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About This Book
ISBN13: 9780060953713 
|
Powells.com Staff Pick
Blame the Gothic romantic deep inside me (buried alive, in a coffin), but I've long had a soft spot for the famous evening of June 16, 1816, in which Lord Byron read a book of German ghost stories to guests at his home in Lake Geneva, Switzerland, then charged each of them with writing his/her own horror tale. Perhaps spurred by the air charged with electric storms, Mary Shelley went on to write Frankenstein and John Polidori composed the first vampire story, titled "The Vampyre."
The story inspires me to imagine Michael Chabon, Denis Johnson, Francine Prose, and Richard Russo sitting in a chateau one summer in the mid-'90s, the night sky split with relentless lightning, as they read Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis. Finally Chabon — with his fondness for comic books and genre writing, it must have been Chabon — rises to his feet and proposes that each write an academic satire about a creative writing instructor who falls in love or flirts with a student. Johnson avoided the satire angle (and made his protagonist a history professor) while Prose chose to make the satire more venomous than funny (and paced her novel like a first-rate thriller), but Chabon and Russo managed to keep their tales brisk and hilarious. Whether or not this creation scenario actually played out, these writers have contributed a quartet of superb novels built around similar elements and themes — each distinctly different and compelling in its own right. My personal favorite remains Russo's Straight Man, but I've been unable to forget Chabon's Wonder Boys, Prose's Blue Angel, or Johnson's The Name of the World. Perhaps all four books are best read together, on a single weekend, preferably with the crackle of thunder outside... Recommended by Bolton, Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
Deliciously risque, Blue Angel is a withering take on today's academic mores and a scathing tale that vividly shows what can happen when academic politics collides with political correctness.
Review:
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About the Author
What Our Readers Are Saying
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Average customer rating based on 3 comments:
-
Marjorie Madonne, January 6, 2008 (view all comments by Marjorie Madonne)
I loved this book. So funny but ultimately sad. I loved the open-ended conclusion. Prose is a wonderful writer.
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Deborah Fochler, October 24, 2007 (view all comments by Deborah Fochler)
A rare gem. A scathing, bitter, hysterically funny look at academia and the politics that controls it. Will leave you angry at a system that is so unfair yet by the time you stop laughing you are almost glad that this author had the subject matter. Much different from A CHANGED MAN yet the book maintains Ms. Prose's unmistakeable style of writing.
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Mick, August 15, 2007 (view all comments by Mick)
Francine Prose tells a tale that weaves teaching and learning, lust and life and all that goes along with that in an academic setting, and it's all thoroughly engaging. I loved reading it, and am so pleased not to be a character in it.
View all 3 comments
Product Details
- ISBN:
- 9780060953713
- Subtitle:
- A Novel
- Author:
- Publisher:
- Perennial
- Location:
- New York, NY
- Subject:
- General
- Subject:
- Literary
- Subject:
- Fiction
- Subject:
- Universities and colleges
- Subject:
- New england
- Subject:
- Teacher-student relationships
- Subject:
- Satire
- Subject:
- General Fiction
- Edition Number:
- 1st Perennial ed.
- Edition Description:
- Perennial
- Series Volume:
- 505
- Publication Date:
- 20010220
- Binding:
- Paperback
- Language:
- English
- Pages:
- 336
- Dimensions:
- 8.03x5.35x.78 in. .56 lbs.
