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plan2read's review against another edition
1.0
Good author. Not her best book.
"Something, once, had made her happy, but she could not remember what it was."
The main character feels that way -- and so did I halfway through the book.
"Something, once, had made her happy, but she could not remember what it was."
The main character feels that way -- and so did I halfway through the book.
andrew61's review against another edition
4.0
Upon first picking up this book I thought It wouldn't be for me , a story about a teenage girl who in early tewentieth century Britain becomes a popular writer of Mills & Boon type romantic fiction, no murder, no police investigations etc however I loved it. The eponymous heroine Angel Deverell goes down as one of my favourite fictional characters ever, she is wonderfully self centred and throughout the book she steamrollers through life totally undaunted by the derision of critics, and perhaps most interestingly the thoughts and feelings of anyone around her. There are some scenes which I laughed out loud at yet underlying it the writer was able to capture the sadness of Angel's life even if Angel is unaware of it. There are brilliantly drawn ancillary characters including Esme (her husband) , Nora (Esme's sister and devoted companion and reader) and especially her publisher Theo and his wife Hermione whose exchanges as they have to deal with the impossible Angel are worth reading on their own. That realtionship itself adds poignancy to the story as they are clearly devoted and their talks are shot through with loving familiarity yet Angel cannot see this (see a later comment by her ) and most of all a heartwrenching scene towards the end when Theo and Nora devotedly shield aging Angel from a truth she is too scared to know. The book cover over 50 years in just over 250 pages but it is very readable. I know little about the author Elizabeth Taylor and this weekend will read Hilary Mantel's introduction to the book so I hesitate to say she is a hidden treasure as I think there is some increased publicity of her work but I haven't seen any discusssions however I will read more of her books and hope to find out more about her. Highly recommended.
kiri_johnston's review
3.0
Some absolutely beautiful prose (especially where the setting is concerned), but for the most part Angel herself was extremely unlikeable, making the middle chapters quite a slog to read. I loved the ending (who doesn't want to grow old in a dilapidated mansion surrounded by cats, amirite??) but had to knock off a star as Angel's life and success didn't grab my attention for a lot of the book.
pila's review against another edition
3.0
Il romanzo è piacevole ma ha il difetto di avere una protagonista davvero insopportabile.
Voto. 3,5
Voto. 3,5
charlotta_the_mountain's review against another edition
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
grubstlodger's review against another edition
4.0
It’s clear that Angel is a bold book when it starts in the middle of a sentence. Two teachers a questioning a girl about some writing she has handed in, it’s impressive for someone her age but “before she (the teacher) would say the piece was vulgarly overwritten she hoped to find out who had written it.” - The teacher’s scared of criticising a great writer on an off day. It was a funny scene and drew me straight in.
Angel is fifteen, her father has died and she is raised by her mother above a grocery store in a poor part of down. Her aunt chips in to pay for school fees at a place where she doesn’t have any friends. She tells two little girls about Paradise House, the place her aunt is a lady’s maid, embellishing it with peacocks and extra rooms and claiming it is her birthright. When her lies are found out, she is locked in her room where she turns aside from daydreams, channelling it into writing a novel.
I was fascinated by Angel’s compulsion to write a novel. She does it to avoid the real world, not to connect with it. Indeed, reality exasperates her and she sees experience as an impediment to her imagination. However, her imagination is not fed by other books either, she doesn’t like to read and, when asked, states Shakespeare as her favourite author as it tends to shut down that conversation. As such, her books are full of factual, plot and character errors, her writing is grand but imprecise, it’s sentimental and lofty and never, ever real. As such, it becomes very popular. There are those looking for an escapist read, and those who like to laugh at its absurdities. Angel herself has no sense of humour about her books, or about anything in life. She marches on, convinced of her own brilliance and reshaping everything in her life to fit what she wants it to be.
That’s essentially the rest of the novel. Angel’s career as a novelist rises and falls but she is convinced she’s a great artist. She falls in love with a man her complete opposite, who seeks truth in his painting but lacks confidence in himself. She is no good for him and he never paints again after marrying. When he dies (accident? suicide?) she remembers their marriage in the same lofty, vague and general terms as she does her own writing.
When she’s old, she ends up becoming an eccentric, rattling around in the rapidly disintegrating Paradise House, which she bought for herself at her height. There is never a moment of self-realisation or self-questioning. She is the same strong but brittle person she was at fifteen, having lived but not really learnt anything.
In some ways it’s hard to think what the purpose or message of this novel is. There’s no grand theme or plot, it just presents us with the very interesting character of Angel and lets us watch her, which was enough for me.
Angel is fifteen, her father has died and she is raised by her mother above a grocery store in a poor part of down. Her aunt chips in to pay for school fees at a place where she doesn’t have any friends. She tells two little girls about Paradise House, the place her aunt is a lady’s maid, embellishing it with peacocks and extra rooms and claiming it is her birthright. When her lies are found out, she is locked in her room where she turns aside from daydreams, channelling it into writing a novel.
I was fascinated by Angel’s compulsion to write a novel. She does it to avoid the real world, not to connect with it. Indeed, reality exasperates her and she sees experience as an impediment to her imagination. However, her imagination is not fed by other books either, she doesn’t like to read and, when asked, states Shakespeare as her favourite author as it tends to shut down that conversation. As such, her books are full of factual, plot and character errors, her writing is grand but imprecise, it’s sentimental and lofty and never, ever real. As such, it becomes very popular. There are those looking for an escapist read, and those who like to laugh at its absurdities. Angel herself has no sense of humour about her books, or about anything in life. She marches on, convinced of her own brilliance and reshaping everything in her life to fit what she wants it to be.
That’s essentially the rest of the novel. Angel’s career as a novelist rises and falls but she is convinced she’s a great artist. She falls in love with a man her complete opposite, who seeks truth in his painting but lacks confidence in himself. She is no good for him and he never paints again after marrying. When he dies (accident? suicide?) she remembers their marriage in the same lofty, vague and general terms as she does her own writing.
When she’s old, she ends up becoming an eccentric, rattling around in the rapidly disintegrating Paradise House, which she bought for herself at her height. There is never a moment of self-realisation or self-questioning. She is the same strong but brittle person she was at fifteen, having lived but not really learnt anything.
In some ways it’s hard to think what the purpose or message of this novel is. There’s no grand theme or plot, it just presents us with the very interesting character of Angel and lets us watch her, which was enough for me.
curlyjessreads's review against another edition
2.0
I read this for my book club.
I have to finish a book once I start, but that is one of the only reasons I finished this book! I really did not like it. It was weird and confusing at the beginning. The main character is unlikeable throughout! Not sure why it is considered a great book. A few of the ladies in my book club didn't finish it (they don't have the same problem I do!).
I have to finish a book once I start, but that is one of the only reasons I finished this book! I really did not like it. It was weird and confusing at the beginning. The main character is unlikeable throughout! Not sure why it is considered a great book. A few of the ladies in my book club didn't finish it (they don't have the same problem I do!).