cover image Falling Angels

Falling Angels

Barbara Gowdy. Washington Square Press, $7.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-671-72810-6

After opening on the 1969 funeral of a woman who fell or leaped from a rooftop, this narrative shifts to the 1950s; through her three daughters, we learn that she is an alcoholic who once dropped or threw an infant son over Niagara Falls. ``Scrupulously and evocatively wrought, with fully formed characters, it poses but does not quite resolve a mystery rooted in character and fate,'' said PW. (Aug.)