false <![CDATA[Blue Angel: A Novel (P.S.)]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169340290m/39937.jpg 39937 8 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, <I>Blue Angel</I>, 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.<p> 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.<p> 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 <I>Blue Angel</I>'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. <I>--Emily White</I> 48259 2000 Blue Angel: A Novel (P.S.) total:975|5:119|4:298|3:348|2:149|1:61| 975 3190 1293 160 1 6 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Mon Mar 05 23:18:46 -0800 2007 Mon Mar 05 23:20:42 -0800 2007 Blue Angel is a good read, or anything or literary merit, but that standards on the whole have fallen. This novel fails on so many levels, I fel...more...]]> 2 3 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Thu Aug 02 07:51:15 -0700 2007 Thu Aug 02 07:53:15 -0700 2007 Blue Angel if you don't mind books where you're not gonna like the main character.

The paragraph below describes the chief reason I hated the main character. If you want to avoid the sexual exploits of the main character, quit reading now.

SPOILER ALERT - QU...more...]]> 4 4 false false Mon Jun 04 08:36:11 -0700 2007 Mon Jun 04 08:46:16 -0700 2007 2 3 false true Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Oct 19 05:50:53 -0700 2007 Fri Jan 11 10:22:12 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 2 false false Tue May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Apr 15 10:33:44 -0700 2007 Sun Jul 01 16:05:43 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 2 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Wed Oct 31 10:01:34 -0700 2007 Wed Oct 31 11:35:58 -0700 2007 more...]]> 2 2 false false Thu May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu May 15 09:09:38 -0700 2008 Fri May 16 07:21:38 -0700 2008
The premise: an aging write...more...]]> 2 1 false false Fri Feb 08 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Feb 10 13:36:18 -0800 2008 Sun Feb 10 14:49:10 -0800 2008
Prose is taking a satirical approach to try to make a point about today's air of politically correct gender...more...]]> 1 1 false false Wed Sep 19 11:46:03 -0700 2007 Fri Aug 24 18:18:12 -0700 2007 Wed Sep 19 11:44:56 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 1 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Wed Jun 11 18:42:27 -0700 2008 Wed Jun 11 18:42:27 -0700 2008 more...]]> 1 1 false false Fri Sep 28 19:24:02 -0700 2007 Wed Oct 24 05:07:05 -0700 2007
It's the most cliched story out there; male writing professor gets involved with his brilliant female student. About fifty pages in (and not getting any more involved), I made a bet with myself. I bet that I could predict where the book was going and...more...]]> 3 1 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Nov 02 15:25:55 -0700 2007 Wed Nov 14 07:28:40 -0800 2007 more...]]> 3 1 false false Thu Feb 05 05:30:36 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 02 15:17:17 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 05:30:36 -0800 2009 4 1 false false Wed Feb 20 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 08 08:15:33 -0800 2008 Wed Feb 20 07:16:22 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false true Wed Dec 24 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 29 11:17:40 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 03 19:09:03 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Aug 30 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 21 05:26:47 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 31 09:07:27 -0700 2009 When it comes to embarrassment, I am a little squeamish. I don't like to read a book or watch television when a character is about to do something that will ruin their life in an extremely embarrassing way. So, I found reading Blue Angel by Francine Prose to be an uncomfortable experience.


Te...

more...]]> 4 1 false false Thu Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Thu Jul 05 19:01:15 -0700 2007 Sun Jul 08 18:44:29 -0700 2007 2 0 false false Mon Mar 30 12:58:03 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 30 13:06:24 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Feb 14 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 16 04:45:51 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 14 16:28:33 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Jan 26 10:31:05 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 26 10:34:26 -0800 2009
...more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=39937