Angels in the Morning

Rating:
Summary: Breathtakingly beautiful
Review: ...with apologies to Jerry McGuire. I mention Monet because the book jacket blurb compares the descriptions the author paints in words of the French countryside in summer to Monet's art. Troyan's descriptive talents are noteworthy - but Monet she's not. That being said, I can't blame the author for something her publisher has chosen to print inside the cover.

The story told her is one that is all too common - adults so wrapped up in leading (and unraveling) their own lives that the children with whom they have been bless are left to fend for themselves emotionally. In this case, the children are sisters, Gabriel (our ten-year-old narrator) and her younger sister Alex. Their family is seemingly wealthy, accustomed to summering in a rural French cottage. Populating this story, besides the girls and their mother, are several other characters: their maternal grandmother (Gabriel's best friend) and her constantly befuddled, fussy sister, both visiting from South Africa; their stuffy and emotionally frustrated English nanny Juliet; the chauffeur from Spain; a doctor who lives across the road; and a tramp who stumbles in and out of the scene from time to time. The girls' father shows up and announces to his wife - and then to the girls - that he loves her, but that he is also in love with another woman. Too typically, he also expresses his desire to keep both women as lovers. His wife at first appears to be completely spineless in the face of such a ridiculous suggestion, holding out hope that he will `come to his senses' and return to her alone. The aforementioned doctor, their neighbor, begins to offer romantic attention to the slighted wife - and she begins to let go of the idea that her husband will return.

The girls are pretty much left to their own devices in dealing with all of this. The person who offers Gabriel the most support and insight is her granny - and she's very elderly and frail, and this interaction is thus limited. The nanny is hopeless - she seems to be in lust with the chauffeur (who is married and has a family in Spain), and when she feels let down by or disappointed in him - or in her life in general - she tends to sit in her room by herself and get drunk.

When the children aren't being ignored or passed from one `caregiver' to another, they're being spoiled - and this factor in their upbringing is painfully obvious in many of Gabriel's narrative comments and observations. Her sister Alex is deaf and wears hearing aids - and somehow this aspect of Alex's personality and life comes across as being trivialized. Gabriel plays with Alex's hearing aids from time to time, wearing one so that the girls can be more like twins. This is a bit perplexing, because Gabriel also complains now and then about her nanny or mother dressing the sisters alike.

As the story progresses, Gabriel (more than Alex) goes through the start of her coming-of-age process - she begins to see herself as less and less of a child over the course of the summer. Unfortunately, she has no one around who is able or willing to give her any of the valuable guidance that an adolescent needs at this time - she is left with her own limited understanding and powers of reasoning (which are, in truth, still those of a child) to assist her in this summer of passage.

The story is an interesting one - but I felt that the setting superceded the plot. Also, I felt that most of the characters were unlikable in the extreme - even the children, who should always be given all due consideration and not blamed for their upbringing (or lack of it) were almost completely without charm. Their grandmother was the most likable persona presented here - and she was so close to the end of her days, so frail physically, that she had very little to offer them.

On a final note - does The Permanent Press (the book's publisher) even employ an editor? At several locations in the text, an unjustified paragraph would suddenly pop up in the midst of the others. Now and then a line would end with a long space, and what appeared to be intended as the next paragraph continued below without any indentation - upon reading further, it was clear that this line should have followed the sentence above within the same paragraph. There was even one place where a quotation ran to the end of a line, with the closing quotation marks sitting alone on the line below. I felt like I was reading one of those advance copies that are distributed unedited for review purposes. The fact that this book was released with this many errors in it is simply sloppy on the part of the publisher - and whether you like the book or not, it's an affront to the author and her work, as well as to the readers.

Rating:
Summary: SHOW ME THE MONET...
Review: ...with apologies to Jerry McGuire. I mention Monet because the book jacket blurb compares the descriptions the author paints in words of the French countryside in summer to Monet's art. Troyan's descriptive talents are noteworthy - but Monet she's not. That being said, I can't blame the author for something her publisher has chosen to print inside the cover.

