The Third Angel: A Novel
by Alice Hoffman
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Book Summary Information
Author: Alice HoffmanEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Format: Deckle Edge
Published: 2008-04-08
ISBN: 0307393852
Number of pages: 288
Publisher: Crown
Book Reviews of The Third Angel: A Novel
Book Review: "Love is ancient and mysterious, and you can't mess with it."
Summary: 4 Stars
Unrequited love and betrayal interlaces its way though Alice Hoffman's three-pronged contemporary ghost story. The Third Angel is about how life and death - and that shady place in between - can affect three people in remarkably different ways. A literal smorgasbord of finally wrought observations, Hoffman's characters are linked to the Lion Park Hotel in Knightsbridge, an argument in Room 707, and the shocking ramifications of an affair that went horribly wrong.
The book begins as Maddie grudgingly arrives in London from New York to attend to her sister, Allie's wedding. Recently the two sisters have grown apart, with Maddie quite dismissive of Allie's too-handsome fiancé Paul Lewis, surprised that her sister, usually so practical and smart had fallen for such a vacuous man like him. But attraction of course is a very strange thing; indeed it has a life of its own. When one night at dinner, Maddie looks over at Paul, she feels something go through her and there's a moment of doubt, the thud of the pulse, "the quick image of the disaster to come."
Maddie views heartbreak is a game and nothing more, a little flirting behind Allie's back, but when she discovers that Paul is dying of cancer, this unforeseen circumstance causes her to question her loyalty to her sister, and also for Allie to question her commitment to Paul. Meanwhile, Paul's mother Frieda Lewis is only nineteen when in 1966 she comes to London from Reading to work for four months at the Lion's Park Hotel. Frieda refuses to follow the path of her father, happy to pursue a measure of independence working as a maid rather than going to university to study medicine.
When she unexpectedly becomes infatuated with James, an ambitious pop singer, she identifies a kindred spirit, for James is also the odd man out. This vulnerable and brittle man has spent his life battling pain, lately snorting heroin with his wealthy girlfriend Stella to block out most of his troubles. But ironically it is Frieda not Stella who becomes James' promised muse, Frieda giving him an excuse to unburden his soul. Both of them end up bound to each other by equal parts adoration and affection, their mutual feelings proving to be much deeper and more urgent than either of them expected.
Only when the bookish and taciturn twelve-year-old Lucy Green arrives in London in 1953 with her father Ben to attend the wedding of Bryn, her step mother Charlotte's sister, does Hoffman's multi-layered narrative come full circle and we learn the mystery surrounding the events in room 707 and the significance of the drunken Teddy Healy and why he hangs around the hotel every night. It is Teddy and Lucy who have the most connection to the events that took place in 707, the eventual meeting signifying a total connection of thought and emotion. Part of the attraction of Lucy is that she's extremely aware for her age and she spends a lot of time wondering why people were put on the earth and how she might right the wrongs of the world.
All of Hoffman's characters are plagued by the irrationalities of love: Maddie and Allie are almost torn asunder by their conflicting desires for Paul; Frieda finds herself encapsulated by London of swinging sixties, with her thick black eyeliner, miniskirts, and blue jeans with hoop earrings, all to attract James, her one true love. Even Lucy, believes in love letters, in romance and in destiny, becoming a go-between for the dashingly handsome Michael Macklin when he asks her to deliver letters to Bryn, Charlotte's sister, the woman he's ultimately in love with.
Throughout the course of this novel, these people are forced to bear enormous personal loss, but they also discover the colossal power of love and acceptance where love often has nothing to do with the here and now and where the "third angel" of mercy and tolerance constantly watches over them. As Lucy's story brings the narrative full circle, many of the peripheral characters undertake a reevaluation of their lives, especially the broken-down Teddy Healey as he laments his actions on that fateful night and the woman he ultimately lost to death. Mike Leonard June 08.
Summary of The Third Angel: A Novel
?Alice Hoffman is my favorite writer.??Jodi Picoult
Alice Hoffman is one of our most beloved writers. Here on Earth was an Oprah Book Club selection. Practical Magic and Aquamarine were both bestselling books and Hollywood movies. Her novels have received mention as notable books of the year by the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, and People magazine, and her short fiction and nonfiction have appeared in the New York Times, The Boston Globe Magazine, Kenyon Review, Redbook, Architectural Digest, Gourmet, and Self.
Now, in The Third Angel, Hoffman weaves a magical and stunningly original story that charts the lives of three women in love with the wrong men: Headstrong Madeleine Heller finds herself hopelessly attracted to her sister?s fiancé. Frieda Lewis, a doctor?s daughter and a runaway, becomes the muse of an ill-fated rock star. And beautiful Bryn Evans is set to marry an Englishman while secretly obsessed with her ex-husband. At the heart of the novel is Lucy Green, who blames herself for a tragic accident she witnessed at the age of twelve, and who spends four decades searching for the Third Angel?the angel on earth who will renew her faith.
Brilliantly evoking London?s King?s Road, Knightsbridge, and Kensington while moving effortlessly back in time, The Third Angel is a work of startling beauty about the unique, alchemical nature of love.
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