the outstanding author of GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING. The era is turn of the century Edwardian England and our storyline is unique and enriching.

Kitty Coleman is young, beautiful, educated, and very married by the conventions of the time. She feels stifled and unfulfilled. Her daughter Maude has learned to deal with her all too distant mother, and is only too happy to meet and make friends with Lavinia, a young girl her age who moves in next door. Lavinia's mother Gertrude Waterhouse is the epitome of what society expects of a woman in her day and age, and finds Kitty Coleman's manner to be scandalous.

I enjoyed the unique storyline in which the girls become friends with the gravedigger's son; it is in the graveyard that the main characters all meet again and again. The author introduces some fascinating historical information about the grieving process and the plot spirals as Kitty becomes involved in the ever-burgeoning Suffragette movement.

The last 100 pages of the book take off and left me stunned. Chevalier is a talented author that certainly bears watching as well as reading. I would give this book 4.5 stars. [e-mail] 12/25/01

Rating:
Summary: social upheavals in Edwardian England
Review: I read this book first, and I thought that it portrayed the often-times not-so-subtle changes that Edwardian England was facing. I liked the way the author wrote to allow all of the characters involved to give their opinions on what was going on around them. In other novels depicting this era, all too often only one side is presented (i.e., the upper class), so it was nice to see the point of view of the maid Jenny, for example.
I also thought that the way of presenting the (social) changes faced by Edwardian Britons was interesting--2 girls the same age, yet with very different views on the world (society) and their place in it. In this respect, she mimics another novel set in the same time period, but does not carry it off as well because the two girls were supposed to be FRIENDS. I think that it is unlikely that the girls would have become friends given the differences in their social standing as well as their families' outlook (the Colemans' forward-looking; the Waterhouses' backward-looking). If you want to read a novel in which these issues are better addressed, I suggest the "Flambards" trilogy by K.M. Peyton. ("Flambards", "Edge of the Cloud", and "Flambards in Summer") These novels cover roughly the same time period (1908-1918), but illustrate the changes and upheavals, including the First World War, faced by Edwardian Britain in a far better way because of the relationships between the characters (family members), the strength of the main character, Christina, and how she has changed to deal with this new world. If you are interested in non-fiction, I highly recommend Vera Brittain's "Testament of Youth" (autobiographical, covers the years 1900-1925) and gives a very good portrait of Edward Britain because the author is writing from direct experience--she lived it!
"Falling Angels" is still a good read, though not as good as "Girl with the pearl earring".