Customer Reviews

Angels on Toast

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The camera rarely stops moving in this deftly wry tale of two self-serving businessmen and the wives and mistresses who continually trip them up. The narrative could easily have remained soap opera material were it not for Ms. Powell's generous eye for detail. The subtext splits the characters' heads wide open, and inside we find that the basic humanity of these big shots, bohemians, socialites and freaks goes all the way down to the well. Not quite comedy, not quite melodrama, not quite satire, not quite sure. Ms. Powell is a master at broadening emotional context with her scathing, loving wit. Preston Sturges would surely have been charmed

Yet another example of Ms. Powell's scathing wit at play. The Angels in question are real Devils and whomever gets caught in their circle gets burned to a crisp. This is a witty tale of New York businessmen on the make, trying EVERY trick they know not to "rock the boat" with thier wives. Very entertaining read as you go along with these two rascals through their adventures. You will end up despising and envying them for all they get away with!

Dawn Powell published "Angels on Toast" in 1940 to generally favorable reviews but poor sales. She rewrote the book, shortening and softening its satire, in 1956 under the title "A Man's Affair". She also wrote a TV script based on the book called "You should have brought your mink". The book has been reissued several times, all in the original 1940 version.

When the book first appeared, the critic Diana Trilling wrote a negative review. She observed that Powell was a writer of great gifts and style who, in "Angels on Toast", had wasted her talents on utterly frivolous, valueless people and scenes. On reading the book, I can understand Trilling's reaction. The book isn't one of Powell's best, but its scenes are sharply-etched and entertaining. As I have frequently found in Powell's novels, the book works better in parts than as a whole, even though the story line of "Angels on Toast" is generally clear and coherent.

The story is basically a satire of American business in the later 1930s with the scene shifting back and forth from Chicago to New York City. The two main protagonists are businessmen, Lou Donovan and his best friend, a less successful businessman named Jay Oliver. The two characters are pretty well differentiated from each other although both remain one-dimensional. The activities of Lou and Jay can be summarized in three terms: moneymaking, drinking and wenching. As are virtually all the characters in the book, Lou and Jay are out for the main chance in their endless trips to New York. They engage in unending bouts of hard drinking. Their sexual affairs, and the deceits they paractice on their wives and mistresses take up at least as much time as the business and the booze. Jay's mistreess is a woman named Elsie while Lou is involved with a mysterious woman named Trina Kameray. Both give just as good as they get. It is difficult to think of a book where the entire cast of characters are crass, materialistic, on the make, without sense of value. Powell portrays them sharply.

I found the book less successful than Powell's other New York novels. I think this is because the book satirizes American business and Powell clearly has less sympathy with business than she does with the subjects of her satire in her other novels. Her other books generally deal with dissilusioned wannabe artists in Grenwich Village, with writers, nightclub entertainers, frustrated musicians, and writers resisting the tide of commercialism. Powell has knowledge of the lives of such people and sympathy with at least some of their ideals. This gives a touch of ambivalence and poignancy to the satire. But in "Angels on Toast", she shows no real knowledge and no sympathy to the world of business. This, I think, makes the satire shrill and too one-sided. Also, the business world is satirized in essentially the same terms as the various components of New York society Powell satirizes in her other books -- i.e. the characters are egotistical in the extreme, heavy drinkers (always), and sexually promiscuous and unfaithful.

Some of the individual scenes in the book are well-done. In particular, I enjoyed Powell's descriptions of a fading old New York Hotel, called the Ellery and its guests and the patrons at its bar. There are a few good scenes of train travel in the 1930's, and much sharp, punchy dialogue. The book held my interest.

The characters are crass and one-dimensional. Powell refers to some of her minor characters repeatedly by offensive nicknames such as "the snit", "the floozie" and "the punk", which certainly don't show much attempt at a sympathetic understanding of people. The book is sharp, cutting, and more so that Powell's other books, overwhelmingly negative towards its protagonists.

This book has its moments. The writing style and the details are enjoyable, but the satire is too one-dimensional and heavy-handed. Although the book is worth knowing, it is one of Dawn Powell's lesser efforts.

Gore Vidal's friendship with Dawn Powell explains the re-publication of several of her novels. It isn't because she is an unheralded Hemingway or Fitzgerald.

I didn't feel like I wasted my time reading "Angel on Toast," but I found the characters poorly differentiated so I often had to struggle to determine if I was reading about Lou Donovan and Jay Oliver, the hard drinking and womanizing main characters.

One of the reasons I read the novel was to get a feel for New York in the thirties and forties. However, much of the action took place elsewhere and I didn't get a strong feel of place except for the Hotel Ellery and the marginalized old ladies of the Bar and Grill.

In general, the novel feels like a few well-etched scenes only marginally connected by often vague characters. The well-etched scenes often display an insightful feel for the complexity of relationships in a time when the mass media was busy promoting a "Thin Man" view of hard-drinking but happily married couples.

There is something intriguing about Dawn Powell and her milieu. The good moments of this book give me hope that "The Golden Spur" or one of the other re-published novels will prove more satisfying.