What We Thought: Falling Angels by Tracy Chevalier

Falling Angels

by Tracy Chevalier

“When daddy saw the angel on the grave next to ours, he cried, 'What the devil!'"
-- from Falling Angels, when Maude Coleman saw the marker on the family plot of where Lavinia and Ivy May Waterhouse were standing.

Readers compared Falling Angels to The Age of Desire, a previous book club selection by Jennie Fields. They were interested in the descriptions of life in Victorian England on the cusp of the Edwardian era, but felt they were not detailed enough to satisfy interest in historical fiction. Some were disappointed in the author’s treatment of the characters. They expected a book more like Girl with the Pearl Earring. A few readers said that based on their experience with Falling Angels they would not care to read any more of Chevalier’s works. Others said that they enjoyed her books and plan to read more of them. The majority of the group was not enthusiastic about this month’s selection.

Although the behavior of the characters was typical of the time period, the discussion centered on why they acted the way they did. People are a product of their times and some are rebellious and some go along with the status quo. The majority of the discussion was about funerals, burial customs then and now, cremation and urn design. The beginning of the suffragette and women’s rights movement was briefly discussed and then the group moved on to dissect the marriages of Kitty and Gertrude Waterhouse and how their personalities influenced relationships with their husbands and each other. The supporting characters of the grave digger’s child, Simon, and Jenny, the maid, interested them more than the wealthy women and their husbands.

One reader summed up the book saying it was about children playing in a cemetery, suffragettes, and dying. The book is dark and brooding and, some said, very British, even though the author is an American. There was talk about the significance of falling angels in the title. The children said that they believed that shooting stars were angels carrying messages to the living. Readers agreed that the broken angel grave monument was proof of mortality, and then there was more talk about cremation. 

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This Month's Selection: Falling Angels by Tracy Chevalier

Falling Angels

by Tracy Chevalier

Tuesday, June 30

6:30 p.m.

January 1901, the day after Queen Victoria’s death: Two families visit neighboring graves in a fashionable London cemetery. One is decorated with a sentimental angel, the other an elaborate urn. The Waterhouses revere the late Queen and cling to Victorian traditions; the Colemans look forward to a more modern society. To their mutual distaste, the families are inextricably linked when their daughters become friends behind the tombstones. And worse, befriend the gravedigger’s son.

As the girls grow up and the new century finds its feet, Britain emerges from the shadows of  Victorian values to a golden Edwardian summer. It is then that the beautiful but frustrated Mrs Coleman makes a bid for greater personal freedom, with disastrous consequences, and the lives of the Colemans and the Waterhouses are changed forever.

Pick up a copy of this month's selection and add your thoughts to the discussion in the comments!

What We Thought: The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin

Evening Readers

Tuesday, April 25

The Orchardist

by Amanda Coplin

“The roses you gave me kept me awake with the sound of their petals falling.” -- Jack Gilbert, an American poet, on the front page of the book

Amanda Coplin’s debut novel was a hit with the Evening Readers. All remarked positively about how the author’s beautiful writing crafted an aura of enchantment. It was as if the narrator was sitting high up in the orchard and spinning a complex fairy tale of characters that were influenced by the time and place of early 20^th-century Washington state in the rural Pacific Northwest.

Readers were captivated by the how the threads of the characters and their lives were woven together as if in a dream. Exact details about how people went about the routine business of daily life were not clearly spelled out but readers didn’t care and suspended belief about how things were working out. There was a greater focus on the interior lives and motives of characters which led to the thoughtfulness of readers' interest and relaxed their critical reading. Readers commented that the characters didn’t seem real and were portrayed as if through a filter.

Conversation was centered on what ifs and how alternative outcomes could have been influenced. In the end it was decided that the story went in the direction that was preordained. Other conclusions would not have fit. Several questions were asked:

 “What happened to Talmadge’s sister, Elsbeth, and could she have been related to the girls, Jane and Della?”

"What exactly was Talmadge’s heritage, could it have been Native American?”

“Why did Talmadge’s paternal feelings for Della change from passive protection to active involvement in the latter stages of her life?”

“Why didn’t Della stay in the orchard with Talmadge where she could have had a sheltered and peaceful life?”

"Could Della have found Elsbeth in her travels?”

“Why was the prison storyline necessary to the flow of the story?”

The story was not just about Della, but her story drove the discussion about relationships including that of her niece Angelene. An essential part of the story was William Talmadge’s relationship with Angelene and how it differed with that of Della’s life in the orchard. She was raised differently from Della and Jane. Her life became something beautiful out of the tragedy of the older girls. The topic of blood relationship and family bonds of unrelated individuals was noted by readers. Does blood matter, and how does it influence behavior, were other questions that remained unanswered.

The male characters were as well drawn as the females. Clee and his band of Native American horse traders fit into the fabric of the story. Everyone thought the Wrangler sidekick was a neat guy. Caroline Middey -- friend, neighbor and confidante -- was the dominant female presence in the life of Talmadge and his girls. She was as kind and generous with her talents and friendship as anyone could have been. Readers praised her highly. Michaelson was the one truly malevolent character in the story and nobody expressed sympathy or understanding for him and his horrific life.

The evening’s discussion concluded with a question about the author’s intention in writing the story. Did the author plan for the intense introspection and judgment that resulted, or was she so talented a writer that this naturally flowed from the story to the reader?

Have you read The Orchardist? What did you think of it? Please add your comments to the discussion! (In case you're new to commenting, please remember to wait a moment after clicking  "publish" so that you can click on the checkbox, proving that you're not a spambot!)