The Virgin of Flames

by Chris Abani

book data

103 ratings, 3.79 average rating, 17 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		29%
4		34%
3		23%
2		10%
1		1%

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published

January 30th 2007 by Penguin (Non-Classics)

binding

Paperback, 304 pages

isbn

014303877X (isbn13: 9780143038771)

description

From the author of the award-winning GraceLand comes a searing, dazzlingly written novel of a tarnished City of Angels

Praised as “singular” (The Phi

...more

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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 181)

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04/11/07

Megan rated it:

bookshelves: haveread

recommends it for: imbeciles

You should read this book if you enjoy hearing other people bitch and moan about how hard their lives are in a painful fashion that lacks wit and clever design.

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07/13/08

Jose rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

Its a strange novel. There is no hero. How can Black be a hero in the traditional sense. The whole novel is not traditional except mainly in form.

Black, uber-confused. He doesn’t think he is gay. And his history. He is a messed person, because of his past and his family. He has no structural founding that comes from knowing one’s family background. That is why Bomboy and Iggy tell him he has not started his journey yet, and that he cannot become; because in the novel’s philosoph...more Its a strange novel. There is no hero. How can Black be a hero in the traditional sense. The whole novel is not traditional except mainly in form.

Black, uber-confused. He doesn’t think he is gay. And his history. He is a messed person, because of his past and his family. He has no structural founding that comes from knowing one’s family background. That is why Bomboy and Iggy tell him he has not started his journey yet, and that he cannot become; because in the novel’s philosophy, to become or becoming first involves being something else then a metamorphose. The novel and Black cannot account for the paradox of becoming from nothing. So the question of the miracle comes up, how can something come from nothing- How is it that the Virgin appears on the rooftop, the angel, or Sweet-girl’s genitals. Black and the novel are ‘drawn’ (as Black says his attraction to Sweet-girl is for him, something/someone he is ‘drawn’ to, like Fatima.) Novel focuses an underlying need for knowing oneself. This involves identity. Its an issue I am deeply interested in. Bomboy states that Black is simply African, Iggy sees a more complex range of factors to Black’s identity. Not only does location describe identity but relationships as well.

The last scenes are disturbing, and I’m not referring to Sweet-girl revealing her genitals, or even the cross-dressing. I wonder why Black starts beating on Sweet-girl, it seems part of his confusion over his identity, maybe he thought that if his mother didn’t mess him up so much and his father had stayed he would have been normal and wouldn’t have had to have relationships with Bomboy, Iggy, and Sweet-girl. And maybe that is why he beats her up. Because he has felt, unconsciously at least that he has been wronged and that he doesn’t belong with these people, but that he is trapped, Sweet-girl, and now his crossdressing, all his final acquiescing, too an identity that is part of him, part of his body, is him, that he doesn’t want to recognize. He is definitely running and avoiding everything. He can’t accept himself, yet he would never accept being what he probably unconsciously thinks is normal. Perhaps then the only reason he is not misanthropic is because he is needy, wounded and needs some love. If not for that than he would probably care for no one. He also uses Bomboy.

Another thing I cannot explain is the attraction to the dogs. Maybe, the only ones Black can really identify with are those stray or unwanted dogs, ugly, dirty, dying, mutts without knowledge of parents or lineage, abused by those that don’t want to care for them but could. Does it matter whether Black dies or not in the end, the novel does explain, maybe it doesn’t if Black is like these dogs, all of them also forgotten except some only as brief memories to a few. Black is the forgotten, like the indian before the conquest, the African before the violence of outside nations. They are ghosts wandering the streets of Los Angeles.

Finally what can I say about the message or theme of the novel. It seems only to raise questions, as it further peels a skin of the onion, more questions without solutions causing confusion. Truth in the novel is understood by Bomboy and Iggy as a delusion that people hold to. There is no concern for truth for them, it is meaningless even to Black. (less)

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2 comments

06/24/08

Wyatt rated it:

Read in June, 2008

Fans of Middlesex will surely like The Virgin of Flames. The synopsis (a street artist who's obsessed with a transexual) had me unsure that it would be my kind of book, despite having loved Abani's last book, Graceland. Abani picks up where he left off with the strange eroticism that his last character got out of putting on makeup as an Elvis impersonator, and takes it to the next level...hell, he takes it ten levels beyond that, into a gritty, beautiful, story of a muralist in L.A. which is a...more Fans of Middlesex will surely like The Virgin of Flames. The synopsis (a street artist who's obsessed with a transexual) had me unsure that it would be my kind of book, despite having loved Abani's last book, Graceland. Abani picks up where he left off with the strange eroticism that his last character got out of putting on makeup as an Elvis impersonator, and takes it to the next level...hell, he takes it ten levels beyond that, into a gritty, beautiful, story of a muralist in L.A. which is also everyone's story, in that it's partially about the guilt and abuse we all share: the torture that religion is for some, disappointment with science as a be-all/ end-all, the horrors of Rwanda...

It's not the L.A. we like to idolize. It's the other L.A., poor Latin American L.A. (L.A.L.A. if you will) solarized and blown up to idol-worthy proportions. It's Wassup Rockers, but Wassup Transvestite. It's The Painter of Battles, but The Painter of Battles Between Religion Guilt and Free Sexual Expression. It's It's A Wonderful Life (an allusions used within the book) for the non-white, not-straight George Bailey (/George Lopez). It's the next best thing in magical-realism-meets-gay-lit since A Visitation of Spirits.

