Customer Reviews

The Mark of the Angel

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I was privileged to be given an advance copy of Nancy Huston's new book, The Mark of the Angel. I started reading it over supper one evening this summer after arriving home from work late, and didn't put it down -- *couldn't* put it down -- until after midnight when I finished it in tears. I was totally caught up in the lives of these people, totally engrossed in their interwoven, tragic lives and the larger context in which they lived.

It took my breath away. It is a beautifully written book, very poetic, profoundly moving, and such an important novel for the end of this century. I haven't read such a powerful novel since Poisonwood Bible, which I also read in galley a year earlier. (And I read (and listen to) a *lot* of books.) Like Poisonwood, it is at once a detailed study of the intimate lives of people you come to care about very much, and also a profound statement about power and imperialism. It offers spiritual and political lessons as well as its poetry.

I hope this isn't a spoiler... but when I finished the book, aside from wiping away my tears, the only other thing I could think to do that seemed appropriate was to give my (teen-ager) son a long, warm hug.

I hope that many, many, many people will discover this gem of a book and love it as much as I did.

What beautiful and unique writing! Nancy Huston is a great French-Canadian writer whose work I will be looking forward to reading in the future. The Mark of the Angel is a stunning novel set in Paris during the 1950's. The historic feel of the novel -- after World War 2, during the Algerian war -- is extremely accurate! The story of a daughter of a Nazi having an affair with a Jewish Communist is thought provoking and intense. There are various political views illustrated in this novel.

Huston's writing style makes this beautiful work of art seem like silk. The narrative style is very unique. A tale of adultery, this novel sort of reminds me of The Scarlet Letter, but with strong political views and great historical feel. I highly recommend this book!

The structure and style of this novel are engaging and effective. The interjections of the narrator force the reader to focus not only on Saffie's story, but to pull back from this narrow focus and absorb the author's bigger message. Her message is a grim one - that history teaches us little, and that human beings will continue to abuse and murder one another with the belief that their cause is right and justifiable. I think the reader could have understood the message with a little less input from the narrator whose voice was, at times, intrusive and tended to state the obvious. This is a novel that delivers a disturbing assessment of mankind, but it is beautifully written and gives the reader much food for thought. I will forever think of the philtrum (that funny little dent between your nose and your upper lip) as "the mark of the angel" now, and remember Ms. Huston's powerful book and message as I do.

This was a book that kept me interested from the very beginning. Perhaps it has something to do with the author's style which shares a remarkable similarity with Milan Kundera's, who happens to be one of my favorite writers. Or, maybe it has to do with the Rue de Seine, in which much of the book takes place, and, where I have spent a lot of time over the years. Huston's way of telling this story about a young German woman's life in the aftermath of WWII is highly unusual and also reminds us of the terrible consequences of a cataclysm of this magnitude. Very few works deal with the absolute terror and madness that war inflicts on its survivors. The particular way the author works out the story of Saffie is truly a work of profound intelligence that should get its rightful recognition amongst late 20th century fiction. Congratulations, Nancy Huston. Not only are you lovely to look at, you are a very good writer.

Like so many other things one associates with the ultra-romantic French national character, this book, too, betrays both an extravagance of emotion and the desire here to dramatize (and incorporate in the book) every possible personal and political trauma of the last half-century. Saffie, the main character, is almost literally a ghost, so traumatized as a German Aryan "victim" of the Nazi horror that she cannot function at all as a human. Her husband Raphael, a flutist, is so busy making beautiful music that he never has a clue about his wife's 5-year affair. Their child, unlike any kid I've ever known (!), never, ever blabs a word about Andras, the other man in his mother's life, to his father, though he sees Andras every time his mother does--very frequently--and refers to him as Apu. Andras, a Jewish Hungarian Holocaust victim, is also intimately involved in the Algerian fight for independence from France. Added to this whole sticky pie are the additional heart-tuggers--the desire of Andras to educate Saffie about minorities and about German history, her inability to experience maternal feelings for her child, her rejection by her mother-in-law, her perfect housekeeping and gourmet cooking, and a completely unrealistic breakdown by Raphael at a critical moment. A real melodrama that tries too hard to be "significant" by pushing every emotional button known to man, with the result that it is sentimental, over-the-top melodrama.

