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writing pool
A Collection of Reviews, Short Stories and Essays
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Tuesday, September 25, 2007  Falling Angels by Tracy Chevalier tells the tale of the fortune of two prominent families through different perspectives—wives, husbands, mother-in-laws, children, servants and even a gravedigger's son.Set in London at the beginning of the 20th century, the book depicts the relationships between two upper-middle class households expressing radically different views—the Colemans and the Waterhouses. The latter revere the late Queen Victoria and cling to Victorian traditions while the Colemans look forward to a more modern society. Their paths cross one fateful day at the cemetery wherein, to the mothers’ mutual dismay, their lives are inextricably linked by the instant bond of bestfriendship among their daughters, the sensitive and soft-spoken Maude and the melodramatic Lavinia. Their graves, coincidently located beside the other, perfectly depict the differences between the two families. The Colemans’, adorned only by a simple urn, bespoke silent elegance. The Waterhouses, with their preference for more dramatic pieces, adorned their family tomb with a rather outstanding statue of an angel. Upon that first fateful encounter, it was not until a year later that the two friends meet again as both mothers did everything in their power to keep the two friends apart. It wasn’t until the Waterhouses moved to the house right behind the Colemans’ three-story mansion that Maude and Lavinia rekindled their friendship. The two families’ reaction toward the other, save for their daughters, speaks volumes. There will always be that degree of resistance to an entity that is drastically different from one’s own. Change, although the one thing constant in life, will never be readily accepted at first glance. Such was the case for these two families as it wasn’t until a dreadful tragedy occurred that they managed to somehow see past their differences. What I loved about the book was the shifting perspectives of the characters. Every individual in the story played the lead character in his/her life, something that applies to all of us. It is quite different from Chevalier's Girl with a Pearl Earring, which I absolutely adored, where we only see Griet's side of the story. Here we see the different points of view of all the characters and realize how even the smallest degree of miscommunication can ruin even the strongest of relationships. A daughter ends up resenting her mother for thinking the latter placed more value on her suffragette causes when all the mother wanted was for her daughter to enjoy the end results of her actions. A husband pushes his wife into "swinging" partners thinking this will make her jealous enough to "come back" to him; instead his genius idea leads her to the arms of another man. Theirs are lives ruled by deceit and scandal. However, they are masters in upholding facades as they manage to lead the public into thinking nothing out of the ordinary is happening in their “happy” lives. The plot, if anything, is complex and heavy. The insights provided by the number of characters in the story helps appreciate it even more. It perfectly depicts life as experienced by the different individuals present in that particularly rich period in history. This is a story that tells us of the lengths human beings would go to save face and protect their reputations, a story ripe with intrigue and disillusionment. This is also a story that tells us eventually, even the strongest of foundations crumble as the façade is destroyed by the sheer madness and weight of the events that started to happen—the volatile emergence of the women’s rights movement, the divulgence of long-kept secrets, broken promises, and finally, the tragic demise of the one person who remained innocent up until the eve of her death. As the greater part of the story revolves around the cemetery, it touches on the topic of death a lot, which I think we ought to look in the eye at one point or another. The one thing inevitable in life and we strive to turn our backs against it. In my opinion, one could never really experience the most out of life unless one confronts the very reality of death. It will happen. No matter how much we work to avoid it, it is the one possibility in life that is bound to happen. We cannot escape it. One must look death right in the eye as it gives us that sense of urgency, that drive, to really make the most out of our stay here in this planet. The more we run away from the reality of death, the more we are running away from living life to the fullest. Life and death are a tandem. One cannot experience one without the other.
posted by Tricia @ 4:06 AM 0 Comments:
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