MADreads

Angel among us

June 9th, 2008 Lesley - Central

Alice Hoffman’s latest novel, The Third Angel, tells the story of three women at important moments in their lives.

The first part of the book finds Maddy Heller at London’s Lion Park Hotel during the summer of 1999 as she prepares for her sister Allie’s wedding.  Allie is the author of an award-winning children’s book, The Heron’s Wife, and her life has been made Maddy envious.  Maddy’s sibling rivalry results in an act of betrayal in a brief affair with Paul, Allie’s fiancee.  By the end of summer, as the wedding approaches, a tragedy changes everything.

Section two of the story shifts back to 1966 London where 19-year-old Frieda Lewis (Paul’s future mother) finds herself working as a maid at the Lion Park Hotel instead of following her father’s plans for her to be a doctor.  While working and living at the hotel, Frieda becomes involved with Jamie, a junkie rock star, who is engaged to Stella, a wealthy girl from Kensington.  Frieda’s part in the story includes tales of her journeys with her country doctor father as he makes his house calls in their rural village.  Her father believed in three angels.  The Angel of Life rode along with them on most nights, the Angel of Death who appeared when there was no hope and the Third Angel who walked among the living undetected but in need of human compassion.

Part three shifts further back to 1952 when 12 -year-old Lucy Green (the future mother of Maddy and Allie) is in London with her father and stepmother for a wedding.  The Green family also stayed at the Lion Park Hotel where the bookish Lucy becomes an innocent bystander in a tragic love triangle which results in the appearance of the hotel’s ghost. 

I found this latest Hoffman novel to be one of her best.  The the inter-relationships among the characters over time and place added depth and her trademark references to a magical and mystical world were delightful.

Entry Filed under: Literary Fiction, Recreational Fiction