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Angel of Brooklyn
In January, 1914, Jonathan Crane returns home from his travels with a new American bride, former Coney Island showgirl Beatrice. In the remote Lancashire village Beatrice is the focus of attention, the men captivated by her beauty, and the women initially charmed by tales of her upbringing in Normal, Illinois, with her father, an amateur taxidermist, and her brother, a preacher—although she will take the story of how she became the Angel of Brooklyn to her grave. But when the men head off to fight in the Great War, the glamorous newcomer slowly becomes an object of suspicion and jealousy for the women who are left behind and as the years pass and their resentment grows, Beatrice’s secret proves to be her undoing. Beautifully observed, tragic, funny, and so evocative you can taste the candy floss at Coney Island and feel the chill of wartime England, this is an extraordinary, heartbreaking story.
337 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2008
3 people are currently reading
67 people want to read
About the author
Janette Jenkins
6 books13 followersJanette Jenkins studied acting before completing a degree in Literature and Philosophy and then doing an MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, where she was in Malcolm Bradbury's final class.
She is the author of the novels, Columbus Day, Another Elvis Love Child, Angel of Brooklyn, Little Bones and Firefly.
Her short stories have appeared in newspapers and anthologies, including Stand magazine, and have been broadcast on Radio 4. In 2003 she was awarded an Alumni Fellowship by the University of Bolton.
She lives in the city of Durham.
She is the author of the novels, Columbus Day, Another Elvis Love Child, Angel of Brooklyn, Little Bones and Firefly.
Her short stories have appeared in newspapers and anthologies, including Stand magazine, and have been broadcast on Radio 4. In 2003 she was awarded an Alumni Fellowship by the University of Bolton.
She lives in the city of Durham.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 15, 2024
Jonathan takes his new wife Beatrice from America to a small village in Lancashire. Jonathan enlists to serve in WW1 leaving Beatrice to adapt to village life. The book goes between her childhood and coming of age in America and village life in England where she is subjected to the mistrust and jealousy of the other women. An interesting story although it took me a while to get into it and I felt it was a bit too long. Such a sad tragic ending.
May 26, 2019
3.5 stars really. I liked all the parts of the story that were set in America and I had a feeling early on about how Beatrice ended up being the "Angel of Brooklyn"
Interesting read if your looking for something a bit different.
Interesting read if your looking for something a bit different.
June 30, 2014
This story about former showgirl Beatrice is much more substantial than the shapely female legs and lush velvet on the book’s cover would suggest. Janette Jenkins imaginatively weaves together the contrasting strands of Beatrice’s new life in the tiny Lancashire village of Anglezarke with her unconventional upbringing in Normal, Illinois and coming of age in colourful Coney Island.
Beatrice meets and marries Jonathon Crane, who brings her home to England. It’s 1914, and before long most of the men in the village go off to fight in the Great War. The gulf between ‘the foreigner’ and the other women left behind gradually widens – Beatrice is beautiful, has married into money, her husband is an officer – and the discovery of a secret she has been keeping precipitates a final act of violence.
Although Beatrice’s fate is made clear from the outset this makes the novel no less engrossing. The story skilfully combines romance, intrigue and tragedy, and the characters, even minor ones, are vividly drawn. Chapters alternate between England and America, and while much of the story is told in straight narrative, this is interspersed with interesting variations, including letters and quirky lists such as ‘All those things that you miss when they’ve gone’.
Even without the privations of war, the transition from America to Anglezarke was always going to be difficult for Beatrice. She quickly gains the reader’s sympathy as she does her best to cope with a new way of life and people who make no effort to hide their curiosity about her. But although sometimes told with gentle humour, like Jonathon’s party to introduce Beatrice to his friends, the Lancashire scenes depict a society that is ultimately as unwelcoming to incomers as the harsh winter weather. The visit to a Blackpool fortune teller who claims she can’t read Beatrice’s hand is just one episode that contributes to a rising sense of foreboding.
Coney Island, on the other hand, is so richly and affectionately described that one can almost hear the noise, see the people and smell the food which Beatrice misses so much. Most striking, though, are the chapters portraying her childhood, which bring gothic horror and black humour to the book. Her mother having died in childbirth, Beatrice lives with brother Elijah and her father, an ex-teacher with a mania for taxidermy. As a child, Elijah decides to become a minister and courts personal injury to preach the benefits of temperance in saloon bars. Their father is on an obsessive quest for bigger and better creatures to ‘rebuild’. This involves a darkly funny family trip to a zoo, where he gets short shrift from the keeper when he offers to take away its dead animals.
Not easily categorised, Angel of Brooklyn offers an enjoyable read about a sympathetic character whose fate is sealed by her good intentions. The time and worlds in which she lives are convincingly portrayed and stay in the mind long after the final page is turned.
