Falling Angels

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The two families visiting the cemetery to view their respective neighbouring graves were divided even more by social class than by taste. And furthermore – and even more unsuitably – become involved in the life of the gravedigger’s muddied son.

The chapter set in the bomb shelter is a stand-out, absolutely absurd and heartbreaking and hilarious. I didn’t rush through it because I wanted to savour every page, every voice and I will admit I couldn’t have guessed the endings either. What interested me most is the transitional period between the Victorian era, with its strict social codes and elaborate commemoration of the dead, and the modern world where religion has lost its value and death is no longer celebrated. There are parts where you want to hate the father for the way he is but you also get a glimpse of the pain he is going through.

Livy's little sister Ivy May is one of the most beguiling figures of the work, but is given only two sentences of her own (and those two bring a lump to the throat).

Yet its epic sweep takes in the changing of a nation, the fight for women’s suffrage and the questioning of steadfast beliefs. A fine example of seventies suburban grotesque, despite being set in the sixties and published in the eighties. It records the siblings as they find out about a older boy sibling who died in a very traumatic way that impacts the parents immediately and the three girls through out their lives. Stuffed like a barmbrack (fruitcake to you English) with quotations from Heaney, MacNeice, the Pogues and Paul Muldoon, it will be intensely personal, lively rather than gloomy, full of literary and historical relish, and a completely glorious read. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions.But "Falling Angels" is akin to watching a car accident unfold -- you are desperate to look away, but you can't stop turning the pages. So it's not that there's really anything objectively wrong with a book that does the things this book does.