“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.
I don't think this is the best Alice Hoffman, but I certainly enjoyed it more than Blue Diary, Skylight Confessions and some of her other recent books. I did enjoy the background info on some of the characters as she went back and forth from the present to the past and back again, but the ending, I thought, was very inconclusive and flat.
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This work is somewhat confusing. It leaves the reader saying, so, what was the point of that?
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Unquestionably, Hoffman is one of America's five best novelists now writing. Her use of language and her gift for storytelling are both stunning. She sees beauty in words; a phrase or sentence from her pen can have such impact that the reader is forced to stop in admiration for the craft and the insight. Her stories invariably bring the reader to tears.
Although her early works are notable, she reached a new level with "The Probable Future", and has turned out one stunning novel after another - until now. "The Third Angel" is good, but not great, and great is what we've been expecting and getting from Hoffman with "Probable Future," "Blackbird House," and "Ice Queen."
What sets Hoffman apart is her use of magic realism, so utterly convincing and captivating. Unfortunately, it doesn't work for me in "The Third Angel." I felt she was rushing for a deadline. Ultimately, this is a hiccup in her oeuvre, and I can't wait to read her next novel.
