Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

The Third Angel

3.5 of 5 stars 3.50 · rating details · 5,640 ratings · 919 reviews

“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 mag...more

Hardcover, 288 pages

Published April 8th 2008 by Crown

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

Best Alice Hoffman Novel

13th out of 36 books — 183 voters

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

Favorite Magical Realist Novels

141st out of 681 books — 2,748 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

May 23, 2008 Jaclyn rated it 3 of 5 stars

I read Alice Hoffman when I was in high school and remembered liking her (esp. At Risk), but this book disappointed me. It seemed sloppy. Her writing was grand(iose) but completely without subtlety, so it didn't pack as strong a punch.

Take this sentence: "Seeing him, Frieda felt her love for her father; but she thought about how he'd betrayed them and love didn't seem quite so important." This is actually one of the more likeable examples of what I'm talking about, but imagine that style of desc...more

4 likes · like · see review

Jun 10, 2008 Julie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: literary-fiction

Alice Hoffman is a literary goddess. I loved this book. The writing is absolutely gorgeous and it's one of those novels that I end up reading the last page and then starting over again. Stories of three interconnected women at crossroads in their lives are woven together in really wonderful ways. As always with Hoffman, there's a touch of supernatural and very interesting, human characters. (As an aside, I had lunch with the author - and 20 other people- a couple of years ago and she is just as...more

8 likes · like · see review

Apr 20, 2008 Marika Gillis rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

"People say there's the Angel of Life and the Angel of Death, but there's another one, too. The one who walks among us."

He could tell she was listening.

"He's nothing fierce or terrible or filled with light. He's like us, sometimes we can't even tell him apart. Sometimes we're the ones who try to save him. He's there to show us who we are. Human beings aren't gods. We make mistakes."

In this novel, Alice Hoffman tells the stories of three women entangled in unrequited love relationships. Each woma...more "People say there's the Angel of Life and the Angel of Death, but there's another one, too. The one who walks among us."

He could tell she was listening.

"He's nothing fierce or terrible or filled with light. He's like us, sometimes we can't even tell him apart. Sometimes we're the ones who try to save him. He's there to show us who we are. Human beings aren't gods. We make mistakes."

In this novel, Alice Hoffman tells the stories of three women entangled in unrequited love relationships. Each woman's story plays out very differently, however their lives are interconnected in surprising ways. Divided into three sections, Hoffman's novel begins with The Heron's Wife, the mildly disappointing (and rather slow moving) story of Maddy and Allie who are sisters in love with the same man. In Lion Park, Frieda finds herself falling in love with an unattainable rock star who is staying in the hotel where she works. The frantic, stream-of-consciousness feel to this part of the book began to draw me in more strongly than the first story, and I began to build interest and momentum for the rest of the book. In The Rules of Love, Bryn (while preparing for her upcoming wedding) turns to an unlikely 12-year-old girl for help reuniting with her former husband. The Rules of Love was compelling as Hoffman plays out the splendid story of Lucy and her father's desperate attempt to heal both her body and psyche after a traumatic life-changing experience. These tragic stories are each connected by this young child, Lucy, who will spend her life searching for 'the third angel'.

Long ago, I was a big fan of Alice Hoffman. While still living in Virginia, I read (and enjoyed) Practical Magic and Local Girls, and I was a big fan of Here On Earth when it was an Oprah Book Club selection. But, it has been years since I have read anything by this author, and I have a hard time remembering anything specific about any of the novels I have read. The Third Angel, like the others, might turn out to be just as forgettable. But, for the meantime, I remember it and I enjoyed it. The stories were increasingly impressive as I worked my way through the book and, after a disappointing beginning, I finally closed the book feeling satisfied. (less)

3 likes · like · see review

May 22, 2008 Melissa rated it 2 of 5 stars

Three women, three different eras, all in love with the wrong man. Bryn is set to marry an appropriate match, but is still completely in love with her con-man ex-husband; Frieda runs away from the prospect of a university education and falls in love with a wannabe rock star; and Maddy is head-over-heels for her sister’s fiancé.
Loving is easy – the outcomes are more complicated. Hoffman’s characters struggle with who they are; who they feel the should be; and no matter what decisions they make,...more