The story told her is one that is all too common - adults so wrapped up in leading (and unraveling) their own lives that the children with whom they have been bless are left to fend for themselves emotionally. In this case, the children are sisters, Gabriel (our ten-year-old narrator) and her younger sister Alex. Their family is seemingly wealthy, accustomed to summering in a rural French cottage. Populating this story, besides the girls and their mother, are several other characters: their maternal grandmother (Gabriel's best friend) and her constantly befuddled, fussy sister, both visiting from South Africa; their stuffy and emotionally frustrated English nanny Juliet; the chauffeur from Spain; a doctor who lives across the road; and a tramp who stumbles in and out of the scene from time to time. The girls' father shows up and announces to his wife - and then to the girls - that he loves her, but that he is also in love with another woman. Too typically, he also expresses his desire to keep both women as lovers. His wife at first appears to be completely spineless in the face of such a ridiculous suggestion, holding out hope that he will 'come to his senses' and return to her alone. The aforementioned doctor, their neighbor, begins to offer romantic attention to the slighted wife - and she begins to let go of the idea that her husband will return.

The girls are pretty much left to their own devices in dealing with all of this. The person who offers Gabriel the most support and insight is her granny - and she's very elderly and frail, and this interaction is thus limited. The nanny is hopeless - she seems to be in lust with the chauffeur (who is married and has a family in Spain), and when she feels let down by or disappointed in him - or in her life in general - she tends to sit in her room by herself and get drunk.

When the children aren't being ignored or passed from one 'caregiver' to another, they're being spoiled - and this factor in their upbringing is painfully obvious in many of Gabriel's narrative comments and observations. Her sister Alex is deaf and wears hearing aids - and somehow this aspect of Alex's personality and life comes across as being trivialized. Gabriel plays with Alex's hearing aids from time to time, wearing one so that the girls can be more like twins. This is a bit perplexing, because Gabriel also complains now and then about her nanny or mother dressing the sisters alike.

As the story progresses, Gabriel (more than Alex) goes through the start of her coming-of-age process - she begins to see herself as less and less of a child over the course of the summer. Unfortunately, she has no one around who is able or willing to give her any of the valuable guidance that an adolescent needs at this time - she is left with her own limited understanding and powers of reasoning (which are, in truth, still those of a child) to assist her in this summer of passage.

The story is an interesting one - but I felt that the setting superceded the plot. Also, I felt that most of the characters were unlikable in the extreme - even the children, who should always be given all due consideration and not blamed for their upbringing (or lack of it) were almost completely without charm. Their grandmother was the most likable persona presented here - and she was so close to the end of her days, so frail physically, that she had very little to offer them.

On a final note - does The Permanent Press (the book's publisher) even employ an editor? At several locations in the text, an unjustified paragraph would suddenly pop up in the midst of the others. Now and then a line would end with a long space, and what appeared to be intended as the next paragraph continued below without any indentation - upon reading further, it was clear that this line should have followed the sentence above within the same paragraph. There was even one place where a quotation ran to the end of a line, with the closing quotation marks sitting alone on the line below. I felt like I was reading one of those advance copies that are distributed unedited for review purposes. The fact that this book was released with this many errors in it is simply sloppy on the part of the publisher - and whether you like the book or not, it's an affront to the author and her work, as well as to the readers.

Rating:
Summary: RICH IN DESCRIPTIVE PROSE
Review: Quietly unassuming yet rich in descriptive prose "Angels In The Morning" is the story of one summer in the life of 10-year-old Gabriel. Anticipated as a happy, carefree time, Gabriel arrives with her family to spend the warmer months in the Loiret region of France, at a charming stone house they have occupied during summers past.

In addition to Gabriel those eager for the countryside include her beautiful mother, not yet 30 years of age; her beloved Granny and great-aunt Ethel from South Africa; nanny Juliet, an Agatha Christie reading, moody, tippler; chauffeur Luis; and younger sister, Alex, who is almost deaf but quick at reading lips.

They experience a less than auspicious arrival (the discovery that the housekeeper has died over the winter). Father, the children are told, has been detained but will join them shortly. His stay with them is brief - barely long enough to announce that he has fallen in love with another woman. This news perplexes the girls, and serves to make an already somewhat distant mother even further removed.

For Gabriel's edification her father likens his predicament to the difficulty in choosing between chocolate and vanilla ice cream, assuming that one likes both the same. "Perhaps my father's teasing," Gabriel thinks. "He loves to tease us."

As the doctor next door takes a romantic interest in Gabriel's mother, Granny steps in to lavish time and love on the young girl. They take long barefoot walks together and listen for the sound of larks as the older woman enjoys one of her forbidden cigarettes. Regrettably their days together come to an end when Granny suddenly dies. Upon being told her grandmother is now in heaven, the precocious young girl harbors thoughts of her own: "I think she's sitting in another vegetable garden eating tomatoes and smoking cigarettes."

