Manipulation, Sex and Politics Gone Haywire at College: A Review of Francine Prose's "Blue Angel" A surprising look at seduction, manipulation, political correctness,
I have been known to frequent bargain book counters as if they were the methadone clinic for my monumental addiction to reading. Occasionally I find a book that is true gold - well worth the time spent, back bent and digging, to find "something worth reading". Francine Prose has delivered us with such a book in Blue Angel: A Novel.
The Brief Overview
Blue Angel is a biting look at the office politics of a remote college campus and the incendiary reaction when these politics collide with a too-politically correct society. As we are introduced to the characters in her novel, we keep waiting expectantly for the "bad guy", the truly unlikeable character, to pop up. One of the guilty pleasures of this book is that Prose refuses to make it that easy on her reader, constantly pulling us into the story while maintaining a level of empathy for every character.
One of the other guilty pleasures of this book is that anyone who has spent any amount of time on any college campus can so easily envision the scenario(s) Prose presents us with. College is such a small, enclosed little world, with every student coming into their own viewpoints and every professor a demi god with influence on the "world" of their discipline that the eventual explosion of colliding morals in Prose's story is easily envisioned as possible. It is an incredibly well written satire of society through the microcosm of college.
The Brief Synopsis
The story begins by introducing us to Swenson, average college professor, average husband, average writer suffering writer's block, who is doing an altogether average job teaching his average college class. He is a fairly likable guy who becomes almost a willing victim of circumstance throughout the novel. Many times throughout the novel Prose would lead you to the point of loathing for this character, then ingeniously introduce yet another reason why he was just the average likable guy that the reader just had to empathize with. Prose was nearly maddening in her ability to take us on this roller coaster ride through her story without it ever seeming forced, and without ever creating a "bad guy".
Next we are introduced to Swenson's creative writing class, and through this, Angela Argo - a pierced, leather-wearing anti-student who makes our average guy very uncomfortable. As the story unfolds, we find that while Angela is not a great student, she is a great liar, writer, manipulator - altogether an unlikely femme fatale. Try as the reader might to make Angela the "bad guy", we soon see that Prose has written her story to make that pidgeonhole impossible as well, and we even find ourselves empathizing with Angela as she continually leads the professor down the proverbial garden path.
Enter Sherrie, Swenson's wife, former muse and college nurse. She takes very good care of her average husband and treasures her average life, but she is not blind to her surroundings. Even as the foil for Swenson's growing involvement with Angela Argo, Sherrie's character is effective. She could have been just another character used to give Swenson depth, but she is every bit as well developed as the rest of Prose's fantastic cast in this novel, and in the end displays a streak of unexpected strength.
Throughout the novel we are exposed to Swenson's students, his daughter Ruby, and other professors. I was continually impressed with how well-developed Prose's characters were. The novel itself is not incredibly long, and Prose managed to achieve this depth in very few pages of well written, well, prose. Swenson's student come the closest to being cliches, but Prose saves her novel from that pitfall with only a few penstrokes. The only character in the novel I found extraneous and poorly developed was Swenson's daughter Ruby. Every time she made and appearance it felt as if she had been forced into the story something to lose or something to fight over, but it didn't feel "real" to me. A few more paragraphs may have fixed the problem, but all in all it didn't hamper the story line.
As usual, I am writing this review with the idea in mind that I want to give nothing of the plot away. I strongly believe a reader should discover for themselves what makes a story tick. Suffice it to say here that the ending of the story felt absolutely natural, which was no small feat considering Prose kept the reader from siding with one character over another for the entire book. With no hero or villain, the ending's satisfactory feeling of completion for the reader was a surprise, and a feather in the cap of Prose.
The Final Word
Readers have come to expect books with neat endings that reflect what we wish life would be, and this book had the kind of story and ending that reflected life in an exaggeration of how it really is. This was one of the few book where I was continually pleasantly surprised at the turns in the story, and also completely satisfied with the ending - a perfect match for this story. Until I stumbled across Francine Prose's novel Blue Angel in the bargain bin, I had somehow missed this author. I won't repeat the mistake again - Prose has several other works in print, and I am now on a mission to read them all. Fantastic writer, fantastic book.
Tags: Blue Angel
Where to Get Your Own Copy of the Book
Francine Prose Author Site at Harper Collins