3 likes · like · see review

Aug 13, 2008 Lucy B rated it 3 of 5 stars

I have read quite a few of Alice Hoffman's books, my favorite being Pratical Magic. When I started this one, my first impression was that is wasn't as good as some of the others. Now that I have finished it, I did think is was really good (though still not my favorite.) The theme is pretty much the same as most of Hoffman's books - the love-obessed. There are alot of characters in different time periods, and sometimes I found it hard to keep them straight. It's worth reading to the end, though,...more

2 likes · like · see review

Feb 05, 2009 Bookmarks Magazine added it

Some readers may dismiss Hoffman as a romance writer, but "so were Flaubert, Proust, the Bronte sisters and Jane Austen," responds the Baltimore Sun. Hoffman's graceful writing, beautifully drawn characters, and intricate plots raise her work far above typical romance fare. Critics laud her ability to portray flawed humans with heart-wrenching accuracy, as well as her inclusion of her trademark characteristic magical elements

like · see review

Feb 04, 2009 Emma rated it 3 of 5 stars

[Book: The Third Angel] is divided into three parts, essentially three separate stories, though the characters are connected and the action is centered around the mysterious happenings a room on the seventh floor of the Lion Park Hotel in London. I didn't care much for the first story, which is set in the present day and involves a rivalry between two sisters. The second two stories were more enjoyable, set in the 60s and 50s, respectively, and focusing on first the mother of one of the sisters'...more

like · see review

Jan 25, 2009 BizarreLibrary rated it 5 of 5 stars

Three stories weave together through strong women. Maddy and Allie Heller are sisters who turned out very different from one another. Allie is engaged to Paul, while Maddy seems to be drawn to him. This one man teaches them a lesson. Frieda Lewis finds herself friends with an up and coming rock star. He declares her his muse and she desperately wants to be with him. Bryn Evans is about to be married. Her past catches up to her in the form of her ex-husband, whom she is still in love with. Also,...more Three stories weave together through strong women. Maddy and Allie Heller are sisters who turned out very different from one another. Allie is engaged to Paul, while Maddy seems to be drawn to him. This one man teaches them a lesson. Frieda Lewis finds herself friends with an up and coming rock star. He declares her his muse and she desperately wants to be with him. Bryn Evans is about to be married. Her past catches up to her in the form of her ex-husband, whom she is still in love with. Also, Lucy Green must find a way to forgive herself for an accident she believes she caused. All her life she keeps looking for the Third Angel to bring back her optimism in humanity.

I have read a few Alice Hoffman novels and enjoyed them, so I expected the same. My expectations were not accurate; I loved it. The story is told in three parts and are connected only in the slightest way.

The story begins with sisters Maddy and Allie. They are Americans, though Allie now lives in London and is getting married. I must admit, this part was my least favorite. These characters did not have as much attention grabbing characteristics as the other characters. Allie does peek my interest in the end with her love story.

The second part, with Frieda, is when I really became interested. We drifted back in time where the times were exciting in London. I loved reading about Frieda’s times with her rock star. It was exciting and I easily felt the same emotions Frieda did while she discovered parts of herself she never knew existed.

The final story is of Lucy Green. She is young and visiting London for the first time, so it is refreshing to see the city through the eyes of a newcomer. Her adventures through the city left me wanting to travel there myself. As this is the last part, the reader can see even more of the connections coming together.

Hoffman is an excellent writer, this I have known, but it is clearly evident in this novel. She effortlessly goes back in time, telling each story even better than the one prior. All of the stories are tied together. That is my favorite thing to happen in a book. So many details are intertwined so beautifully, that I was frequently impressed by her skill. As new connected details emerged, I would have to pause to think of the intricacy of putting them together.

All in all, I loved the book. So much so, that it is now my favorite of hers. Practical Magic was my favorite and it is a close second. I look forward to reading her next novel as well as the rest of her older ones.

(less)

1 like · like · see review

Nov 20, 2008 Rachel rated it 3 of 5 stars

I'd consider Alice Hoffman a guilty pleasure, except when she's at her best, there's nothing to feel guilty about. Her magical-realism style sometimes defines the "suspension of disbelief" all writers strive for.

But I didn't think The Third Angel was her best. (Publisher's Weekly disagrees; they gave it a starred review).

The story, told in reverse-chronological order by three narrators, starts with a woman who is wracked with guilt over having slept with her sister's fiance. This first section...more

like · see review

Jun 16, 2012 Steve Lindahl rated it 5 of 5 stars

Alice Hoffman was recommended by a friend. I read The River King and enjoyed it, so I decided to try another of her novels. I chose The Third Angel because it had the highest rating among the Hoffman novels that were available through the NC digital library. I didn't like it as much as The River King but still feel it is an excellent book. Perhaps my fondness for The River King is due to the fact that it was the first of Hoffman's books I read.

