The Angels of Catastrophe: A Novel [Paperback]

Peter Plate (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 5, 2001

A cop is gunned down and unless Ricky Durrutti, a petty criminal with a short biography and a long rap sheet, can figure out who the real shooter is, he's a dead man. From Hunt's Donuts, opposite where the killing took place, to his room in the El Capitán Hotel, from the blue grass and steel Federal Building off Golden Gate Avenue to the Ritmo Latino record store, and from the Roxie Cinema on 16th Street to the Ramshackle Victorian homes of Treat Street where Lonely Boy lives--the chase is on. Salvadoreno gangs and Mexicans, cops and Jewish gangsters, drag queens and heroin addicts, speed freaks and low rent hookers, low-lives rising rising to the challenge of making sense of a murder. Out of the twentieth century of Nelson Algren and Charles Bukowski, here is the twenty-first century world of Peter Plate.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

When a policeman is shot on a crowded street in San Francisco, Ricky Durrutti, a petty criminal, is called into the station for questioning. To shake the police's unwarranted suspicion, Ricky starts his own investigation into the murder. Among the drug addicts, warring Hispanic street gangs, and friendly--or otherwise--fellow criminals, he discovers a big cover-up as he investigates. This novel is more than a simple murder mystery. As Ricky tries to track down several leads, he gets caught up with spurned romance from his past and has to deal with all those emotions again--as unpleasant as they were to live through the first time. Ricky is a likable, if somewhat misguided, character, and readers will find themselves rooting for him despite his many shortcomings. Ellie Barta-Moran
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

PETER PLATE taught himself to write fiction during eight years spent squatting in abandoned buildings. He is the author of many novels, beginning with Black Wheel of Anger (1990) and continuing through his seven neo-noir "psychic histories" of San Francisco, where he still lives and writes today.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Seven Stories Press (June 5, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1583220631
• ISBN-13: 978-1583220634
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.5 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,629,436 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars English 99b is the pre-requisite for English 101, November 12, 2001

By 

foxaluma1 (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Angels of Catastrophe: A Novel (Paperback)

I enjoy reading - and I will read a book all the way through regardless of quality. This book was a big disappointment. The narrative structure was immature and confusing and the story could have benefited from a good editor, or at least a proofreader. For example, in many paragraphs it was confusing as to which characters point of view was being narrated; so confusing that I began to wonder if there where printing errors in my copy. Secondly, the main character changes from a weak and withdrawn petty criminal to a hip, powerful thug without any explanation or discussion of this change. Third, the author is fascinated with describing pimples and body sores. Finally, it was very unclear why the author is so fascinated by Jewish and Yiddish images and why the main character has an Italian name but is often described, for unclear reasons, as being Jewish. The tangential chapter regarding the protagonist's parents makes no reference to their cultural/religious heritage; if anything it suggests the antithesis of a Jewish background. However, a tangential and pedantic flashback regarding the character's grandfather (pious Russian soldier) does not jibe with the description of the parents (teenage lowlife thieves).
The author's blurb describes him as being an "autodidact" with an "eidetic memory". To this, I can only comment mazel tov and suggest that the author take a junior college writing course and carefully read Charles Bukowski. The story drifted lazily over the pages and petered out very softly, without any particular climax.