As the summer draws to a close so do the days of Gabriel's and Alex's tranquil innocence as they are left to face their tomorrows virtually alone.

- Gail Cooke

Rating:
Summary: RICH IN DESCRIPTIVE PROSE
Review: Quietly unassuming yet rich in descriptive prose "Angels In The Morning" is the story of one summer in the life of 10-year-old Gabriel. Anticipated as a happy, carefree time, Gabriel arrives with her family to spend the warmer months in the Loiret region of France, at a charming stone house they have occupied during summers past.

In addition to Gabriel those eager for the countryside include her beautiful mother, not yet 30 years of age; her beloved Granny and great-aunt Ethel from South Africa; nanny Juliet, an Agatha Christie reading, moody, tippler; chauffeur Luis; and younger sister, Alex, who is almost deaf but quick at reading lips.

They experience a less than auspicious arrival (the discovery that the housekeeper has died over the winter). Father, the children are told, has been detained but will join them shortly. His stay with them is brief - barely long enough to announce that he has fallen in love with another woman. This news perplexes the girls, and serves to make an already somewhat distant mother even further removed.

For Gabriel's edification her father likens his predicament to the difficulty in choosing between chocolate and vanilla ice cream, assuming that one likes both the same. "Perhaps my father's teasing," Gabriel thinks. "He loves to tease us."

As the doctor next door takes a romantic interest in Gabriel's mother, Granny steps in to lavish time and love on the young girl. They take long barefoot walks together and listen for the sound of larks as the older woman enjoys one of her forbidden cigarettes. Regrettably their days together come to an end when Granny suddenly dies. Upon being told her grandmother is now in heaven, the precocious young girl harbors thoughts of her own: "I think she's sitting in another vegetable garden eating tomatoes and smoking cigarettes."

As the summer draws to a close so do the days of Gabriel's and Alex's tranquil innocence as they are left to face their tomorrows virtually alone.

- Gail Cooke

Rating:
Summary: Breathtakingly beautiful
Review: This is a book to take your breath away. The prose is beautiful, exact, and subtle. The story is layered so skillfully that multiple readings reveal the profundity hidden inside a deceptively simple narrative. Each character is unique, complex, flawed, and heartbreakingly human. What seems on the surface to be the tale of an ordinary child--suffering an ordinary, if painful, loss of innocence--turns out to be a delicate and enigmatic tale of life from the very heart of experience. . .this is a novel to teach us what it means to be alive.

Troyan is an extraordinary writer. She evokes the believable nostalgia of Willa Cather and the perfect detail of Virginia Woolf along with the purity of eye of the best of Jean Rhys. With this amazing first novel, Troyan takes her place among their ranks.

Rating:
Summary: This is real literature
Review: Wow! I loved this book! What a story. What a writer! I wish I could
still be floating down that river at night with Gabriel and Alex.

I definitely disagree with the guy who took it apart because it "isn't a
Monet". What is he, crazy? No, it's not Jerry Maguire, thank God.
It's classy, it's crafted, it's not slick, it's not mindless, it's not
made for a tone-deaf TV-deadened American pop movie audience. It's
*literature*.

First of all, I love the narrator, the child Gabriel. She's so real
it's almost eery. She makes you remember what it was really like to be
ten years old. I don't know a single bestselling author of today who
wouldn't have tried to make her into a nostalgia piece, a smarmy, gooey,
sentimental, imitation-kid, all pathos and self-absorption and fake
sympathy for her disabled little sister. Instead, she's
straight-forward and perfectly ordinary. She simply tell you what she
sees--and sometimes what she sees isn't what you or I would see, because
she's only ten and doesn't yet know what to look for to tell her what's
"important" and what's not; so when she and Alex ransack their
governess' room, they find bottles with pictures of beefeaters on them
but don't know what that means; and when she sees her father on his
hands over her mother in bed, she doesn't know what he's doing or even
that she shouldn't see it; and when her Granny dies, she has the
fantastic presence of mind to put her stockings back on her before she

calls the adults.

And on the subject of the deaf sister, I have to say this is one aspect
of the book that I admire the most. Again, it would be so easy to get
sloppy sentimental about it. This is one of those issues that's almost
impossible to handle without getting gooey. But Troyan doesn't--she
sticks to her narrator's point of view, and you realize that for
children growing up with something like this, it just doesn't run their
lives. They've got more important things to think about, like what to
use for blood when you play soldiers (blackberry juice), how to annoy
grown-ups at the dinner table (talk about farting), and how to swim with
your leg tied to someone else (it's not easy). I mean, these kids'
lives are so real. They're not the "abled" one and the "disabled" one,
they're just a pair of sisters with the same love-hate,
manipulation-cooperation, trust-distrust relationship that all close
sisters have. Where would Troyan get an idea like making the children
share the hearing aids? That's brilliant!

