Rating: 
Summary: Women and Friendship
Review: Falling Angels is a glimpse into a fragile time in the lives of several women. The story takes place between 1901 and 1910, and follows the friendship of two young girls, Maude and Livy, from the first time they meet, at age 5, until the story ends, when they are 14 years old, and have become young women.
The two girls meet by accident in the cemetary where their families' graves are located. They become friends instantly, much to the consternation of their mothers, who are nothing alike, and who do not want to be friends.
We, the reader, are allowed a very intimate glimpse into the lives of these characters. The Suffragette Movement plays a pivotal role in the story, as Maude's mother, Kitty, becomes an avid Suffragette and lives for nothing but the cause.
In addition, this story offers a fascinating view of early 20th century England, the rigid class system, and the rigid rules for men and women.
This is a story of friendship, of strength of character, of following your heart and doing what you think is right. It is a story that will stick with you long after you've read the last page.
Rating:
Summary: Very well written
Review: This is a story of love between 2 young friends. Their families are joined in friendship through these 2 girls who are raised quite differently but somehow are a perfect match. The girls are put through a tyrade of family secrets and hardships, loss and guilt. May I recommend the audio book read by Anne Twomey. She has an excellent voice that is wonderful to listen to. This book was a delight and I found myself not wanting to get home after work...I listened to it in my car during my long commutes to and from work. It was very well written with flavorful characters and acute details. Buy it!
Rating: 
Summary: An interestng look at a distant time
Review: This book is highly intriguing and deftly written--not as much so as "Girl With the Pearl Earring", but I look upon that as something a writer is likely to produce once in a lifetime. Some plot choices here seemed too easy a way to neatly wrap things up.
Nonetheless, there is much to be marveled at and enjoyed here. I await Chevalier's next book.
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: 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.
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