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criticalgayze's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Since renewing and upping my reading practice in 2017 post-college, one of the greatest boons to my reading life (and to my media diet more broadly) has been my increasing diet of Queer art. This has been especially true since beginning my Queer-focused reading year at the top of 2022.
This has never been more true than here. Reading Alameddine combines the playful prose and formatting of Emezi and James with the literary references and commentary on American homosexuality of Chee. But the most present work that The Angel of History is in conversation with is Kushner's similarly titled Angels in America, in the way it takes on the impact of the AIDS crisis while adding in the religious fantasticality.
You know you're in for a literary treat from the jump here with the way Alameddine weaves this breathless sentences filled with seamless and boundless artistic references that are the hallmark of our most brilliant Queer storytellers. (I mean just check out some of the gems I picked out below.)
I also love what Alameddine is doing with form here. The novel is told in four distinct chapter styles, including interviews Satan is conducting with ousted Catholic saints and short stories written by the main character. (There is one such story near the end that is absolutely jarring and would make an amazing piece in any collection.) The interweaving of commentary and meta-commentary and fantasy and historical fiction ... man, this was just something else.
I did start to lag in the back half, but I don't know if this was the fault of a loss of storytelling magic as the book progresses or my own exhausted mental health. I will be revisiting this at the end of the year.
Quotes:
All in black, of course, Death shifted in his chair to a more comfortable position. He had an unmistakable whiff of history about him, and of formaldehyde. (p. 2)
I did not wish to explain once again that the Middle East was not one big country, that Saint Catherine of Alexandria was only a metaphorical mother, I told the receptionist of course everything was in the Sinai, we were all there, the Middle East was one big jumble of odiferous trash. (p. 11)
Think about that, an early immigrant, I learned to travel light, always just a carry-on, never check my luggage. (p. 17)
You never emigrated, Doc, you were born and raised in this town, but I tell you, when you leave, a section of your hearth withers on its vine, you start over again, over and over, you mispronounce you name once and once again, Ya'qub becomes Jacob and then, heaven forbid, Jake, you get on with your life, but each time you bid farewell to a place, voracious flesh-eating fish swim up from your depths, vultures circle your skies, and your city's dead quiver with fury in their graves and bang on their coffins, but then your homeland feels too paltry, a canoe tied to a branch by your mother's hair. (p. 17)
I have to tell you that was a horrid come-hither line, just horrid, but it worked, and now Joan Didion has written memoirs for Oprah. It didn't bother me, I mean, we're all getting old and sentimental, nostalgia overwhelms our defenses, floats over our moats and scales our walls. She's not the writer she was when younger but few are. Don't allow your prose to reach forty should be the motto of every writer, commit Mishima. (p. 29)
"A poet is tormented by the horrors of this world, as well as its beauty, but he can be refreshed, reborn even; he can take to the sky once more. Think phoenix, not Icarus." (p. 193)
It gets better, Doc, fucking gets better, no one dared suggest that maybe the family and the school should change, or heaven forbid, that it was the all-Americans who should be modifying their beings, no, the homo should grin and bear it dumbly, punch me harder now because when I grow up, I'll be working for Google. (p. 198)
This has never been more true than here. Reading Alameddine combines the playful prose and formatting of Emezi and James with the literary references and commentary on American homosexuality of Chee. But the most present work that The Angel of History is in conversation with is Kushner's similarly titled Angels in America, in the way it takes on the impact of the AIDS crisis while adding in the religious fantasticality.
You know you're in for a literary treat from the jump here with the way Alameddine weaves this breathless sentences filled with seamless and boundless artistic references that are the hallmark of our most brilliant Queer storytellers. (I mean just check out some of the gems I picked out below.)
I also love what Alameddine is doing with form here. The novel is told in four distinct chapter styles, including interviews Satan is conducting with ousted Catholic saints and short stories written by the main character. (There is one such story near the end that is absolutely jarring and would make an amazing piece in any collection.) The interweaving of commentary and meta-commentary and fantasy and historical fiction ... man, this was just something else.
I did start to lag in the back half, but I don't know if this was the fault of a loss of storytelling magic as the book progresses or my own exhausted mental health. I will be revisiting this at the end of the year.
Quotes:
All in black, of course, Death shifted in his chair to a more comfortable position. He had an unmistakable whiff of history about him, and of formaldehyde. (p. 2)
I did not wish to explain once again that the Middle East was not one big country, that Saint Catherine of Alexandria was only a metaphorical mother, I told the receptionist of course everything was in the Sinai, we were all there, the Middle East was one big jumble of odiferous trash. (p. 11)
Think about that, an early immigrant, I learned to travel light, always just a carry-on, never check my luggage. (p. 17)
You never emigrated, Doc, you were born and raised in this town, but I tell you, when you leave, a section of your hearth withers on its vine, you start over again, over and over, you mispronounce you name once and once again, Ya'qub becomes Jacob and then, heaven forbid, Jake, you get on with your life, but each time you bid farewell to a place, voracious flesh-eating fish swim up from your depths, vultures circle your skies, and your city's dead quiver with fury in their graves and bang on their coffins, but then your homeland feels too paltry, a canoe tied to a branch by your mother's hair. (p. 17)
I have to tell you that was a horrid come-hither line, just horrid, but it worked, and now Joan Didion has written memoirs for Oprah. It didn't bother me, I mean, we're all getting old and sentimental, nostalgia overwhelms our defenses, floats over our moats and scales our walls. She's not the writer she was when younger but few are. Don't allow your prose to reach forty should be the motto of every writer, commit Mishima. (p. 29)
"A poet is tormented by the horrors of this world, as well as its beauty, but he can be refreshed, reborn even; he can take to the sky once more. Think phoenix, not Icarus." (p. 193)
It gets better, Doc, fucking gets better, no one dared suggest that maybe the family and the school should change, or heaven forbid, that it was the all-Americans who should be modifying their beings, no, the homo should grin and bear it dumbly, punch me harder now because when I grow up, I'll be working for Google. (p. 198)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical trauma, Medical content, Cursing, Mental illness, Islamophobia, Xenophobia, War, Homophobia, Violence, Sexual content, Racism, Racial slurs, Terminal illness, Death, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Bullying
itsptaradactyl's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This was out of my normal genre but I found it amazing. A story about a schizophrenic man and his hallucinations trying to find the will to live a full life after the immense hurdles he’s had to live through. The changing POV and the non-linear timeline kept the story compelling.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Terminal illness, Death, Vomit, and Drug use
Moderate: Vomit, Sexual content, Sexual assault, War, Bullying, Addiction, Grief, Drug abuse, and Drug use
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