Hoffman writes about love, but not in a way that car...more Alice Hoffman was recommended by a friend. I read The River King and enjoyed it, so I decided to try another of her novels. I chose The Third Angel because it had the highest rating among the Hoffman novels that were available through the NC digital library. I didn't like it as much as The River King but still feel it is an excellent book. Perhaps my fondness for The River King is due to the fact that it was the first of Hoffman's books I read.

Hoffman writes about love, but not in a way that carries me into a standard, predictable story. She makes me think and she weaves supernatural aspects into her plots in a way that makes them as realistic as the rest of her plot lines. In The Third Angel she speaks about the angel of life, the angel of death, and a third angel: “The one who walked among us, who sometimes lay sick in bed, begging for human compassion.” This third angel comes to us readers in a few forms throughout the story including a blue heron, who is a character in a children's novel written by Allie, one of the characters in the first part of the book, and a ghost that haunts “The Lion Park Hotel,” an English inn that is the setting for much of the book.

The Third Angel is written in three parts. The first part is the story of two sisters, Maddy and Allie, who have a complicated relationship based on love and jealousy. The next two parts go back in time to cover the stories of Frieda, Allie's mother-in-law and of Lucy, Allie and Maddy's mother. All the stories are about relationships these women experienced that didn't work out the way they'd hoped. I liked the choice Hoffman made to have each part of the novel step back a little further in time.

There were times when the characters in this story made choices that I cringed over, especially Maddy in the first part who betrays her sister in a way that was particularly cruel. Hoffman clearly wanted me to forgive Maddy, but I had more trouble doing that than Allie did. I imagine other readers felt the same. In the second part Frieda gives something of her talent to a man who doesn't deserve her sacrifice and in the third part Lucy, who is a young girl at the time of her story, attempts to help a couple get together and has to deal with the consequences.

The Third Angel is a story about the complications of life. I recommend it for people who want a book that makes them think.

Steve Lindahl, author of Motherless Soul

(less)

like · see review

Dec 18, 2011 Charlotte Castle rated it 2 of 5 stars

Where do I start?

The book begins with a protaganist so unlikable that I nearly gave up four pages in. Self-absorbed, hideously disloyal, self-pitying and narcisstic, I couldn't have cared less what happened to her and was mightly relieved when we moved onto our second female heroine.

Freida is entirely more likeable and at this point in the story we begin to dig deeper into the ghost story that lies at the heart of this book. My interest was peaked and yet - and yet I found myself skim-reading. T...more

2 likes · like · see review

Oct 01, 2011 Kathryn rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is by far my favorite of Alice Hoffman's books. It's one of the few that I would read again. Amazing.

Why recreate what was already said in the NYT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/boo...

From NYT Book Review:
“The Third Angel” unfolds in reverse, starting in 1999 with the arrival in London of a brittle New York lawyer, Maddy Heller, for the wedding of her older (and, she believes, favored) sister, Allie. The novel then steps back to the swinging London of 1966, a magnet for bright rebels li...more

like · see review

Aug 19, 2011 Marion Marchetto rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: alice-hoffman

This latest offering by Ms. Hoffman is a generational piece whose roots are in the 1950s. The backdrop for most of the story is the Lion Park hotel in London, a second-rate hotel that is haunted.

Our first encounter with sisters Maddie and Allie uncovers a betrayal by the younger sister who lives a care-free existence based on the fact that she believes that she was an unloved child. Allie, the older sister, has pretty much done what was expected of her because she has always been the caretaker;...more This latest offering by Ms. Hoffman is a generational piece whose roots are in the 1950s. The backdrop for most of the story is the Lion Park hotel in London, a second-rate hotel that is haunted.

Our first encounter with sisters Maddie and Allie uncovers a betrayal by the younger sister who lives a care-free existence based on the fact that she believes that she was an unloved child. Allie, the older sister, has pretty much done what was expected of her because she has always been the caretaker; first when her mother had cancer and later when her fiance suffers from the same disease. She realizes only too late that she truly loves her fiance and moves swiftly to makes things right only to lose him too.