Okay, so this book's a mind-grabber. It has a lot more going for it than just a transexual love story...and let's be honest, it's not like that's the story you read every day to begin with.

TVOF doesn't ride on preposterous situations of subcultural characters, ala Coupeland or Palanhiuk.

I'm definitley a big fan of stories in which an ordinary guy gets boosted to the status of a religious figure (Palanhiuk has been there before with Survivor). My last read was The Highest Tide, another case where people want so badly to believe that they won't even take the scientific testimony of the person responsible for the hoax. Abani writes, "You're a good man, Black." "No. I'm not." "Hush. Let me believe it."

In an odd way, The Virgin of Flames (though not for children) may be to L.A. what The Highest Tide is to the South Puget Sound, in that it captures a regional spirit as well. According to Abani's main character Black, L.A. is unique among cities because...
-There is no "L.A. State of Mind." It's like a tickle in the back of your throat before you sneeze. You can become the person that you want to be in an instant...or not (paraphrased)
-L.A. is a city full of truth, even if it does have a fake plastic mastodon pretending to drown in a tar pit.
(").
-"This city wasn't a city. And if it was, it was a hidden city. There were several cities within it, and you had to yield to it, before it revealed an of its magic to you. It was a slow realization...it forced you to find the city with you. In that way, it was a grown up city."

You can tell that Chris Abani is a poet as well. The one line that summed up his book as an endeavor: "carrying the darkness like a perverted torch."

Carry on, Abani, carry on. It was a great book to read the day after Pride Parade in Providence. It will keep you questioning your preconceptions about gender. Now I have this big rolly polly giant of a writer marching around in my mind...March on you big stud...wait, did I just say that?:) (less)

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04/19/08

Dusty rated it:

Read in May, 2008

screw this book, if i read one more story about a "tragic" person with "abuse, race and gender issues" i am going to start ripping out pages.
why do authors insist on burning up the best parts of us multigendered into their wierd ass fantasies and dramas.
i am no longer a fan of this abani person. i appreciated his other book graceland. but i would like to ask him a question "mister abani why do you feature sex workers who are turned on by violence? it is no...more

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01/22/09

Chad rated it:

Read in December, 2007

chilling, hilarious and tragic. all the more incredible after seeing C.Abani read last Friday night in the District of Columbia. weaves together gender, race, catholicism, child abuse, black outs, and the Blackmobile (a yellow VW bus) into some stellar depictions of Los Angeles.

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05/15/08

David rated it:

Read in May, 2008

There are two ways for me to think about The Virgin of Flames. A.) it is a typical (and overdone) coming of age novel from a liberal UC professor focused on gender, sexuality and ethnicity. Or, B.) it's a probing study of East and Downtown LA from a global citizen who is at once native and guest of Lagos, London, and Los Angeles. Obviously, I prefer sticking with B. For anyone who has waited hours in LA's Union Station or who has bought a piñata on Olympic, Abani's descriptions ring truer and c...more

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02/10/09

Jamila rated it:

Read in February, 2009

This book surprised me. It was heartbreaking and sad; yet, there were spots of humor and joy. Abani wrote with amazing poetry. His descriptions of Los Angeles were specific and colorful. His characters were honest and triumphant, even as they were shameful and violent.

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04/08/08

Kathryn rated it:

bookshelves: fiction

Read in June, 2008

Well, I've renewed it twice and I'm starting to owe money on it, so for now this will be one of those books that I hope to finish someday. Interesting and edgy concepts yet the language didn't grab me. The content ranges from sensual to horrible but the prose is a bit lackluster.

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12/01/07

Richard rated it:

A good book with an intriguing character. However, being from Los Angeles, there were some details that made the story suspect for me (fireflies in LA? brushfires and rain occuring at the same time?). Maybe it was over my head and I was not invested enough in the fantastic imagery.

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09/09/08

Mariana rated it:

bookshelves: currently-reading

This book is astoundingly beautiful and devastating. It is dark and funny and really gets at the confusion of cities, gender, masculinity, and child hood. It is also irreverent and experimental.

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08/21/07

Addie Rolnick rated it:

Read in May, 2007

why don't other people like this book as much as i did? it made me want to read again. if nothing else, it's a beautiful story about downtown LA, the LA river, and the ashes in the air fromt the fires.

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08/30/07

Olivia is currently reading it

bookshelves: currently-reading

Read in July, 2007

still reading....enjoying Chris Abani....I loved Graceland and decided to read this one.....different yet still that same approachable style....

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05/28/08

Elissa rated it:

Read in May, 2008

great story about a man coming to terms with his sexuality with the wonderful, scary and amazing city of Los Angeles as the background.

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09/24/08

Charles rated it:

I so wanted to love this, but it doesn't hold up or sustain interest...

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06/23/08

Rita rated it:

Interesting book, but predictable.

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01/23/08

Seven marked it as to-read

bookshelves: to-read

looking forward to this read!

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06/26/09

fbuser1372411361 rated it:

I read this after Bolano's 2666. So I think I was kind of in withdrawl and didn't really get excited about the writing or story until about half way through. I liked the book. I wonder how much is autobiographical or otherwise true. I will probably be going to the Ugly Store next time I'm in LA at least to get a cup of coffee. LA is really the main charecter. I want to Read Becoming Abigail to compare his treatment of London.

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