Blue Angel: A Novel (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Swenson waits for his students to complete their private rituals, adjusting zippers and caps, arranging the pens and notebooks so painstakingly chosen to express their..." (more)
Key Phrases: dirty poems, orange envelope, Francine Prose, Professor Swenson, Angela Argo (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Francine Prose may never surpass Joyce Carol Oates in the Prolific Olympics, but she is one of those omnipresent writers whom failed writers hate. And surely she'll make new enemies with her hilarious and cruel 10th novel, Blue Angel, a satire of academia, specifically of English and writing departments. The setting is Euston College in rural Vermont, a place kids go to if they don't get into Bennington; a place where desperate novelists teach creative writing to rich kids who don't seem to read. Prose, who has taught at all the hotshot workshops, skewers both teachers and students in the way only a true insider could.

Swenson, her writing-teacher protagonist, once published a well-received novel but is now consumed by neuroses and repressed lust, and instead of writing tends to get drunk or morose, or both. But when a gifted student named Angela Argo enters his class, he feels like he is coming back to life. His resurrection into "believing" in writing again, and his eventual disappointment, form the core of the novel.

Prose's gift for satire is stunning as she directs her caustic wit at all the current academic debates: sexual-harassment policies warning against all manner of "touching"; deconstructionists versus Old School fuddy-duddies; women's studies teachers who bring everything back to the phallocentric Man killing us all. But Blue Angel's best passages come when the author is describing truly rotten writers. Here's a Connecticut rich girl, a member of Swenson's workshop, who likes to write about all those poor unfortunate nonwhite people. Her story is called "First Kiss--Inner City Blues" and is written from the point of view of a Latino woman who lives in a trash-strewn neighborhood full of gunfire and bad people. Here's the opening line: "The summer heat sat on the hot city street, making it hard for it to breathe, especially for Lydia Sanchez." It's a sentence so bad, it's almost a revelation. --Emily White --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Trust the iconoclastic Prose to turn conventional received wisdom on such subjects as predatory professors, innocent female students and the necessity for a degree of political correctness on campus on their silly heads. In this astutely observed, often laugh-aloud funny and sometimes touching academic comedy, she proves more skeptic than cynic, with an affection for her central character that is surprisingly warm. He is Ted Swenson, a happily married and reasonably content novelist who teaches creative writing at a much less than Ivy League college in darkest Vermont. Stuck on his own latest book, he is nevertheless charmed and intrigued by the writing skills of the unlikely, ungainly and punky Angela Argo. (Prose takes the considerable risk of offering chunks of Angela's work, and the reader can see in it what poor Ted does.) Out of the best intentions--and an only half-acknowledged but not compelling concupiscent itch--he encourages the girl, who is soon hanging on his every word of praise and hinting that if only Ted's editor could see her work... One moment of lustful madness that is not even consummated (a broken tooth intervenes), a disinclination of Ted's editor to see Angela's novel-in-progress and Ted's goose is cooked. Suddenly, every tiny hint of lechery or unfairness toward his students, an outburst at an unbearable dinner party, a kindly gesture are all evidence against him, dragged out in a climactic academic hearing that is at once farcical and horribly realistic. A slightly indeterminate ending--for where does poor Ted, sans wife and job, go from here?--is the only minor blemish on a peerlessly accomplished performance, at once tinglingly contemporary and timelessly funny. (Apr.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 314 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial; First Edition. first pper edition (February 19, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060953713
• ISBN-13: 978-0060953713
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (137 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #728,557 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

66 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars beautifully written but ultimately frustrating, May 21, 2000

By	"hungry_eye" (Red Stick, LA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blue Angel: A Novel (Hardcover)

I'd never read Francine Prose, but I'll definitely look up her backlist. Her writing is smooth and easy and immediately hypnotic. Also, the novel's premise is hilarious: here is a respected woman writer and academic, writing a book that oh, so delicately skewers the fervent feminists, the sexual harrassment hysterics, and the panderers to politically correctness that infest the average college campus. Now THAT's brave. Doesn't she know she can lose tenure for this?

So why the 3-star rating? The first three-fourths of the book were terrific -- but it seems that, in the end, it topples under the weight of its own conceit. You suspect where Prose is going from the get-go (familiar with the Marlene Dietrich film "The Blue Angel?"), and she goes there in style. The characters are quickly but fully fleshed out, especially anti-heroine Angela Argo. But just when you're REALLY interested in these people, all the actors file on stage for the end you knew was coming and the book is over. Why the heck did Angela do what she did? We don't know. Maybe if I were an academic -- if I was more familiar with campus politics -- I'd think the satire was worth the price of admission. It's those who live in Prose's world who will get the most out of this book.

This is not a book I would dismiss out of hand; nor would I pass it over based on a customer review. Read it for yourself.

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thank you, David., August 8, 2000

By	Ryan (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blue Angel: A Novel (Hardcover)

In June, I attended a David Sedaris reading, part of his latest book tour. At the end, he held up Francine Prose's "Blue Angel" and said it was the funniest book he's read in a long time. So, knowing his work, I went into this novel expecting laugh out loud hilariousness. This novel is so much more though. Prose writes with such a clever hand that you don't often laugh out loud, but chuckle inside at her deft use of language and humor and wordplay. I loved the characters, especially Swenson, his wife Sherrie, and of course, the Angela, the Blue Angel herself. If you've ever taken a college creative writing class, you'll appreciate the numerous scenes where student stories are workshopped. Francine Prose captures college life and student attitudes perfectly. This novel made me want to read other Prose books.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Who knew evil could be so much fun?, March 24, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Blue Angel: A Novel (Hardcover)

Blue Angel is a wicked satire that pokes fun at academia, creative writing programs, writing in general and the ego of the artist...and that's just the beginning. There's something to offend everyone--in almost every sentence. And yet it's impossible not to admit that in every biting line and observation there is some grain of truth, and that is what makes this book so riotously funny.