I liked this book very much. It explores surviving WWII from a different perspective than I've read before. The reader empathizes with both the German and the Holocaust survivor. Rather than dwell on the horrors of their experiences, the book describes their emotional adaptation. I found the writing style awkward at times, especially the author's presence, however, it provides an easy way to incorporate a modern viewpoint and historic context. It is a fairly quick read and very captivating. I don't think the book has received the attention it deserves. It was interesting to read The Mark of the Angel immediately after finishing After Long Silence (Fremont) and Homestead (Lippi). After Long Silence is about people who have buried their experiences during the Holocaust completely -- after passing as Catholic for many years, their daughters force the truth (that they are Jewish) into the open. The book goes into detail about the parents' stories and the emotional effects of exposing the truth. War plays more of a background role in Homestead, which tells the story of multiple generations of women living in rural Austria, but the effects of war clearly mark the characters. Homestead was definitely my favorite of the three books -- it is incredibly beautifully crafted. Some of the stories told and pictures of the landscape will stay with me for a long time.

I force fed all my friends copies of Fugitve Pieces by Anne Michaels, another Canadian writing on a similar theme. One of them came back with The Mark of the Angel saying she preferred it.

She may be right. I burned through this book. I stayed in on a picture perfect Sydney day to read it while images of the degeneration in Israel/Palestine flash on the TV screen. A theme of the book is that all the tragedies and happinesses have happened to someone before and that they will happen again is at once liberating and depressing. The book succeeds on 2 fronts. Love and political conflict.

It captures the dynamics of the hopes and expectations we bring to new loves and relationships with some candour but not too cynically.

And, it describes with surgical precision how political conflicts escalate and polarise. How the victims carry emotional baggage. How we fight the last war over and over.

Wonderful imagery without pretension or self indulgence. The ending built up so that I was tense as I flew through the later pages.

I also learned more about recent French history than I knew before. Kind of useful in understanding how the world works.

Huston manages to create a mural of the failure and pain of being human in the arc of human history. Her exquisite juxtaposition of the Algerian War and the love story of damaged survivors of WWII set in bas relief the eternal story of love and war throught time. In addition, Huston defies the common notion that the study of history teaches humanity to prevent its relapse. In both the devestation of memory and the torture of forgetting, she points out danger lines the road. Interjecting the ironic voice of the narrator into this tale of Saffie, Andras and Raphael, Huston leads us through the repetitive labyrinth - politics, anger, hate, dismemberment, torture, death - "old, old, old story called 'news.'" Her characters shine like iconic figures caught in klieglights through the very last word. The reader is snared, captured and devastated as Huston unfolds a tale of doomed love and doomed lives in the Parisian streets of the late 50's. Surely a most gifted writer, Huston forces us to ponder the meaning of being "human".

The story is very good and the characters feel real, but what sets this book apart is the style in which it is written.

The narrator's voice weaves expertly between story-teller and omniscent observer.

There is one moment in particular - I will not spoil it by saying which - where this is done absolutely perfectly.

It has been a long time since I've read a book where I noticed, and yet didn't find abrasive, the author's voice. Just the opposite, in fact.

A story of forbidden love in post-war Paris between two people damaged in different ways by the Holocaust--you've read it before. But Huston's book is a cut above--beautifully written from multiple perspectives, Huston describes Paris, love, music and above all, anger and shock over infidelity discovered, so strongly and vividly--this one has stayed in my mind for awhile. And the conclusion was a brutal shock! Of particular interest to me was the backdrop of the French--Algerian issues--as England had India, France had Algeria--a painful, shameful episode in the history of a Western democracy that has permanently marred France's conception of itself.