The Third Angel: A Novel Paperback – March 3, 2009

Love Alice Hoffman.Again, well written by a professional author who has compassion and passion in her stories.This was unique in that it was like 3 books in one. Each character's story was interesting and ultimately the 3 characters lives interacted with one another at different time periods. This was good. Enjoy

I agree with other reviewers that this is not Alice Hoffman’s most magical work, but it is still a great read. I read it in a single day and enjoyed it. I don’t understand the other readers’ confusion. It’s pretty straightforward. It starts in the present, then goes back in time twice, but it gives you the date as you read each chapter so you know where you are, and in any case it’s not mysterious. If you can remember a character’s name you’ll be fine. Again, I enjoyed it for what it is, and I think it’s worth reading.

I have read all of Alice Hoffman's books and absolutely love her style. She seems to have a deep connection with the spiritual and is able to bring it off the page and into your heart. I found this book gripping and often hard to put down, however, it was a bit confusing with it going backwards. I think I would have appreciated it more if it was written in reverse order. I did love the explanation of the Angel of Life and the Angel of Death along with the "Third Angel" that walks among us. I found the three different (yet the same) story lines to be interesting and captivating. Ms. Hoffman was able to show us the humanity of the doctor in both the positive and negative. All in all I really enjoyed the book but I gave it three stars because I found the backward style confusing for me. It appears that most others did not, so perhaps it's just me.

I loved this book. It is the first I have read by Alice Hoffman and I will read more of her work. I was not at all confused at the order of the three stories and I loved how the characters in each story were connected. I thought the writing was beautiful and the characters were well developed.I haven't read all of the reviews so this may have been mentioned already. I am not sure if the author meant to do this or it is just coincidence, but near the end, in Lucy Green's story, she meets a young writer/artist on the train to Scotland whose name is John and he is from Liverpool. They have a short conversation and different animals are brought up, including a walrus. Also, Lucy gets a dog who she names Sky (short for Skyler). She also is given a diamond ring earlier in the story. Does this sound familiar (Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds)? Anyway, this may have been mentioned and sorry to repeat it if so. Maybe its just my imaginings but I thought it was neat if the author did intend this connection!

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.Recommended: Practical Magic, The Probable Future

good condition

This book can break your heart. Alice Hoffman writes with delicacy and compassion about life and death, about loving someone with such desperation that nothing else matters. She writes about how people must forgive themselves.The three chapters in this book are set in different times, and have different characters. The stories, all centered in London, move back in time from 1999 to 1966 to 1952. All three are interconnected, and it's not until the end that the whole picture becomes clear. All involve hopeless, betrayed love.In the first, "The Heron's Wife," a young woman has an affair with her sister's fiancé. "Lion Park" is about a young woman seduced by a drug-addicted rock musician. "The Rules of Love" involves a precocious 12-year-old girl who innocently causes the violent death to two people in a lover's triangle.Many themes weave throughout the book -- love, weddings, abandonment, birds, rabbits, the power of the written word... and in the end, atonement.An extraordinary doctor explains about the Third Angel. There is the Angel of Life and the Angel of Death, neither of which can be controlled. The Third Angel, however, walks among us. He's the angel that makes mistakes. Like all of us, he sometimes needs rescuing.

Loved this book!

Another fantastic read by Alice Hoffman. I read this within two days. The characters come as alive as the setting. Simply brilliant.

Wie immer bei Hoffman ist Liebe und Begehren verknüpft mit dem Unwägbaren, dem Unvorhersehbaren, der Magie, dem Zufall, ja sogar dem Tod.Wie immer ist Liebe und Geliebtwerden eine verzwickte Sache, die in manchen das Beste und in anderen das Schlechteste hevorbringt und manchmal sogar beides zugleich.Auch in "The third angel" (wie schon zuvor in "Practical magic") webt die Autorin eine wunderbar lesbare Geschichte von Frauen und ihrer verzweifelter Suche nach Liebe und Erfüllung mit viel Magie, starken, märchenhaften Bildern, mysthischen Tierwesen, ungleichen Schwestern, schicksalshaften Zufällen und verknüpften Fäden im großen Gewirk des Lebens.Dabei werden durchweg starke Frauen und ihre großen Schwächen porträtiert, auf interessante, inspirierende Art und Weise.Das Buch ist auch für nicht Englisch-Muttersprachler leicht zu lesen und ein wirklicher Pageturner. Die drei Frauenschicksalsgeschichten bleiben klar und dennoch verwoben. Empfehlenswert!

thanks

Wonderful book. Couldn't put it down. More Alice Hoffman books. Please