Wrestling with Angels

by Daniel Gabriel

Fiction. A world traveler and vagabond, Daniel Gabriel draws inspiration from his global experiences, exploring collisions between countries, peoples, and even natural and supernatural occurrences. From Afghanistan and Malaysia to the streets and suburbs of America, Gabriel's stories evoke the struggles his characters find at crossroads and the inevitable, often devastating, results.

232 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2015

Reviews

[Raven D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of odd tales takes you on quite a strange journey, but one that's somehow pleasant. I love that the book is structured like that of a mixed tape with a "Side A" and a "Side B" that are vastly different. What I like most is that the second half of the book has a strong influence of music in some of the tales. One of my favorite stories from the work is "The Boots of Alfred Bettingdorf," as we get a high school story of the early 60's but one that relates to school life now as well. "The Devil Don't Sleep 'Til Sunrise" was another one I thoroughly enjoyed, as the writing and the strong Mississippi dialect captured the story so well and made me feel as though I was truly there. If this were a standard collection of tales from beginning to end, I would say that not all of the stories quite fit together. However with the mix-tape structure of two completely different sides, and with "Side B" being subtitled: "Shifting Gears," it makes sense that these two sides would feel separate from each other, making the work as a whole feel unified. Overall I quite enjoyed the work and I would recommend it to readers who like stories that are out of the ordinary.

[Joel Van Valin · Rating 4 out of 5]

After publishing Daniel Gabriel's first collection of stories, Tales from the Tinker's Dam, I was thrilled to learn about this follow-up collection from New Rivers Press. Wrestling with Angels has the structure of a rock 'n' roll record: an "A" side of down-and-out travel stories, and a "B" side with more personal tales, many from Gabriel's childhood. "DarkTime", a sprawling "bonus track", brings the two sides together with a personal story about hippies, drugs, and pagan magic in England in the '70s. This is a great collection to bring along on your next travel adventure.