Tag Archives: angel fiction

Angel Fiction Wars: Anne Rice vs. Danielle Trussoni

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Some months back, I read Anne Rice’s Angel Time and posted my impressions here.  I just finished Danielle Trussoni’s Angelology, so it’s time to throw the literary gauntlet down.

A quick synopsis of Trussoni’s book:  The story is about Evangeline, a young nun/librarian, who is pulled into the secret world of Angelology by a seemingly routine request.  A scholar Verlaine, hired by a mysterious, ailing man, wants information about a correspondence between her convent’s founding abbess and the philanthropist Abigail Rockefeller.   Quickly, Evangeline’s quiet and secluded world unravels.  The two women’s archived letters point to a conspiracy to protect Evangeline from a brood of fallen angels (the Nephilim) and a hidden society of angel “scientists” determined to release mankind from Nephilim oppression.

While Rice and Trussoni take inspiration from Catholic angel lore, the contrasts between their books could hardly be greater.  Rice’s angels are beneficent otherworldly souls; Trussoni’s are re-imagined creatures, some led astray by their lust for mortal women (The Watchers), and their hybrid offspring (the Nephilim) are as status-hungry as the 18th century French aristocracy.

Rice treads the themes of lost love and redemption.  Trussoni’s story is essentially a young woman’s coming of age against a backdrop battle of good versus evil.  Stylistically, Rice writes lush prose infused with startling emotion.  Trussoni is a story-weaver who threads biblical, art history and ancient mythological intrigue at a pace that draws comparisons to Dan Brown’s The DaVinci Code.

Another contrast is the two books’ reception in the market.  Angelology wins out big in terms of press reviews.  Angel Time received measured praise but actually edges out Angelology according to readers (at least based on Amazon reviews).

Rice delivers an elegant, tragic tale that starts out slow but draws you in with a great sense of character and place.  Trussoni gives you an awesome page turner that stumbles a bit in the middle, picks up steam again, and then the ending, ugh the ending (no spoilers here, but you can check out what readers have to say at Amazon).  Trussoni sets the bar high with an amazingly researched, complex premise so I give her points for that.

When the people speak (per Amazon), Angelology gets 3 stars and Angel Time gets 3 and 1/2.  I think that’s about right, and I’m the first one to be surprised by recommending an atmospheric, slow-burner over a gripping, layered mystery.  But they’re both good reads, and I’ll entertain all protests on Angelology’s behalf.

On the Gay-o-Meter, it’s no contest; Angel Time wins hands down.  Angelology’s Verlaine is a self-proclaimed Metrosexual, and if you squint real hard you could possibly imagine him as a sexy guy.  But Angel Time has dark, brooding hitman Toby O’Dare who plays the lute, and the portrayal is totally believable.  I’m afraid you just can’t beat that.

Richard Carroll Interview – Part Two

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My interview with Richard Carroll continues…

ANDREW PETERS:  The ice is broken and I think I can ask you the “big question.”  What happened that night at Fire Island?

RICHARD CARROLL:  [clears throat] Basically, I put myself in a really bad situation.  Me and my cousin Matty dropped Ecstasy, we went to a club, threw back a lot of drinks, and this guy offered me GHB.  Honestly, there’s not much I remember from there.  GHB’s the kind of drug you have to be careful with.  Take a little, and you’re feeling great.  Take too much, and you’re basically comatose.  Obviously, I took too much.

AP:  So you overdosed?  There was also sexual assault involved.

RC:  Yeah. It took me awhile to accept the sexual assault part.  Y’know in the club scene, the “boothstore” scene, a lot of scenes, the boundaries are really blurry.  These weren’t guys who cornered me and attacked me.  We met at the club, dosed up together, things got pretty hot and heavy on the dance floor and I ended up going home with them, though I barely remember it.

AP:  That made it hard to accept the experience as rape?

RC:  Yeah, it definitely did.  For a long while, I kept asking myself what did I do wrong?  Or was I imagining that what happened wasn’t consensual or did I have the right to be angry at the guys for what happened?

AP:  Do you think it’s also harder to reconcile because we don’t normally think of men as victims?

RC:  For sure, that’s part of it.  I mean I had been in a lot of crazy situations before and never thought of myself as a victim.  Plus, I’m being really honest here, there’s the whole fantasy aspect .  I mean, if I imagined something like that happening, going home with a group of guys, did that give me the right to be upset about it after it actually happened?  And things are different in the gay world.  People have three-ways, four-ways, orgies, and drugs are almost always involved.   Now maybe nine times out of ten, that situation is totally safe.  But in my case, that one night changed my life forever.

AP:  A lot of people will think you’re very brave in coming forward about it.  Was there also an aspect of pressure to not say anything because of how it reflects on the gay party scene?

RC:  I hear what you’re saying.  For me, that didn’t figure in as much.  Maybe because I didn’t live through the experience.  I didn’t have to face people I knew from that scene and deal with people’s reactions.  It was a lot more of an internal struggle.  But once I got past that, it really wasn’t so hard to tell my story.  I mean sexual abuse or rape are things that affect a lot of people.  If I can be honest about it, maybe that helps someone else.

AP:  So you could be a role model after all.

RC:  Maybe.

AP:  Your story is about becoming an angel.  That has a lot of religious connotations that bothered you at first.

RC:  It did.  Until I understood what it was really about.  I mean, I haven’t converted to Christianity or anything.  Being an angel has nothing to do with that.

AP:  You’re a Jewish angel?

RC:  I’m a “cultural Jewish” angel.

AP:  Very cool.  So, what’s it like being “on the other side?”

RC:  Not as different as you might think.  I mean, there are days when I forget that it’s any different.  The people are different.  The places are different.  Angels travel between two worlds – the mortal world and the afterlife.  And in a way, we’re not really part of either of them, which was kind of lonely at first, but then you discover there’s other people, other angels like you.

AP:  And I understand you have a love interest.

RC:  [cocks head and blushes] Yeah.  I met someone.

AP:  Allright.  I think I know who my next interview is going to be.  But Richard, we’re just about out of time.  We’re going to have to move on to the speed round.

RC:  Ok.

AP:  Here goes.  Ultimate Pop Diva:  Lady Gaga or Madonna?

RC:  Madonna.

AP:  Wow – that’s kind of a surprise.  When were you born?  Like 1989?

RC:  You gotta respect your elders.

AP:  Good enough.  OK.  NYC neighborhood:  Chelsea or Hell’s Kitchen?

RC: East Village, man!

AP:  Allright.  Time to update my questions.  How ’bout Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts?

RC:  Starbucks.  Iced Coffee with a double shot of espresso.  Can’t beat it.

AP:  Social Networking:  MySpace or Facebook?

RC:  I had accounts on both of them, but I’d have to go with Grindr.

AP:  You’re not sticking to my questions.  What the hell is Grindr?

RC:  It’s an Iphone app.  You browse through people’s profiles, see where they’re at and find out if they want to meet up.

AP:  Oh!  Kinda like GPS, right?  Guess I’m really showing my age here.  Lemme see if I’ve got anything left in my script here.  Designer jeans:  True Religion or Diesel?

RC:  That’s a hard one.  I’m gonna have to go with Diesel.

AP:  Ok.  Fantasy date:  Robert Pattinson or Taylor Lautner?

RC:  Pattinson by a landslide.

AP:  Great.  That’s all we have time for.  I think you scored three out of six.  Thanks again, Richard.  This has been really fun.  Are you up for sticking around if visitors to the site have questions?

RC:  Sure.

The Post-est with the Most-est

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All that title means is that I’m feeling a bit silly tonight.  Maybe because posting here buys me a break from the big re-drafting of my novel, a process I started about a week ago.  I wrote a new opening scene that I’m pretty happy with, but it’s hard people, hard!

In the meantime, I continue reading.  I recently finished Anne Rice’s ANGEL TIME, and I’ll share my impressions here.

A brief synopsis:  ANGEL TIME is the story of a hitman named Toby O’Dare who is visited by an angel and given a chance to redeem himself by traveling back to 13th century England to save a community of persecuted Jews.

My previous attempts to read Anne Rice were aborted after the first twenty or so pages.  Having gotten through ANGEL TIME from cover to cover, I’m feeling more positively disposed to Ms. Rice.  I think she’s at her best when she’s “telling” versus “showing.”  She writes long, introspective passages that at times achieve brilliance.   Against her LeStat series, ANGEL TIME is a comparatively slim volume, which is perhaps why I didn’t have as hard a time with it.

But on the whole, I could’ve done with less exposition and less of Toby O’Dare’s constant contemplation.  The first half of the book is almost entirely backstory – a compelling backstory for sure, but rendered at a pace that left me anxious for some action.  The second half, which deals with Toby’s mission to save a Jewish family falsely accused of murdering their daughter (a common circumstance during the Christian fanaticism of 13th century Europe), moves along with much more suspense and intrigue.   The story rings true, the characters come to life, and it makes for enjoyable historical fiction.

I do have a new appreciation for Anne Rice’s unique sensibility, which appeals to so many gay men.  Her toughened hitman Toby plays the lute!  I thought that was pretty damn cool.  Plus Toby cries, both in sorrow and happiness, through something like 25 percent of the story, and he has a deep emotional connection to his angel savior Malchiah.  One could imagine that something more than loving reverence could develop between the two (maybe it’s forthcoming in the series’ next installment).  Anyway, as a reader, I felt that somewhere in ANGEL TIME’s tragic, supernatural world, there was a place for me, and that’s big props to the author and quite unexpected.

It’s hard to evaluate ANGEL TIME without dealing with Anne Rice’s strident religiosity.  She has publicly and self-righteously announced that she has given up writing about vampires and witches in order to devote her literary projects to Jesus.  As such her portrayal of angels is literal, with few surprises, and gets a bit “message-y” for us non-Christian readers.  Let me qualify that.  I don’t mind novels with a message, but I veer away from stories where the message is accept Jesus as your lord and savior or perish in eternal hell.  There’s some of that familiar refrain in ANGEL TIME.  But the story also speaks to the possibility of redemption even for those who have done “unforgivable” things, an intriguing concept that I think resonates beyond the Christian community.