Review of BLUE ANGEL
A 2000 novel ahead of its time by a terrific novelist
An apparently happily married writer and college creative writing instructor falls for a wildly talented and disturbed sophomore and all the predictable hell breaks loose. Written in 2000 at the start of higher education’s political correctness wars, this literate, often funny, book is a satire on everything that has happened since. You spend your time in his very confused, literate head and arrive at the plot’s twists and turns with a refreshing mix of pathos, humor, and indignation. This prescient novel does make you think that those who get “canceled” may be the lucky ones as our schools and colleges of higher learning seem to be becoming anything but that. Regardless of where you fall on this topic, Francine Prose is a terrific and outspoken writer with a gift for believable internal monologues and crackling external dialogue. I am looking forward to reading more of her. I have also heard good reviews from trusted sources on her most recent novel, Vixen. A well-respected essayist and non-fiction writer, Prose’s 2009 Anne Frank book was one of the best received books of that year.
BLUE ANGEL
Francine Prose
2006 314 pages