Cheap Falling Angels (Book) (Tracy Chevalier) Price

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Customer Reviews of Falling Angels

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.

Is This a Family Novel or a Literary Experiment
I really didn't like GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING, but I thought I'd try another Tracy Chevalier book and, since I love reading books set in both Victorian and Edwardian England, FALLING ANGELS seemed perfect.

On the morning following the death of Queen Victoria, intelligent but plain Maude Coleman meets beautiful but shallow Lavinia Waterhouse at the cemetery where both of their families have plots. The five year old girls become fast friends and their lives become intertwined unto death.

FALLING ANGELS is quite different from GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING in more ways than the fact that it does not explore the world of art. Where GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING had only one narrator, Griet, FALLING ANGELS has several and they take turns telling their stories in short, choppy chapters. One of the ways in which both books are similar is the fact that Chevalier never goes inside the mind of her characters...she fails to gives us her characters thoughts, and this, I think, is a very grave mistake. It distanced me from Griet and it distanced me from both Maude and Lavinia and the other characters that populate the pages of FALLING ANGELS.

It's puzzling to me as to why Chevalier would write so many interior monologues yet fail to let even one character reveal his or her thoughts or emotions. Instead of using the third person to help us "know" each character, Chevalier uses it to give us expository information...something that, to me, smacks of the work of an amateur, not a woman who's just written her third novel. It might have been an experimental device, but if it were, I think it's an experiment in technique that failed.

In addition to the above, the first half of the book, which seems to be developing into a family drama simply doesn't coalesce with the second half, where it veers off into something quite different. It seemed as if Chevalier were trying to weave disparate stories from loosely connected characters into one lovely tapestry of a book, but the tapestry just never came together and simply unraveled, instead.

Like GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING, FALLING ANGELS is rich in description, something that seems to be Chevalier's forte and something I would expect, given the fact that she was, for many years a reference book editor. In GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING we were treated to a tour of Delft during Vermeer's lifetime. In FALLING ANGELS, we're given a guide to Edwardian England. I liked the description in both books, but lovely description doesn't make a compelling story.

I am going to give Chevalier yet a third chance, something I rarely do with any author. I've recently purchased her latest book, THE LADY AND THE UNICORN. The beautiful tapestries at the Musee National du Moyen Age de Cluny in Paris are among my favorite "artistic treasures," so I really couldn't resist a book woven around them. I just hope Chevalier gives us richer characterizations than she did in FALLING ANGELS.

I would recommend this book only to people so in love with Edwardian England that they simply can't get their fill.

A Change from the Normal
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.