Freida, the fiance's mother, takes up the middle of the book. Her story is set in the 1960s and brought back for this reader 'the look' that was so popular then in London: overly made-up eyes, short mini-skirts, high boots, swingy music, free love, etc. Hoping to escape from the dreariness of a rural youth she makes her way to the Lion Park hotel where she works as a maid. Soon, though, she becomes the muse for a rock-star wanna-be who is hooked on drugs and has a very Paris Hilton-like girlfriend. In the end, Freida puts all of the very trendy and drug-filled life behind her and returns to her rural home where she marries the boyfriend who had gone on to college. She goes on to nursing school herself and lives a very fulfilling life in spite of the ghostly happenings that populated her time working at the Lion Park.

The thread that sews it all together is Lucy Green. Lucy is the mother of the two young women we first met at the outset of the story. Inadvertently she is the one who caused the problems that have brought about the haunting of the Lion Park's seventh floor. Having witnessed the deaths of the people involved she withdraws to a secret place inside herself just as she did when her own mother passed away. It takes love in all its simple complexities to bring Lucy into her own once more.

This book is a very easy read despite the complexities of the characters we meet. I read it in two sittings and would have accomplished it in one had I not fallen asleep at nearly two in the morning.

I give this story four stars simply because I've enjoyed some of Ms. Hoffman's other offerings more.

Note: you're bound to fall in love with Millie.

(less)

like · see review

Mar 07, 2011 Chandler rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is the second Alice Hoffman book I have read and I liked "The Third Angel". It started off with a myopic bratty young woman (Maddy) who falls in love (lust?) with her sister's fiance, Paul but her sister Allie does not love Paul (or does she?). I found this part of the book tedious and soul sucking...

However in the hotel that Maddy stays in for her sister's wedding in England appears to be haunted!!! This immediately caught my attention. The story weaves around Maddy, Allie, their mother an...more

like · see review

Jul 24, 2010 Ali rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I've read some quite poor reviews of this on Amazon, which I think are a little unfair and certainly don't fit with experience of this book. Throughout the book there are several obvious things which link the three stories in this book, we meet, after all, several characters in each of these three time periods of the stories - and gradually come to see what brought each of them to where they are at the start of the book. The women in The Third Angel are each drawn to unsuitable men, and as alway...more

like · see review

Feb 10, 2010 Renee rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

I wouldn't have picked this book up if it weren't for a local library book club. I read Practical Magic lo those many years ago, so I looked forward to The Third Angel. I knew that I'd been less than impressed when I'd looked at some of Hoffman's other novels, but I was game to give this one a try.

It's probably telling that I kept falling asleep while trying to read the book, and that I didn't finish it before the book club met again yesterday. I renewed the book, though, wanting to read it to t...more

like · see review

Jul 17, 2009 RNOCEAN rated it 5 of 5 stars

In this elegant and stunning novel, veteran heartstring-puller Hoffman (Here on Earth; Seventh Heaven) examines the lives of three women at different crossroads in their lives, tying their London-centered stories together in devastating retrospect. High powered New York attorney Maddy Heller arrives in 1999 London having had an affair with Paul, her sister Allie's fiancé,; she must now cope with the impending marriage, and with Paul's terminal illness-which echoes the girls' mother's cancer duri...more

like · see review

Jul 07, 2009 Donna rated it 3 of 5 stars

The book is the stroy of 3 women in different times in London - Maddy, a prominent attorney, Fieda who had an ill fated affair with a song writer and leaves London to marry and have a son Paul, and Lucy who at 12 was the center of an ill fated love triangle that lead to the death of 2 people and that event later lead to her distancing herself throughout her life from everyone including her daughters Ann and Maddy.
The book opens when Maddy arrives in London to assist with preparations for the we...more

like · see review

May 20, 2009 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: novels

I've read quite a few Alice Hoffman books and this isn't my favorite, but I would recommend it for a relaxing read. She tells the stories of three women in three long chapters, set in 1999, 1966 and 1952. The central characters in each story appear as peripheral characters in other stories and the three tales are connected by a tragic accident that occurs in a small London hotel. I particularly enjoyed the middle section about Frieda, a doctor's daughter who escapes her small town for a maid's j...more