And I love Troyan's sense of humor. The things she picks out for
Gabriel to notice are always worth it and very often funny. One of my
favorite moments is when Gabriel is riding to the funeral and discovers
that she has unthinkingly picked all the petals off of the flowers she's
holding and now has a bunch of stems.

Of course, the biggest point (and I think the Jerry Maguire fan missed
this completely) is that while Daddy is running after his new
girlfriend, and the neighbor is running after Mummy, and old Aunt Ethel
is running around after Granny nagging her, the children are left in the
care of an abusive alcoholic. I mean, that's the point of the whole
book. Here are these two kids bumbling along through their ordinary kid
lives, hiding in their tree houses, and dragging their dog into the
swimming pool, and acting out against the unfairness of losing their Dad
by burying their favorite things, and all the time they're in real
danger. Their governess is a falling-down drunk, and she hits them when
their parent aren't watching. The whole thing is building--slowly, but
absolutely surely--toward that last night.

Well, it's not a babysitter horror movie. But it is really good
literary fiction. You're not going to get hit over the head with the
clues. Troyan never will remind you, but in the very end it matters
that the river gets dangerous further downstream from their house.

I am a complete Troyan devotee now. I'll read anything else she
writes. Keep an eye on her--she's going to be big.

(Not to make a big deal out of it, but there is the problem of the
terrible typesetting. This kind of thing actually does happen in the
publishing world more often than you would think, but it's insulting to
the author. Troyan deserves better, and I have no doubt at all that
with her next book she'll get it.)

Rating:
Summary: This is real literature
Review: Wow! I loved this book! What a story. What a writer! I wish I could
still be floating down that river at night with Gabriel and Alex.

...
It's classy, it's crafted, it's not slick, it's not mindless, it's not
made for a tone-deaf TV-deadened American pop movie audience. It's
*literature*.

First of all, I love the narrator, the child Gabriel. She's so real
it's almost eery. She makes you remember what it was really like to be
ten years old. I don't know a single bestselling author of today who
wouldn't have tried to make her into a nostalgia piece, a smarmy, gooey,
sentimental, imitation-kid, all pathos and self-absorption and fake
sympathy for her disabled little sister. Instead, she's
straight-forward and perfectly ordinary. She simply tell you what she
sees--and sometimes what she sees isn't what you or I would see, because
she's only ten and doesn't yet know what to look for to tell her what's
"important" and what's not; so when she and Alex ransack their
governess' room, they find bottles with pictures of beefeaters on them
but don't know what that means; and when she sees her father on his
hands over her mother in bed, she doesn't know what he's doing or even
that she shouldn't see it; and when her Granny dies, she has the
fantastic presence of mind to put her stockings back on her before she calls the adults.

And on the subject of the deaf sister, I have to say this is one aspect
of the book that I admire the most. Again, it would be so easy to get
sloppy sentimental about it. This is one of those issues that's almost
impossible to handle without getting gooey. But Troyan doesn't--she
sticks to her narrator's point of view, and you realize that for
children growing up with something like this, it just doesn't run their
lives. They've got more important things to think about, like what to
use for blood when you play soldiers (blackberry juice), how to annoy
grown-ups at the dinner table (talk about farting), and how to swim with
your leg tied to someone else (it's not easy). I mean, these kids'
lives are so real. They're not the "abled" one and the "disabled" one,
they're just a pair of sisters with the same love-hate,
manipulation-cooperation, trust-distrust relationship that all close
sisters have. Where would Troyan get an idea like making the children
share the hearing aids? That's brilliant!

And I love Troyan's sense of humor. The things she picks out for
Gabriel to notice are always worth it and very often funny. One of my
favorite moments is when Gabriel is riding to the funeral and discovers
that she has unthinkingly picked all the petals off of the flowers she's
holding and now has a bunch of stems.

Of course, the biggest point (and I think the Jerry Maguire fan missed
this completely) is that while Daddy is running after his new
girlfriend, and the neighbor is running after Mummy, and old Aunt Ethel
is running around after Granny nagging her, the children are left in the
care of an abusive alcoholic. I mean, that's the point of the whole
book. Here are these two kids bumbling along through their ordinary kid
lives, hiding in their tree houses, and dragging their dog into the
swimming pool, and acting out against the unfairness of losing their Dad
by burying their favorite things, and all the time they're in real
danger. Their governess is a falling-down drunk, and she hits them when
their parent aren't watching. The whole thing is building--slowly, but
absolutely surely--toward that last night.

