Men and Angels

by Mary Gordon

Anne Foster's husband is in France. She has stayed behind in their small college town with her two young children -- whom she loves with an intensity that awes her -- to finish writing the catalogue for a major exhibition of the work of American Impressionist painter Caroline Watson. As she delves into Caroline's life, Anne sees a side of "mother love" she'd never fathomed. Meanwhile, Anne's live-in babysitter, Laura Post, is obsessed with a different kind of love. She sees herself as one of God's chosen and believes she has been sent to "save" Anne and her children, whether they want it or not . . .

Genres: Fiction, Novels, Contemporary, Literary Fiction

416 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Mary Catherine Gordon is an American writer from Queens and Valley Stream, New York. She is the McIntosh Professor of English at Barnard College. She is best known for her novels, memoirs and literary criticism. In 2008, she was named Official State Author of New York.

Reviews

[Anna Dowdall · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd give this book a 4.5 if I could. Mary Gordon is one of those American writers of relatively few and critically acclaimed serious novels of the 80s and thereabouts. To add to her uniqueness, a feminist and practicing Catholic who uses fiction to address the most serious of themes. If Men and Angels falters once in a rare while, as Gordon examines the relationship between a successful researcher with a wonderful life and the tormented au pair who comes to look after her kids when she's in a child care jam, it's perhaps only because of the sheer weight of the themes she lifts. Men and Angels could be a psychological study of madness, or an exploration of the damage we visit on children, it could be a domestic horror story -- you aren't sure where it's going. It's a little bit all of these, but mainly a story about a difficult moral awakening. And if that doesn't sound like much of a page turner, surprise, because it's quite gripping. The 80s and 90s were full of wonderful women writers, like Mary Gordon, Joan Barfoot, Margaret Drabble. I hope we keep reading them.

[Dianeparente62gmail.com · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first experience with a Mary Gordon book. One knows immediately one is in the presence of an accomplished author and an intense describer of characters internal and external traits. By book's end this reader was a little tired of all the interior monologues but sees that is the essence of the novel,just perhaps somewhat overdone. The story flows well to a somewhat unexpected ending. Although Gordon's depiction of a religiously fanatic babysitter is well drawn, one wishes there had been some portrayal of a character who viewed and practiced religion in a more thoughtful way.

[Sarah Chekfa · Rating 5 out of 5]

unbearably complex characters, an incisiveness and languidity of language, meditative rather than moralistic

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an older book that I just finally got around to reading in 1999. She had a lot of good things to say which kept me reading but toward the end it got a little tiring and I was ready for it to be over.

[Michelle’s Vintage Library · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book kept me engaged throughout and has an interesting premise and characters that were intriguing..

One of two main characters is a young girl in her twenties who thinks and acts like a prophet. She is obsessed with the Bible and believes that her purpose is to “save” anyone who will listen to her. Except she is keeping this a secret.

She doesn’t want to have any earthy attachments, even though she is sometimes tempted to, because she doesn’t want anything to hinder “the Spirit” within her. Many of the people who encounter her don’t really like her and feel uncomfortable around her.

We find out that she ran away from home because her mother, father, and sister were horribly abusive and rejected her. She is described throughout the book as being “unlikeable” and physically unattractive.

The other main character is a beautiful, wealthy (upper middle class), middle aged woman who takes in the “prophet girl” to be a live-in helper. The girl is supposed to be helping with her two young children while the wealthy woman tries out a career as an art critic. She ends up having mixed feelings about the girl throughout the first half of the book. She can’t decide whether to befriend her or dislike her.

Great premise. Great characters.

After I got about halfway through the book, however, I just wanted to shake the pretty art critic mother of two and say, “Why don’t you just get to know your live-in helper? Ask her questions and speak to her as if she’s a normal human being and not some alien?!”

The entire tragedy of the story could have been avoided if this spoiled, privileged lady would have come down off her high horse and had genuine conversations with the “hired help”.

Instead, all she does is say how creeped out she is by the young, troubled girl and for absolutely no reason decides she hates her.

The thing is... Gordon wants us to sympathize with and root for the privileged lady and to dislike the poor, abused, prophet-girl. But the wealthy lady is (in my opinion) a far more unlikable character.

At one point, the “poor rich lady” makes a move on an electrician she hires who’s “beneath her class” but still attractive enough for sex and he has the nerve to REFUSE her. He explains that she is married and he is married and that would not be morally right, and that he thought she was his good friend. My goodness that’s rough. She’s not “used to” things not falling into her lap simply because she’s quite attractive.

At the end of the story, this guy even goes out of his way to help her clean up the mess in her house and she snubs him.

Needless to say, I HATED this woman by the end of the book. And I do not think that was the author’s intention at all.

