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Angels Flying Slowly
When their father runs off with another woman, Isobel and Caro are left to their mother, Iris, who relieves her frustration with bouts of fury directed at her daughters. Bewildered and hurt by their mother's lack of affection, the girls turn inward for support, erecting a fence of fierce mutual loyalty against the outside world. Dispatched to a convent boarding school, the sisters find the discipline harsh and the mysteries of religion alien. Although this community of women is rife with petty rivalries and unhealthy passions, they also discover a love and security lacking at home, until the arrival of their cousin Ursula. Exotic, beautiful, and obedient, Ursula is everything the sisters are not. Abandoned by her own mother, Ursula insinuates herself into Iris's affections and heightens an already tense family situation. At the convent, Ursula's knowing gaze provokes nuns and girls alike. She perpetrates sly tricks everywhere and always escapes punishment. Pushed to the limit, Isobel decides to exact her own revenge.
- GenresFiction
206 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1995
10 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 26, 2017
This story about two sisters, Isobel (Bel) and Caroline (Caro), covers two key years in their lives, 1947 and 1950. Although the girls are 12 and 10, this book is not written for middle-schoolers, or anyway, I wouldn’t have wanted my daughters reading this at that age, as it deals with very mature subjects. It is about what hatred, nastiness, desperation and oppression can do to children, not to mention those around them. Not that there isn’t love. There is, and Bel and Caro know and experience adults who give them that love, but only briefly and sporadically—and never quite enough to pierce through their darkness. And the ending … well, you will have to read it to see what I mean, but it is unforgettable. Do NOT read the last page or it will ruin the book!
A fascinating character study and impressive first book for author, Jill Rose.
Another great recommendation from my friend, Jo. Thanks dear friend. You know my tastes.
A fascinating character study and impressive first book for author, Jill Rose.
Another great recommendation from my friend, Jo. Thanks dear friend. You know my tastes.
June 8, 2017
Although I have listed this book as a school story, it is very much in the vein of Antonia White’s Frost in May, I think that some of the subject matter would mean that it would be categorised as at least young adult or even adult.
The story is about two sisters Caroline aged four and Isobel aged seven. They are from a broken marriage, their father ran off with tobacconists wife and their mother Iris really does not want to be bothered with them. Caroline gets away with much more that Isobel because Isobel is far too much like her father and Iris is positively cruel to her. There are a series of ‘uncles’ on the scene until at last Iris announces that she is to be married to a Catholic. In fact Iris is herself a lapsed Catholic but she did not marry her first husband in the Church and is therefore able to remarry. The girls’ lives are then turned upside down, they are to go away to a convent boarding school, and they are to be taught the Catholic faith and received into the church. The only stability and love that the girls have to cling onto is that given by their paternal grandparents who live in their beloved Cornwall. It is the one place that they feel free and truly happy.
With their new step father comes his niece Ursula, she is old beyond her years and even at the age of eleven she is very aware of her effect on people, she knows that she is pretty and has a talent for charming almost everyone. Ursula is sly, an accomplished liar and a troublemaker, Isobel sees straight through Ursula and they are constantly at logger heads through their school lives.
The book takes us right through the years that the girls are at school and just after and there one or two quite shocking events. The denouement which comes on the very last page is indeed surprising!
I enjoyed the book very much.
The story is about two sisters Caroline aged four and Isobel aged seven. They are from a broken marriage, their father ran off with tobacconists wife and their mother Iris really does not want to be bothered with them. Caroline gets away with much more that Isobel because Isobel is far too much like her father and Iris is positively cruel to her. There are a series of ‘uncles’ on the scene until at last Iris announces that she is to be married to a Catholic. In fact Iris is herself a lapsed Catholic but she did not marry her first husband in the Church and is therefore able to remarry. The girls’ lives are then turned upside down, they are to go away to a convent boarding school, and they are to be taught the Catholic faith and received into the church. The only stability and love that the girls have to cling onto is that given by their paternal grandparents who live in their beloved Cornwall. It is the one place that they feel free and truly happy.
With their new step father comes his niece Ursula, she is old beyond her years and even at the age of eleven she is very aware of her effect on people, she knows that she is pretty and has a talent for charming almost everyone. Ursula is sly, an accomplished liar and a troublemaker, Isobel sees straight through Ursula and they are constantly at logger heads through their school lives.
The book takes us right through the years that the girls are at school and just after and there one or two quite shocking events. The denouement which comes on the very last page is indeed surprising!
I enjoyed the book very much.
July 23, 2016
Someone left this book at my home so I read it. It was a slow read and nothing I would have bought myself to read.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews