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Blue Angel
Blue Angel
Author: Francine Prose
It has been years since Swenson, a professor of creative writing at a small New England college, has published a novel of his own. It's been even longer since a student of his has shown a glimmer of talent. And academia, with its increasingly stifling politically correct environment, isn't what it used to be. Enter Angela Argo, a pierced, tattoo...  more »
ISBN-13: 9780060195410
ISBN-10: 006019541X
Publication Date: 4/2000
Pages: 314
Rating:
  • Currently 3.3/5 Stars.
 6

3.3 stars, based on 6 ratings
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

JTG avatar reviewed Blue Angel on + 280 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
This book is a fascinating study of a writer who throws away his life for a brief affair with a college student in his class. Lots of twists and turns!
reviewed Blue Angel on + 53 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Absolutely hysterical, yet Prose exhibits compassion from her characters. The writing workshop reminds me of my days in liberal arts school. Great example of how the political meets the personal.
reviewed Blue Angel on + 32 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Once I started, I didn't want to put this one down. A great, quick read.
reviewed Blue Angel on + 2 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
startling in Prose's vividness of character. i was riveted by the characters who seemed so real i couldn't help but feel compassion for them and wish that the choices made were better. as the truths of who they are revealed, i could not tear myself away from the awfulness of the inevitable outcome. Very disturbing, very very good.
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reviewed Blue Angel on + 3389 more book reviews
Set in a small, liberal arts college in out-of-the way upper New England, Blue Angel is a penetrating look at the petty politics and policies of the faculty and administration of such institutions and the perils that await a faculty member who violates standards of correctness in interpersonal relations with students regardless of rationale or circumstances.

Ted Swenson, conducting a seminar on creative writing, is a middle-aged, fairly happily married professor and novelist with a long case of writer's block. He is completely surprised when student Angela Argo with her punk motif exhibits a lot of raw writing talent. Maybe it is his own failures that make him receptive to Angela's insistent requests for assessment and reassurance of her work, but he frequently sees her after class and in his office and exchanges phone messages. Swenson is both wary of and drawn to Angela. He is puzzled by the similarity of the characters in Angela's novel and his own life. It is the supposedly guileless Angela that drives their relationship to a point that Swenson sees coming but is unable to stop.


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