like · see review

Jan 29, 2013 Cheryl Gatling added it

Shelves: ordinal-numbers

The blurb says that this book is about three women in love with the wrong man, but the lives of all the characters in this book are so intertwined, that they make up one intricate knot of a story, not three separate stories. If there is a center, it is the Lion Park in London, a rather seedy hotel, and how one of the rooms on the seventh floor came to be haunted. Yes, there is plenty of doomed love, more than enough to go around, and plenty of death as well, but the current of sadness is often t...more

like · see review

Jun 27, 2010 Denise rated it 4 of 5 stars

4.0 out of 5 stars Haunting and beautiful..., June 27, 2010
By Denise "DC" (Missouri, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)
This review is from: The Third Angel: A Novel (Paperback)
I've read many of Alice Hoffman's novels and each is a story that lingers long after the last page has been turned and the book closed. This one is particularly haunting and I've found myself doing something I rarely do -- rereading the book from the opening chapter. Skimming to a particular segment and then leafing th...more

4.0 out of 5 stars Haunting and beautiful..., June 27, 2010
By Denise "DC" (Missouri, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)
This review is from: The Third Angel: A Novel (Paperback)
I've read many of Alice Hoffman's novels and each is a story that lingers long after the last page has been turned and the book closed. This one is particularly haunting and I've found myself doing something I rarely do -- rereading the book from the opening chapter. Skimming to a particular segment and then leafing through pages of one of the parts of this novel. The book is divided into three segments, telling the stories from the viewpoint of three very different women during significant events of their lives. The setting is London, in fact at a hotel called Lion Park -- where people go when they want complete privacy -- and the time periods when these events take place are 1999, 1966, and 1952. The book seems to be in a style such that it can be read forward or backward -- and give the reader a different perspective or reaction to the story because of what the reader discovers when starting "at the beginning" with the oldest character, Lucy Green, first.

The three women at the heart of the story are connected though it's difficult to piece that together during the first read through of this novel. Each experiences something about love that devastates her. Coming to terms with the heartbreak and the loss is the question each seeks to answer: is love simple or is it complicated?

Maddy Heller -- falls in love with the man her sister is to marry.

Frieda Lewis -- falls in love with a heroin-addicted wanna be rock star who is in love with another woman.

Lucy Green -- is unwittingly involved in a love triangle that impairs her ability to believe in anything.

At the heart of these interconnected stories is the concept of The Third Angel. What does this angel represent? Frieda's father, a physician, tells her that there are three angels who ride with him in the back of his car on the way to see patients. The Angel of Life and The Angel of Death are self-explanatory; and then there's the Third Angel that represents humanity, love, suffering, redemption, faith, and hope. It's the angel, in disguise on earth, that helps human beings "embrace the transforming nature of love."

This is not a happy or uplifting book in many ways. It is a little depressing and brought me to tears sometimes while reading. The prose is beautiful and Hoffman can certainly turn a phrase that is, at times, poetic. The book, however, is beautiful and the stories that the women tell -- of their encounters with The Third Angel -- that will haunt you. I recommend it. (less)

1 like · like · see review

Jan 19, 2010 Rachel rated it 2 of 5 stars

While Alice Hoffman has been one of my favorite authors for some time now, this book was slightly disappointing.

First off let me state that the scenery in this book is phenomenal. Leave it to Hoffman to paint a picture for us so vivid, that we feel like we are indeed there with the characters.

Character development is also well done, another one of Hoffman's positive attributes. However, the stories in this novel fall completely flat around such stand alone characters. Stories were never really...more

like · see review

Aug 17, 2009 Lori rated it 4 of 5 stars

Good so far -- I am almost done. Alice Hoffman is an interesting writer. I don't think I get all the symbolism within the story though.

I thought that the layout of the book was interesting. Each of the three sections was broken up into different time periods within the lives of the main characters. It didn't bring them all together in the end but you come to understand how they are all interrelated. I am still not entirely sure who the Third Angel was.

I really did like the different characters a...more

like · see review

Dec 28, 2012 Pam rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Hoffman fans

As with all Alice Hoffman's novels, in order to enjoy it, I think you just have to relax into the story. It is not always going to make sense to everyone and some people will hate her books while others will love them. I always feel pretty much the same about them and I have read at least 50% of her novels. I can't go back now and remember what I liked or disliked about them but something kept me reading her even though I'm not very good at getting "magic realism" which is what her books usually...more

like · see review

Jul 01, 2012 Machel rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

A sister's story: Alley & Maddey, a ghost, cancer and love. page 91 already. Looking forward to finding the 3rd angel...

