Rating: 
Summary: Rare and Lovely
Review: I've just discovered this rare and lovely writer and am amazed that she's not better known here. Seemingly, she's a big hit in the UK and I'm not surprised. This is novel writing at its best, subtle, intelligent, witty and with that quality of strangenes swith which true masterpieces are associated. I suspect she may be one of the few 21st century writers who will last. I hope for her sake she gets her deserved recognition in her own lifetime and doesn't, like so many of her characters, have to die first to come into her own. She has a very optimistic view of human nature as well, along with a fine sense of the potential in us all for doing harm and for tragedy. Do read it and get her better known.
Rating: 
Summary: One can do better elsewhere
Review: It is terribly misleading to categorize this book as insightful about Venice. It really offers very little substantive information about the city. Other than the storyline revolving around a stone carving that happens to be in Venice, the story could as well be sitused in any other city. If one wishes to learn of the charm of Venice, try The World of Venice by Jan Morris or Venice for Pleasure by J.G. Links. The only interesting element of the book is its focus on an ancient folktale and its inter-weaving with a current repetition of the same story. While the author may deserve some credit for this inter-weaving, the characters are generally so one-dimensional and the dialogue in places so trite that it is difficult to see the novel through to its finish. For one seeking the same type of structure, read Possession by A.S. Byatt to see what a truly creative and professional writer can accomplish.
Rating:
Summary: Miss Garnet's Angel
Review: Miss Garnet has a dry and emotionless life. She vaguely realises this, but is never moved to do anything about it until her friend of many years dies, and she decides to spend time overseas. Her destination of choice is Venice, and there the beauty and history of the place, and the different people she meets, touch her soul and makes her think and re-evaluate everything she has done with her life. Cleverly interwoven with this is the story of Tobias, who is accompanied by an angel as he too ventures on a journey that will also change his life.This all sounds very deep and meaningful, but it is a lovely, lyrical book, where the central character is charming in her self analysis, regrets and realisations of things lost, and we appreciate the small pleasures that she derives from a beautiful painting, a new lilac dress, and the discovery of new truths from her own research into the story of Tobias and the angel which has so fascinated her. The other characters who populate her journey are equally enchanting, all of whom are not really who they appear to be, but all who help Miss Garnet appreciate what she has in life, as to a degree she does them as well. If there is one small drawback with the book, it is that it immediately imbues the reader with a great desire to visit Venice, and to gaze upon paintings of angels. But I'm sure I will get over this. I will however, continue to remember this enchanting story, and I recommend it highly. This is a first novel, and I trust that it is the beginning of a great career for a talented and insightful writer.
Rating:
Summary: Just delightful
Review: Miss Garnet has a dry and emotionless life. She vaguely realises this, but is never moved to do anything about it until her friend of many years dies, and she decides to spend time overseas. Her destination of choice is Venice, and there the beauty and history of the place, and the different people she meets, touch her soul and makes her think and re-evaluate everything she has done with her life. Cleverly interwoven with this is the story of Tobias, who is accompanied by an angel as he too ventures on a journey that will also change his life. This all sounds very deep and meaningful, but it is a lovely, lyrical book, where the central character is charming in her self analysis, regrets and realisations of things lost, and we appreciate the small pleasures that she derives from a beautiful painting, a new lilac dress, and the discovery of new truths from her own research into the story of Tobias and the angel which has so fascinated her. The other characters who populate her journey are equally enchanting, all of whom are not really who they appear to be, but all who help Miss Garnet appreciate what she has in life, as to a degree she does them as well. If there is one small drawback with the book, it is that it immediately imbues the reader with a great desire to visit Venice, and to gaze upon paintings of angels. But I'm sure I will get over this. I will however, continue to remember this enchanting story, and I recommend it highly. This is a first novel, and I trust that it is the beginning of a great career for a talented and insightful writer.
Rating: 
Summary: Lyrical Parable
Review: Miss Garnet's Angel immediately hooks the reader with its promise of life altering experience, its aura of mysticism, and its ability to evoke a feeling for the special place that is Venice. As it develops, however, the plot grows entirely predictable, which diminishes the reader's sense of mystery. Conflicts are resolved rather abruptly, and except for Julia Garnet herself, characters are incompletely developed. If you love Italy and religious symbolism, though, this is an easy and fun read.
