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zzzreads's review against another edition
2.0
Nick Cave is, in my opinion, one of the finest musicians working. His music is endlessly creative, seemingly taking on new forms with each album he and the Bad Seeds, and The Birthday Party in his younger days, make. His music is raw, violent, tender, romantic, honest, tragic, and beautiful. Cave has never been afraid to push the envelope and write what many would consider demented, Murder Ballads being a shining example. On the opposite end, he is fearless enough to compose something as stripped down and touching as The Boatman's Call. It's for all of these reasons that Cave and the Seeds are some of my favorite musicians. But it is also for these same reasons that I failed to enjoy, or even like, And the Ass Saw the Angel.
Cave wrote Angel in Berlin, in the 80's, at the height of a drug binge. And the novel reads just as you would expect knowing of the background to its composition. The book takes place in the American south in the first half of the 20th century. Our narrator is the mute and decrepit Euchrid Eucrow. Angered at his torturous parents and the Ukulite religious cult that surround him, we eventually see Euchrid wreak his bloody vengeance on those who have wronged him. This premise is all that I knew about the book when I picked it up one winter day in a Bratislava bookshop.
And the Ass Saw the Angel is exactly what you'd expect from Nick Cave. In the first page we read Euchrid's memory of his birth, alcohol-fueled C-section administered in a barn with a shard of glass and all. There is no happiness to be found here, only chaos and despair. But if you're reading Nick Cave, then that's probably what you want. What may be jarring to some readers is how much Cave leans into the Southern Gothic, Faulkner-esque style. The pronoun "I" is substituted for "Ah" and heavy dialect is used throughout. Cave himself described the prose as being "written in a kind of hyper-poetic thought-speak not meant to be spoken, a mongrel language that was part Biblical, part Deep South dialect, part gutter slang, at times obscenely reverent and at others reverently obscene". It's this hyper-stylization where some of my criticism comes into play. For me, the book was 99 parts style and 1 part substance. There just wasn't much there beyond the violence and style. Given that the book has been praised by critics and most on this site, perhaps my distaste is due to my own biases rather than an inherent lack of ability from Cave. Cave is an excellent writer, any fan of his work will agree with that. And there is excellent writing here. It’s just buried under heaps of, in my opinion, needless and misdirecting syntax. The sheer creativity of the book still shines through, just dimmer than it should.
I just did not enjoy the novel. I wanted to, I really wanted to. Perhaps if Angel was 100 pages rather than 300, or if Cave expanded the focus from Eucrow to other characters in this lush and intriguing world he built more than he did, my feelings would be different. Something also to note is the discrepancy in the editions of the book. The edition I read is the 20th anniversary special, which apparently has been “completely revised...cut down and reorganized by the author so the plot is clarified and the characters stand out more clearly”.
Ultimately, I would still recommend this book with the prerequisite of being a Nick Cave fan first-and-foremost. It is a sensory gut-punch that will make your skin crawl and give you anxiety. For the reasons that I disliked it, some may love it. It is simply that, in my opinion, Cave’s experimental genius lends itself better to music than a 300 page novel.
Cave wrote Angel in Berlin, in the 80's, at the height of a drug binge. And the novel reads just as you would expect knowing of the background to its composition. The book takes place in the American south in the first half of the 20th century. Our narrator is the mute and decrepit Euchrid Eucrow. Angered at his torturous parents and the Ukulite religious cult that surround him, we eventually see Euchrid wreak his bloody vengeance on those who have wronged him. This premise is all that I knew about the book when I picked it up one winter day in a Bratislava bookshop.
And the Ass Saw the Angel is exactly what you'd expect from Nick Cave. In the first page we read Euchrid's memory of his birth, alcohol-fueled C-section administered in a barn with a shard of glass and all. There is no happiness to be found here, only chaos and despair. But if you're reading Nick Cave, then that's probably what you want. What may be jarring to some readers is how much Cave leans into the Southern Gothic, Faulkner-esque style. The pronoun "I" is substituted for "Ah" and heavy dialect is used throughout. Cave himself described the prose as being "written in a kind of hyper-poetic thought-speak not meant to be spoken, a mongrel language that was part Biblical, part Deep South dialect, part gutter slang, at times obscenely reverent and at others reverently obscene". It's this hyper-stylization where some of my criticism comes into play. For me, the book was 99 parts style and 1 part substance. There just wasn't much there beyond the violence and style. Given that the book has been praised by critics and most on this site, perhaps my distaste is due to my own biases rather than an inherent lack of ability from Cave. Cave is an excellent writer, any fan of his work will agree with that. And there is excellent writing here. It’s just buried under heaps of, in my opinion, needless and misdirecting syntax. The sheer creativity of the book still shines through, just dimmer than it should.
I just did not enjoy the novel. I wanted to, I really wanted to. Perhaps if Angel was 100 pages rather than 300, or if Cave expanded the focus from Eucrow to other characters in this lush and intriguing world he built more than he did, my feelings would be different. Something also to note is the discrepancy in the editions of the book. The edition I read is the 20th anniversary special, which apparently has been “completely revised...cut down and reorganized by the author so the plot is clarified and the characters stand out more clearly”.
Ultimately, I would still recommend this book with the prerequisite of being a Nick Cave fan first-and-foremost. It is a sensory gut-punch that will make your skin crawl and give you anxiety. For the reasons that I disliked it, some may love it. It is simply that, in my opinion, Cave’s experimental genius lends itself better to music than a 300 page novel.
kvoet's review against another edition
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
avadoore's review against another edition
5.0
Herregud, kommer ikke til å klare å beskrive denne boka en gang. For en bok.
michielstock's review against another edition
3.0
This is quite a hard book to review: I liked the atmosphere and most of the writing, but for a large part this is a difficult book to read.
susannes_pagesofcrime's review against another edition
4.0
First time I read this I don't think it really sank in, the second time was much more enjoyable, made much more sense.
lost_in_a_leabhar's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
3.5
This was a tough book to get into. A slow, dark novel with some beautiful language. Worth a read if you can stomach it.
greentea420's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25