The author wanted us to hate the nanny (prophet-girl). Was the nanny creepy? Yes, she was. But she was an ABUSED young girl. She needed counseling!

The prose is good, but I just think she misses the opportunity in this story to explore the tragedy of the “unloved” (which, according to statements she made in several interviews, she claims to be doing in this novel) in a satisfying way.

In the novel’s fictional universe wealthy, pretty women get love, accolades, support and adoration, but poor, unattractive women get loathing, rejection, and if their extremely lucky... pity .

The main protagonist, in my opinion, is a extremely shallow. She is physically attractive (an attribute which is emphasized over and over to the point where it becomes annoying) and wealthy (upper middle class).

There isn’t even a shred of genuine remorse from the privileged lady, even when the young girl tragically commits suicide in her home.

This petty, superficial, pampered princess (with the help of all her rich friends and neighbors, of course) cleans up the house, after the gruesome, bloody death of prophet-girl, with the intent of continuing to LIVE IN IT.

You found a dead body in your tub, and the blood drips down all throughout the house, and you just plan on getting some new carpets and borrowing a few extra towels from the neighbors!!!!!!!!

No. Just no.

This girl died because your privileged stuck up self didn’t speak to her like a human being.

Even at the end, pretty rich lady can’t bring herself to “like” poor abused girl.

Looks get her (nearly) everything she has in life. Looks get her a husband, a career, and her father’s adoration. Looks get her friends who would do anything for her.

I guess you could say that I was much more interested in the psyche of the abused prophet-girl, and I wish Gordon had explored that character further.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first Mary Gordon novel I've read--an exploration of mother love & the terrible effects of its lack. I sometimes felt that passages on the emotional permutations of the characters--especially Anne, the main protagonist--went on too long, particularly when reflecting her uncertainty about herself in relation to other women. However, that is likely more my reaction to women who are constantly comparing themselves (come on, get over it!) & less a flaw in the book. Maybe a woman who was not loved unreservedly by her mother does really struggle in these ways.

I have been the transference object of a younger woman's hunger for absent mother-love, as Anne is of Laura's, & it's not a happy experience. Fortunately mine didn't have a denouement as apocalyptic as Anne's.

Next time I go to the library I'll probably look for another of Gordon's novels.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the very first page this story instills a feeling of dread: Laura is a character who can't come to a good end. Art historian Anne Foster hires her as a nanny in desperation, in spite of misgivings that only increase as time goes by. An interesting juxtaposition of Laura's story, Anne's story, and the story of the painter Anne is researching. Reveals the relationship that can develop between a biographer and her subject, even when that person is long dead, and the degree to which an academic can be so caught up in her work as to neglect everything else.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would have given it five stars except for the character of Laura, who is supposed to be rather unlovable, was so much so it made it hard for me to continue reading at times. This is really a heart breaking tale of the failure of parental love and the damage, not only to that child, but to SO many others who came in contact with her through her short life. It really makes you think about those people you hear yelling nasty stuff at their kids. It's all about damages.

[Maria · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had such potential with interesting characters, but it really seemed to fall flat. I was disappointed by the climax-- seemed to be a cop out, rather than a chance to explore something far more unusual/interesting.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the way Mary Gordon wrote about the experiences of being a woman.

[Dee · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first Mary Gordon novel, but not my last.

[BeckyT · Rating 5 out of 5]

More people should read Mary Gordon's novels. You open the pages and you are immediately deep inside somebody else's mind.

[BRSA42 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mary Gordon writes beautifully. She gets into the inner lives of her characters and describes their strange and subtle emotions without setting them adrift. She reminds me of Jane Austen in the way she pauses within a moment and unspools it, but with more focus on the psychology of her characters and less on social conventions. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, and didn't realize I was looking for a book just like this, until I read it. It makes me want to read her more.

[Dennis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Laura's chapters were pretty interesting but the rest seemed really stretched out. Nothing really happens until the last 2 chapters but even that seemed pretty cheap after all the build-up. Didn't seem like a very Laura-ish thing to do.
Was between 2 and 3 stars but looking back on the looong periods of non-plot progressing rambling brought me at 2/5

[Gerald Thomson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well written, though not always easy to read, novel. There are few likable characters in Gordon’s story, but her writing is beautiful and keeps your interest. Many questions are asked about relationships and goals, but few answers are found. Still worth the read if you like interesting writing.

[Kailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this for my independent study. More on the nose than her other novels, but still, there’s something here.

[Smi4ever2 · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me awhile to like this book, but I'm glad I kept reading it. Very interesting, with a twist.

[Elaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about relationships between men and women, parents and children and the failure of love for the unlovable.

[Roderick Wolfson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book about different aspects of mother and child relationships. Multi-faceted insights. It led me to reflect on my relationship with my mother and my children.