Rating:
Summary: A Mix of Good Elements That Never Really Gels
Review: On the surface, Miss Garnet's Angel seems to have all the elements necessary for a great piece of literature. There is an exotic setting, a well defined central character to assume an "everyman" role, good supporting characters that bring out facets of the central character's personality, and a solid narrative which explores several themes. The most visited theme is how travel can create a more complete person by opening up different aspects of one's persona. Also, an examination of art's power to invoke spirituality and an exploration of the meaning of love frequently reoccur throughout the book. With all of these elements, one could reasonably expect a solid, if not spectacular, novel. Yet, for some reason, Vickers never quite puts all of these pieces together. The setting, while adequately described, is never established as the only place where this story could've occurred. The main character never transcends her commonness to become memorable. The themes, while frequently discussed, never seem to reach a resolution. Finally, the unrealistic fate of the several characters, especially Miss Garnet and the twins, leaves much to be desired. There are enough elements that are adequately presented in Miss Garnet's Angel to make it a perfectly acceptable choice for reading. But, by never fully developing these elements, Vickers produced an average book instead of the great book it could have been. Because of those shortcomings, one might be better off looking at other books before settling on Miss Garnet's Angel.
Rating:
Summary: A Mix of Good Elements That Never Really Gels
Review: On the surface, Miss Garnet's Angel seems to have all the elements necessary for a great piece of literature. There is an exotic setting, a well defined central character to assume an "everyman" role, good supporting characters that bring out facets of the central character's personality, and a solid narrative which explores several themes. The most visited theme is how travel can create a more complete person by opening up different aspects of one's persona. Also, an examination of art's power to invoke spirituality and an exploration of the meaning of love frequently reoccur throughout the book. With all of these elements, one could reasonably expect a solid, if not spectacular, novel. Yet, for some reason, Vickers never quite puts all of these pieces together. The setting, while adequately described, is never established as the only place where this story could've occurred. The main character never transcends her commonness to become memorable. The themes, while frequently discussed, never seem to reach a resolution. Finally, the unrealistic fate of the several characters, especially Miss Garnet and the twins, leaves much to be desired. There are enough elements that are adequately presented in Miss Garnet's Angel to make it a perfectly acceptable choice for reading. But, by never fully developing these elements, Vickers produced an average book instead of the great book it could have been. Because of those shortcomings, one might be better off looking at other books before settling on Miss Garnet's Angel.
Rating: 
Summary: A treasure from the box
Review: Recently I hosted a meeting of a book group to which I belong. One of the treats of playing host is that you get to keep "the box" between meetings. "The box" is a large shabby cardboard box, into which we throw books which members have read and enjoyed, and which other members may want to borrow. Having the box in your house for a month means that you have oodles of time to contemplate the treasures within, and occasionally I find myself picking out a book that I would normally overlook for one reason or another. Miss Garnett's Angel was such a book. The cover was brown, and at first uninteresting, but there was something about the blurb on the back which made finally want to give it a go.
I'm pleased I did, and that I persisted when I found the first third or so of the book rather dull. Because this is a quiet and contemplative book, and it does take a while to get to know the characters, and like all the best people, they became more interesting as more layers are peeled - I mean that figuratively of course!
I would recommend this book to those who like character driven novels, and who are prepared to invest a little time and effort to think about the parallels between the people and the city, the present and the past, the ethereal and the real. It is not a book which kept me reading late into the night, dying to know how it would turn out, but a pleasant and thought provoking novel, which made a pleasant read before bedtime.
Rating:
Summary: A glowing jewel of a book.
Review: Retired school teacher, Julia Garnet, is lonely and at a loss with what to do with her life after the death of her flat mate of many years, and decides to spend 6 months in Venice. A confirmed communist, she is amazed at the ease with which she is falling under the spell of the magnificent architecture, especially the churches, which at first she finds decadent, in view of her strict anti-church attitude. She befriends a young couple who are restoring an old chapel and becomes very involved in their lives, as well as meeting- and being totally charmed by a very dashing art dealer- who wines and dines her.Julia falls in love for the first time in her life and is shattered when things don't turn out as well as she'd hoped. I found this book to have an other-worldly feel to it as though Venice itself was responsible for normally prosiac people acting differently, just as if they were somehow charmed and under the influence of old paintings and statues, particularly those of the angel Raphael, whose biblical story interweaves with that of Julia. It's a gem of a book with such a luminous feel to it that I'm sure I'll read it again fairly soon.
Rating:
Summary: Seduction without the striptease
Review: Sally Vicker's Miss Garnet's Angel has none of the typical characteristics of a novel which warms the heart and gives droves of greedy readers all the more to cringe about desparingly at 9 and 5 o'clock. Yet, there is something strangely exotic about the middle-aged heroine, with whom we make a very quiet journey. Quiet, that is, for the travelling companion of the superhuman protagonist; fighting and loving his/her way in epic proportions from cover to cover. But Miss Garnet does not aim to penetrate every heart with her story, and she is refreshingly content not to be portrayed by every Hollywood beauty. Nor does she aspire to sit alsongside Henry James and Charles Dickens with a Penguin on her spine. She just wants to live out her story; which is what she does, with just a little bit of magic.
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