Beatrice meets and marries Jonathon Crane, who brings her home to England. It’s 1914, and before long most of the men in the village go off to fight in the Great War. The gulf between ‘the foreigner’ and the other women left behind gradually widens – Beatrice is beautiful, has married into money, her husband is an officer – and the discovery of a secret she has been keeping precipitates a final act of violence.
Although Beatrice’s fate is made clear from the outset this makes the novel no less engrossing. The story skilfully combines romance, intrigue and tragedy, and the characters, even minor ones, are vividly drawn. Chapters alternate between England and America, and while much of the story is told in straight narrative, this is interspersed with interesting variations, including letters and quirky lists such as ‘All those things that you miss when they’ve gone’.
Even without the privations of war, the transition from America to Anglezarke was always going to be difficult for Beatrice. She quickly gains the reader’s sympathy as she does her best to cope with a new way of life and people who make no effort to hide their curiosity about her. But although sometimes told with gentle humour, like Jonathon’s party to introduce Beatrice to his friends, the Lancashire scenes depict a society that is ultimately as unwelcoming to incomers as the harsh winter weather. The visit to a Blackpool fortune teller who claims she can’t read Beatrice’s hand is just one episode that contributes to a rising sense of foreboding.
Coney Island, on the other hand, is so richly and affectionately described that one can almost hear the noise, see the people and smell the food which Beatrice misses so much. Most striking, though, are the chapters portraying her childhood, which bring gothic horror and black humour to the book. Her mother having died in childbirth, Beatrice lives with brother Elijah and her father, an ex-teacher with a mania for taxidermy. As a child, Elijah decides to become a minister and courts personal injury to preach the benefits of temperance in saloon bars. Their father is on an obsessive quest for bigger and better creatures to ‘rebuild’. This involves a darkly funny family trip to a zoo, where he gets short shrift from the keeper when he offers to take away its dead animals.
Not easily categorised, Angel of Brooklyn offers an enjoyable read about a sympathetic character whose fate is sealed by her good intentions. The time and worlds in which she lives are convincingly portrayed and stay in the mind long after the final page is turned.
July 17, 2010
Three and a half really! This book has a wonderful opening: "A week before they killed her, Beatrice told them about the dead birds...". This is a most unusual book, juxtaposing Beatrice's life as a wife, left behind by the First World War in a suspicious Lancashire village, with her earlier life growing up with her dysfunctional family in Normal, Illinois, followed by young adulthood in Brooklyn and among the fairground life of Coney Island. This is a story about secrets, and it's Beatrice's biggest secret - such an unusual one! - that finally leads to her demise. All the settings of the book are real and vibrant - the knitting war wives in Anglezarke, Lancashire with all their suspicions about foreigners; the brashness and friendliness of alien Coney Island; the methodist hotel in Brooklyn; and the wonderful gothic upbringing with her taxidermist father and trainee preacher brother. I must say I found the structure a bit of a challenge - the Lancashire narrative alternates with the back story, and some chapters are just a series of "flashes", some funny, some telling, some heartbreaking. Yes, I think I enjoyed it and I'd recommend it to those of you who don't mind the slightly unusual structure - think I'm ready for a young adult simple read for my next one though...
May 23, 2015
An interesting story seesawing between the main character's life growing up in the US and then her new life as wife to an Englishman in Anglezarke. The story was quite slow but there were enough surprises to keep it rolling and I was hooked and invested.
As all the men leave for war and casualties mount all the emotions become entwined in the book and it became darker and sadder. My only criticism was the last few pages. Not a great fan of the ending but the chapter prior had me totally gripped and feeling emotionally involved!
As all the men leave for war and casualties mount all the emotions become entwined in the book and it became darker and sadder. My only criticism was the last few pages. Not a great fan of the ending but the chapter prior had me totally gripped and feeling emotionally involved!
February 9, 2011
A sweet, sad book about a sweet sad life. It isn't perfect (I felt the timeframe would have been better placed during World War 2, rather than 1), but there are some lovely scenes in Coney Island as seen by a bewitched outsider, and some sadly accurate scenes showing the jealousy of women to an outsider.
December 13, 2013
I found this book to be wonderfully evocative of a by-gone era. The Coney Island depicted was so real that I was easily transported there. The same with war-time 'little England' complete with the xenophobia . Additionally brought out so well I think was the transformation that is capable within each of us to do things that otherwise would seem inconceivable.
July 27, 2014
I really liked this book until the last few pages which completely the rest of the story for me.
August 13, 2014
This book eneded in such a bad way! gr!
July 23, 2014
An intriguing and well-written tale, which I found a little slow, but nevertheless, a good read.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews