Rating: 
Summary: Road to Ruin - or "Guys turn out to be guys"
Review: "...every time you hear about some banal guy s**t, don't fool yourself into thinking that your guy won't do it. The reason it's cliche is because all you guys do it sooner or later. Guys turn out to be guys."This is my favorite line in Frances Prose's new novel "The Blue Angel." "The Blue Angel" is a fascinating yet horrifying trip down the proverbial "road to ruin" take by the protagonist, Creative Writing Professor Ted Swenson. Finding himself enthused about student Angela Argo's, writing talent he also become beguiled by her personally. Despite her Technicolor hair and numerous facial piercings he finds himself draw in to her web...and then caught. "The Blue Angel" it very witty and Prose manipulates the language beautifully...some of her sentences are so perfect that I found myself stopping to savor them. The book provides a brutal and believable look at a man's downfall but it is also a fair indictment of the women who continually define themselves and each other as victims, especially in sexual harassment cases. An excellent novel and I will be checking out Prose's other works post haste!
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Summary: A genuinely wonderful book
Review: BLUE ANGEL is a wonderful recounting of how a slightly befuddled creative writing professor is hoodwinked by his more savvy, very talented student. What he considers a bittersweet romance between the old guard and the up-and-coming talent she sees merely as a business transaction on her way to getting published. The novel is enthralling, and the characters are both very real and very intriguing. Anyone who has sat through a college creative writing workshop will wince and grin their way through those scenes in particular.
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Summary: Why I really liked this book and then totally didn't.
Review: I was savoring this book until the last 15 pages, when I realized that the big revelation I was eagerly anticipating would not, alas, ever arrive! The explanation of why the woman student accuses the professor that she so shamelessly manipulates into having sex with her of sexual harassment is absolutely impossible to divine yourself. And I object! That is totally unfair! You should be able to make something of an educated guess about a book with an untidy ending, I think. But no dice with this book. Plus, no offense to Prose, but I personally think that she doesn't even know! Basically, the main problem with this book stems from the fact that we don't really KNOW any other characters, besides our main professor dude, well enough to know the motivations for their actions. That is not to say Ms. Prose doesn't know how to paint characters with nuance when she wants--but she needs to distribute the nuance, giving less to the prof, (sym)pathetic lecher that he is, and more to surrounding characters, especially the feminists, who are annoying whiners that basically bask in the mantle of victimhood (I thought Francine Prose was a pseudonym for a man until I did some googling). Things are just too black and white in this novel--the woman student accuser freak of the week is unmitigated evil, and although she is crazy and suicidal and all that, I felt she needed more dimensionality.
If you want a novel about questionable student-teacher relations, I recommend _Disgrace_. Coetzee, unlike Prose, doesn't seem to be advocating a specific political agenda (although there is that element of the cautionary tale in both novels...), perhaps because he deals with so much more than the relationship.
Rating: 
Summary: Thank you, David.
Review: In June, I attended a David Sedaris reading, part of his latest book tour. At the end, he held up Francine Prose's "Blue Angel" and said it was the funniest book he's read in a long time. So, knowing his work, I went into this novel expecting laugh out loud hilariousness. This novel is so much more though. Prose writes with such a clever hand that you don't often laugh out loud, but chuckle inside at her deft use of language and humor and wordplay. I loved the characters, especially Swenson, his wife Sherrie, and of course, the Angela, the Blue Angel herself. If you've ever taken a college creative writing class, you'll appreciate the numerous scenes where student stories are workshopped. Francine Prose captures college life and student attitudes perfectly. This novel made me want to read other Prose books.
Rating: 
Summary: Urghhhhhhhhh...
Review: Swenson (he is addressed by his last name throughout the book, only occasionally called Ted) is a married wiritng professor at Euston College in rural Maine. He has writer's block -- he cannot bring himself to write his second novel, although he has mid-level fame for his first, which echoes his father's real-life self-immolation protesting the Vietnam War. His writing class is a mix of bright and silly students, then one day he notices punky pierced Angela Argo who almost never speaks. Her intelligence and writing sample convinces Swenson he has met a kindred spirit, albeit one the same age as his daughter Ruby, who will not speak to him even though she attends college only 40 minutes away. The movie tracks Swenson critiquing Angela's novel-in-progress, and he starts to reflect the themes therin till he has spiraled into depair. Was it all his own doing? Was he really in control? Will it ever get better? Written by a woman using the voice of a man, this is pure genius. I look forward to more of Prose's work.
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Summary: Urghhhhhhhhh...
Review: This book was an annoying novel about an over-obsessive, sex-hungry professor who was easily munipulated by a student. The character 'Ted' was one that did not have any control over his emotions whatsoever, and ended up having much hell to pay in the meantime. I usually like to try to keep a generally positive attitude towards new books, but this one was simply just a blowout, and there is little more to be said. The one positive thing that I can think to say about this book (and there are few) was that the author sucessfully pursuaded me to like Ted and take his side throught the writing: the book could also have worked the other way with a lot more ease: have Angela as the victim, Ted as the evil perpitrator with a messed-up mind... The whole book just seemed to be a way for the author to get all of her sex emotions out onto paper, and I sincerely think that this book was one that should never be published.
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Summary: Loved it because it made me mad . . .
Review: This book was fairly big on the NPR circuit a few years ago - garnering plenty of great reviews here on Amazon as well - but it took me a while to pick up a copy from my local used book store (I should have gotten it here instead, for much less). It took me even longer to finally get around to reading it, but I'm glad that I have. Wow . . . I'm no burgeoning academic, thus finding myself uncertain about labelling poor Swenson's tale of attraction and destruction a satire. Perhaps on some level it is . . . but his characterization as an aging professor and frustrated writer is too finely drawn, too close to home, to be considered anything but straight, intelligent fiction. By intelligent, I mean that no easy answers are given, though they all seem to be hidden there in Francine's delicious prose. I tore through this book like a bag of potato chips, unable to put it down. . . feeling myself drawn to Angela just as our pathetic hero was. He's captivated by her words first - and torn by his own inability to get past the blank page - and his fragile ego is stroked by her interest in him. This man loves his wife, but the attraction to such a student is obvious, inexorable. It takes a while for it to become physical, and then pathetic. All the while, the reader is nearly screaming at him to open his eyes. He should have known, of course. The encounter in the park with both Angela and Matt, the boy who may have defiled his daughter . . . and Angela, returning a copy of Deitrich's movie to the video store . . . It's all there, somewhere, but Prose doesn't hand us the answer. Was Angela just a talented pawn in Matt's revenge? Was Swenson's own daughter part of it? Was Swenson much more guilty than even he can recall, following the line of Matt's allegations about his daughter in the final chapter? Hmmmm . . . But Prose doesn't say. I read the ending (and select passages) many times after I finished the book, and I know it's all there. I was so ticked off when Angela didn't get her comeuppance . . . when Swenson is ruined . . . but is he? Or does he deserve it? Is he the pathetic hero, or the villain receiving a just end? I give nothing away, dear reader, just as the author gives nothing away. Take it as a satire, a warning, or just an incredible work of fiction - but Francine Prose will make you work for this one.
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Summary: hmmm.
Review: This is a book about a professor at a small Vermont college who is manipulated by a student into a sexual indiscretion and subsequently crucified for it. It is predictable, although not unrealistic. In any case, it does not qualify as academic satire: it reads more like advice from Doctor Laura. This book represents the brand of feminism which does not focus on celebrating the female, but on how pathetic the male is. Readers enjoying that will like the book. Those looking for academic satire should read R. Russo's Straight Man instead. The book suffers from several major blunders. Did the author, for example, while referring to the film Blue Angel, just neglect to mention the original novel Professor Unrat by Heinrich Mann, on which the movie (and this entire theme) is based? A major mistake was to include excerpts from stories of fictional students and critique them. Only the best authors can get away with mimicking different literary styles. When this author does it, we recognize only one style, her own. The ``bad attempts'' are peppered with more obvious cliches and media phrases, but in essence are no worse than the ``good attempts'' or the book itself. The opinion that a good writer can write about anything, even having sex with chickens, is a myth of inferior English departments. The bad plots of the fictional students' stories are only reflections of the real author's own taste.
