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Miss Garnet's Angel

A Novel

By Salley Vickers, Salley, Vickers

(6)

| Hardcover | 9780786708239

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Book Description

Stories magically unfold within this novel's tale of Miss Julia Garnet, a schoolteacher who decides, after the death of her longtime friend Harriet, to take an apartment for six months in Venice. Overwhelmed by the beauty of the city and its magnificent art, Miss Garnet's English reserve begins to mContinue

Critics

Miss Garnet's Angel

Miss Garnet's Angel Salley Vickers Plume Paperback 352 pages April 2002 I decided it would be appropriate to play my tape of Gregorian chants while writing this review. I should have listened to this while I read Miss Garnet’s Angel it might have hel ... (read full critics)

curledup published on Tue, 7 Sep 2010

1 Review

I have to say I regret my second Salley Vickers book irritated me to no end. Granted, I am not the type of reader who can't tolerate a novel not dense with plot, nor am I the kind who would only go for pop-boilers, (a guilty pleasure I indulged myself occasionally but with good conscience couldn't a ... (continue)

I have to say I regret my second Salley Vickers book irritated me to no end. Granted, I am not the type of reader who can't tolerate a novel not dense with plot, nor am I the kind who would only go for pop-boilers, (a guilty pleasure I indulged myself occasionally but with good conscience couldn't afford much.) but Salley vickers really beat around the bush too much, so much so that it reads like a travelogue rather than a novel by an art historian-writer showcasing her expertise. I did learn quite a new things from the read - since European Arts and all those middle age were probably my weakest (next to maths or science, I guess) and my literally found myself studying thru the 'novel' rather than reading it.
In fact, even the Other Side of you, my first Vickers read that impressed me so much, did not happen without first irritated me a great deal with its first third mostly given to secondary characters and subplots.
The edit of this novel is a strange phenomenon - the end of the novel is not the end of the book, which includes 6 chapters or around 40 pages of 'Mr. Golightly's holiday', another novel by Salley Vickers prior to Miss Garnet's Angels. With hindsight I realize her beating-around-the-bush practice had been improving, because after having read those bloody 40 pages of Salley's third novel (Miss Garnet's Angel her fourth and The Other Side of you fifth) I didn't learn anything more than the sypnosis of it had provided: that the protagonist Mr. Golightly is going thru a writer's block and decided to go on vacation. That the writer spent almost 40 pages on introducing secondary characters (it appears so to my comprehension. Or else their significance really escaped me) and their lives, and on detailed description on what seem to be pointless pub chatters.... Honestly, frustrated me to no end.
I would have sworned this to be my last Vickers book had it not for the latest novel which she is writing, XXX from the myth retelling series that I am interested in.
- Perhaps I am too superficial or perhaps this travelogue-novel is for maturer readers,

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Paul Yeung said on Jul 29, 2010 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback