Synopses & Reviews
A witty and delicious comedy of stoic girls, broken men, and mean hippies in the Nixon era—featuring the most engaging girl hero literature has seen this side of Harper Lee—from an acclaimed chronicler of the down-and-out.
Angela Sloan is the fourteen-year-old daughter of a retired CIA officer. Like other girls in D.C. in 1972, she shops at Sears and Roebuck, reads Black Beauty, and spends her afternoons watching Let’s Make a Deal while Washington is flooded with freaks, terrorists, and tourists. But everything changes for Angela one day when her father leaves her the keys to his Plymouth Scamp, a few sequentially numbered $100s, and the order to wait for his instructions. Angela Sloan is her “truthful and explicit” account of everything that happened while she waited.
Though she tries to stay on the down low, strangers keep finding her. An undercover poet has some lines he wants Angela to hear. A Chinese waitress won’t get out of the car Angela barely knows how to drive. A colleague of her father’s knows more than he is telling. And a glamorous, world-weary lady spy is giving out free advice and roadside assistance—unsolicited. Four parts Pynchon mixed with one part Lipsyte and a dash of Shteyngart, Angela Sloan is a lighthearted tragedy of underage driving, diner food, and homegrown terrorists—and the breakout for the universally acclaimed Whorton.
Review
"...Whorton's third novel is an accomplishment. His detached, deadpan narration perfectly captures his protagonist's worldview and allows Angela Sloan to shine as a coming-of-age tale free of teenage melodrama. Longtime fans of the spy thriller will appreciate the novel's homage to classic espionage tropes and insider lingo, and its driving plot, eminently likable heroine, and pitch-perfect narration may convert new fans to the genre." —Booklist
Review
"This beautiful, deeply original novel locates a specific kind of sadness and confusion at the heart of espionage that hasn't really been found there before—not even by le Carré and others who have looked for it. And yet Whorton writes with such a light touch that the whole thing is also a delightful romp." —
Joseph Weisberg, author of An Ordinary Spy
Review
“Angela Sloan is a winning 14-year-old heroine and way too honest to be an effective Watergate burglar. This smart, poignant, funny book almost makes me thankful for the Nixon presidency.” —Matthew Sharpe, author of You Were Wrong and Jamestown
Review
“The teenage daughter of a former CIA agent, Sloan takes us on a wild ride as she confronts not only a crazy cast of characters but secrets of her own past—all the while maintaining her undercover identity….bold, edgy, and downright comic.” —Susan Gregg Gilmore, author of The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove and Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen
Review
"In his third novel, Whorton has a fantastic narrator in the teenage Angela Sloan....Whorton gives Angela a distinct voice—simultaneously girlish and wise, and very funny...what unfolds is both a coming-of-age road trip through the freakish underbelly of 1970s America, and an affecting examination of identity." —Publishers Weekly
Review
"A sly, zippy page-turner....The 1970s setting and the deadpan voice of Angela will appeal to readers who enjoy dark humor and satire." —Library Journal
Review
"Angela Sloan is a dazzler...the novel never loses its place, the destination is clear, and even the human absurdity is believable under Whorton's talented authority. Whorton has masterfully juggled questing oddballs before, in his two previous novels Approximately Heaven and Frankland..." —Matt Baker, Oxford American
Review
"With a derelict, hilarious, fourteen-year-old narrator whose voice is a cross between Holden Caulfield and Ramona Quimby, James Whorton Jr.’s Angela Sloan is...a greased bullet of a novel, one that flies fast and kills dead-on, bleeding out all the coolest components of spy fiction: espionage, paranoia, uncertain identities, and, almost best of all, a setting in a time before cell phones and Internet access." —Chapter16.org
Synopsis
A deadpan thriller and mystery about the likely participation in the Watergate scandal of one ex-CIA agent and a 14-yr-old girl named Angela Sloan.
Synopsis
In his latest novel, universally acclaimed author James Whorton, Jr., delivers a curious Nixon-era caper of broken men and stoic runaways who learn just how much there is to gain, and lose, when you go undercover. Angela Sloan, a seemingly average teenager living in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., is left to lie low and fend for herself when her father, a retired CIA officer, skips town in the wake of the Watergate scandal.
Driving a Plymouth Scamp she has just learned to operate, Angela encounters strangers literally at every turn. A fugitive Chinese waitress won’t get out of the car. A jaded lady spy offers up free therapy and roadside assistance. A restless pair of hippies keeps preaching about the evils of monogamy. And an anteater lurks in the unlikeliest of places. But through all of her outlandish adventures, Angela keeps focused on one urgent wish: to reunite with her father.
Bold and quirky, Angela Sloan is a priceless coming-of-age story about stealing diner food and salvaging lost identities.
About the Author
James Whorton Jr. is the author of two other novels, Approximately Heaven and Frankland. A former Mississippian and former Tennessean, he lives in Rochester, New York with his wife and their daughter. He is an Associate Professor of writing and literature at SUNY Brockport.