Well, it's not a babysitter horror movie. But it is really good
literary fiction. You're not going to get hit over the head with the
clues. Troyan never will remind you, but in the very end it matters
that the river gets dangerous further downstream from their house.

I am a complete Troyan devotee now. I'll read anything else she
writes. Keep an eye on her--she's going to be big.

(Not to make a big deal out of it, but there is the problem of the
terrible typesetting. This kind of thing actually does happen in the
publishing world more often than you would think, but it's insulting to
the author. Troyan deserves better, and I have no doubt at all that
with her next book she'll get it.)

Rating:
Summary: This is real literature
Review: Wow! I loved this book! What a story. What a writer! I wish I could
still be floating down that river at night with Gabriel and Alex.

I definitely disagree with the guy who took it apart because it "isn't a
Monet". What is he, crazy? No, it's not Jerry Maguire, thank God.
It's classy, it's crafted, it's not slick, it's not mindless, it's not
made for a tone-deaf TV-deadened American pop movie audience. It's
*literature*.

First of all, I love the narrator, the child Gabriel. She's so real
it's almost eery. She makes you remember what it was really like to be
ten years old. I don't know a single bestselling author of today who
wouldn't have tried to make her into a nostalgia piece, a smarmy, gooey,
sentimental, imitation-kid, all pathos and self-absorption and fake
sympathy for her disabled little sister. Instead, she's
straight-forward and perfectly ordinary. She simply tell you what she
sees--and sometimes what she sees isn't what you or I would see, because
she's only ten and doesn't yet know what to look for to tell her what's
"important" and what's not; so when she and Alex ransack their
governess' room, they find bottles with pictures of beefeaters on them
but don't know what that means; and when she sees her father on his
hands over her mother in bed, she doesn't know what he's doing or even
that she shouldn't see it; and when her Granny dies, she has the
fantastic presence of mind to put her stockings back on her before she

calls the adults.

And on the subject of the deaf sister, I have to say this is one aspect
of the book that I admire the most. Again, it would be so easy to get
sloppy sentimental about it. This is one of those issues that's almost
impossible to handle without getting gooey. But Troyan doesn't--she
sticks to her narrator's point of view, and you realize that for
children growing up with something like this, it just doesn't run their
lives. They've got more important things to think about, like what to
use for blood when you play soldiers (blackberry juice), how to annoy
grown-ups at the dinner table (talk about farting), and how to swim with
your leg tied to someone else (it's not easy). I mean, these kids'
lives are so real. They're not the "abled" one and the "disabled" one,
they're just a pair of sisters with the same love-hate,
manipulation-cooperation, trust-distrust relationship that all close
sisters have. Where would Troyan get an idea like making the children
share the hearing aids? That's brilliant!

And I love Troyan's sense of humor. The things she picks out for
Gabriel to notice are always worth it and very often funny. One of my
favorite moments is when Gabriel is riding to the funeral and discovers
that she has unthinkingly picked all the petals off of the flowers she's
holding and now has a bunch of stems.

Of course, the biggest point (and I think the Jerry Maguire fan missed
this completely) is that while Daddy is running after his new
girlfriend, and the neighbor is running after Mummy, and old Aunt Ethel
is running around after Granny nagging her, the children are left in the
care of an abusive alcoholic. I mean, that's the point of the whole
book. Here are these two kids bumbling along through their ordinary kid
lives, hiding in their tree houses, and dragging their dog into the
swimming pool, and acting out against the unfairness of losing their Dad
by burying their favorite things, and all the time they're in real
danger. Their governess is a falling-down drunk, and she hits them when
their parent aren't watching. The whole thing is building--slowly, but
absolutely surely--toward that last night.

Well, it's not a babysitter horror movie. But it is really good
literary fiction. You're not going to get hit over the head with the
clues. Troyan never will remind you, but in the very end it matters
that the river gets dangerous further downstream from their house.

I am a complete Troyan devotee now. I'll read anything else she
writes. Keep an eye on her--she's going to be big.

(Not to make a big deal out of it, but there is the problem of the
terrible typesetting. This kind of thing actually does happen in the
publishing world more often than you would think, but it's insulting to
the author. Troyan deserves better, and I have no doubt at all that
with her next book she'll get it.)