I must say when Paul died in the hospital bed at 5:22 a.m. and Alley tried to grab his spirit as it left the room with her clumsy hands, a melancholia came over me and I had wished that their fate had been quite different than the quick hospital wedding ceremony and then shortly after he died. 96 pages now.

**Just finished section with Freida. I think Frieda's part of the s...more

like · see review

Jul 20, 2009 Danielle rated it 3 of 5 stars

Eh. This book was ok, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. It was split into 3 parts: 3 women are in love with the wrong man, 3 doomed weddings, & 3 series of deaths. I thought the way the book was written was great and the plot was pretty good (although I wasn't a huge fan of the haunted hotel situation that was a recurring theme). It was the type of book that had seemingly unrelated characters, but as the story moves along, you realize everyone is connected in some small way. Unfortunate...more

like · see review

Dec 22, 2008 Candice rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was not my favorite Alice Hoffman book, but I did like it. I liked the way she had it structured - three separate stories with links to each other and going backward in time. The first story takes place in 1999 and involves two American sisters. One sister lives in London, has just written a children's book, and is about to be married to an Englishman. The other sister has journeyed to England for the wedding.

The second story, taking place in 1966, has as its main character the mother of th...more

like · see review

Feb 04, 2011 Jennifer rated it 2 of 5 stars

This book was quite a disappointment. Alice Hoffman is one of my favorite authors and I expected a lot from this book, as I do of all her books. But right from the first page I knew there was trouble. I didn't like the voice of the first main character, Maddy. And as I learned more about Maddy (we do learn a little bit), the less I liked her character. I found her to be shallow, jealous, self-centered and very annoying. And what she does is despicable.

The book is sectioned into 3 parts focusing...more

1 like · like · see review

Jun 09, 2011 Danielle rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: deep

I was about to take another book off the library shelf when I saw this one. I haven't read it (though I've read many of hers), and it sounds good. And it's short.

ADDENDUM

I almost quit this book - it just wasn't involving me and wasn't what I was expecting. But I was almost through the first section, and thought I'd finish that section and get into the next section, and see if it got better . . . and it did! I'm hooked now (about 1/3 of the way through), really enjoying it.

FINAL UPDATE

I stayed up...more I was about to take another book off the library shelf when I saw this one. I haven't read it (though I've read many of hers), and it sounds good. And it's short.

ADDENDUM

I almost quit this book - it just wasn't involving me and wasn't what I was expecting. But I was almost through the first section, and thought I'd finish that section and get into the next section, and see if it got better . . . and it did! I'm hooked now (about 1/3 of the way through), really enjoying it.

FINAL UPDATE

I stayed up way too late a couple of nights to finish this book and I really liked it. It had some beautiful passages and some interesting characters. However, it was a bit confusing - many of the characters intersect in the book, and it's written in reverse chronological order, which makes it harder to follow the connections (I even made myself a little chart, but it didn't help). Also, this is a tiny quibble, I think the description on the back of the book is misleading, which actually contributed a little bit to my confusion.

It also felt like a chapter was missing - there were several relationships that I thought would get more attention - we never found out how they "ended" sort of. I also thought the pacing wasn't perfect - there were sections that were wonderful, but some that dragged and didn't seem to contribute to the overall themes of the book.

But I'm glad I read it, and the people in it will stick with me. It might even be worth reading again - with a better understanding of how the people are connected, I'm sure I would get a lot more out of it. It would be a great book club book because I'd really like to discuss the many relationships and philosophies and symbolisms that the book packs into its relatively brief length.

ADDENDUM

I went back and reread the first section of the book, and it makes so much more sense now and is *so* much more meaningful. I'm actually wondering why the author reversed the order of the three sections of the book. I would recommend to anyone who reads the book to read them in chronological order - 1999, 1966, 1952. (less)

like · see review

Apr 19, 2009 Marion rated it 5 of 5 stars

I always get excited when I find that a new Alice Hoffman novel is out and this one is as good or better than her very best books. The day I discovered her writing was like Christmas and my birthday all rolled into one. I love her mix of nature/fantasy/myth/magic. When people ask me my favorite authors, she's always on top of the list and I say rather wistfully, "I honestly wish I'd never read even one of her books yet so I could discover her all over again!"

I like the way she told this beautif...more

like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend it | Stats | Recent status updates

combine
Other Editions (20)

More editions...

Videos About This Book

Add a comment

Genres

Magical Realism

28 users

Book Club

25 users

Adult Fiction

17 users

Womens Fiction > Chick Lit

12 users

Novels

10 users

Adult

10 users

Contemporary

9 users

Romance

8 users

Literary Fiction

7 users

Fantasy

6 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Alice Hoffman

Alice Hoffman was born in New York City on March 16, 1952 and grew up on Long Island. After graduating from high school in 1969, she attended Adelphi University, from which she received a BA, and then received a Mirrellees Fellowship to the Stanford University Creative Writing Center, which she attended in 1973 and 74, receiving an MA in creative writing. She currently lives in Boston and New York...more Alice Hoffman was born in New York City on March 16, 1952 and grew up on Long Island. After graduating from high school in 1969, she attended Adelphi University, from which she received a BA, and then received a Mirrellees Fellowship to the Stanford University Creative Writing Center, which she attended in 1973 and 74, receiving an MA in creative writing. She currently lives in Boston and New York.

Hoffman’s first novel, PROPERTY OF, was written at the age of twenty-one, while she was studying at Stanford, and published shortly thereafter by Farrar Straus and Giroux. She credits her mentor, professor and writer Albert J. Guerard, and his wife, the writer Maclin Bocock Guerard, for helping her to publish her first short story in the magazine Fiction. Editor Ted Solotaroff then contacted her to ask if she had a novel, at which point she quickly began to write what was to become PROPERTY OF, a section of which was published in Mr. Solotaroff’s magazine, American Review.

Since that remarkable beginning, Alice Hoffman has become one of our most distinguished novelists. She has published a total of sixteen novels, two books of short fiction, and eight books for children and young adults. Her novel, HERE ON EARTH, an Oprah Book Club choice, was a modern reworking of some of the themes of Emily Bronte’s masterpiece Wuthering Heights. PRACTICAL MAGIC was made into a Warner film starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. Her novel, AT RISK, which concerns a family dealing with AIDS, can be found on the reading lists of many universities, colleges and secondary schools. Hoffman’s advance from LOCAL GIRLS, a collection of inter-related fictions about love and loss on Long Island, was donated to help create the Hoffman Breast Center at Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, MA. BLACKBIRD HOUSE is a book of stories centering around an old farm on Cape Cod. Hoffman's recent books include AQUARMARINE and INDIGO, novels for pre-teens, and The New York Times bestsellers THE RIVER KING, BLUE DIARY, THE PROBABLE FUTURE, and THE ICE QUEEN. GREEN ANGEL, a post-apocalyptic fairy tale about loss and love, was published by Scholastic and THE FORETELLING, a book about an Amazon girl in the Bronze Age, was published by Little Brown. This fall Little Brown published the teen novel INCANTATION, a story about hidden Jews during the Spanish Inquisition, which Publishers Weekly has chosen as one of the best books of the year. In January 2007, SKYLIGHT CONFESSIONS, a novel about one family’s secret history, was released on the 30th anniversary of the publication of Hoffman’s first novel.

Hoffman’s work has been published in more than twenty translations and more than one hundred foreign editions. Her novels have received mention as notable books of the year by The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, Library Journal, and People Magazine. She has also worked as a screenwriter and is the author of the original screenplay “Independence Day,” a film starring Kathleen Quinlan and Diane Weist. Her short fiction and non-fiction have appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe Magazine, Kenyon Review, Redbook, Architectural Digest, Gourmet, Self, and other magazines. Her teen novel AQUAMARINE was recently made into a film starring Emma Roberts.
(less)

More about Alice Hoffman...

Books by Alice Hoffman

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About The Third Angel

1 trivia question

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from The Third Angel

“But at long last she had some privacy and could go more than ten minutes without someone getting in her business, informing her that everything she did was wrong. As if she didn't already know that.” — 2 people liked it

“He stepped off the pavement like a man jumping off a bridge, as calm as a swimmer with an ocean out below. Lucy had known what he was going to do the instant their eyes met. She'd know what he intended because she would have done the very same thing if she'd had his courage. Nothing was going to break his fall.” — 2 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: The Third Angel
avg rating	preview: The Third Angel Goodreads rating: 3.50 (5640 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2170979.The_Third_Angel?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320399666l/2170979.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2170979.The_Third_Angel?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Third Angel by Alice Hoffman[/url]

The Third Angel

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website