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Summary: GREAT BEGINNING; YET, FALTERS
Review: This is an irritating book in the sense that it is beautifully written; however, enjoys a really frustrating ending. The journey in getting to the ending is well drawn and extremely engaging; if not a tad predictable; however, the ending is both anti climactic and infuriating in its pat summation. The characters are terrific, the setting is strong, and the dialogue is mellifluous; yet, the structure is too abrupt to really warrant a viable film. The characters are a mixed bag. Professor Swenson is beautifully crafted as the weathered professor with perpetual writer's block. He is vulnerably honest, tautly crafted and perfectly three dimensional, allowing the audience to witness his fall from grace as it slowly sneaks up upon him. Angela, on the other hand, is fraught with potential; yet, actualized weakly as she manages to come off as a caricature for a great deal of the story. Her actions are predictable, as are her mannerisms and she projects her behavior every step of the way. The remaining characters from the stuffy academics to the flippant students to the angry family all nicely create a viable scholastic community in which Stenson finds himself inadvertently suffocating. The dialogue is quite strong. From Stenson's internal musings to the lyrical chapters of Angela's manuscript, one becomes completely engrossed in the story. The dialogue's biggest problem is wrapped up in the third act of the story: When everyone goes against Stenson, the dialogue becomes so pointed towards his guilt that the subtly woven complex layers fall off and everyone speaks from a one note perspective. Sure, this could be changed for a film version; however, the author's intention is so pointedly direct that it seems silly to change it. Structurally, the first two acts are brilliant and the third act falls into a tired, dénouement in which everything is wrapped up far to pat. Stenson's journey, both emotional and intellectual is fascinating to watch unfold and, despite his adulterous behavior, one cannot help but to like him; yet, his complete backlash at the end of the story is so almost over the top absurd that it will alienate most of the political spectrum who reads/watches it. From the die hard liberal to the staunch conservative, Angela's attack of Stenson is infuriating in its insidious nature and has been so methodically set up that its obviousness is both shallow and detestable Overall, this author has tremendous talent and it would be fascinating to see what else he has to offer. There is great potential here, specifically in the first two acts which have strains of WONDER BOYS and D.O.A.; yet, the third act deteriorates into a mud slinging silliness that is neither dramatic nor tolerable.
Rating:
Summary: A Tour-de-Force Satire
Review: This page-turner packs quite a punch. It is the story of a college creative-writing professor struggling with his attraction toward one of his students. He is happily married, but can't seem to shake his desire for this young, jittery, tattooed and punkish girl with enough facial piercings to make her head look like a disco ball. Meanwhile, he is trying to cope with a disenfranchised daughter, a class full of would-be writers, and a college environment that is growing increasingly wary of sexual misconduct and gender warfare. In Blue Angel, Francine Prose skewers campus politics and this country's return to the sexual mores of the Victorian Era. Her writing is authentic, unaffected, and sharp, and she manages to do what so many other writers cannot... tell a compulsively readable story that has depth, meaning, and insight. For a deeper understanding of the story, look for Prose's many telling references to other authors and novels (Chekhov, Lolita, Jane Eyre)... none of these references are without implication. I have noticed that a number of people who have written about this book here did not like the book, particularly the ending. It is important to remember, however, that the best of satires do not leave readers feeling satisfied. They leave us feeling frustrated and dissatisfied, not only for the characters, but for the reality that these characters represent. This book is no exception. It is easy to see why nearly every newspaper and magazine in this country has taken its turn praising Blue Angel to the high heavens, and why this book was a National Book Award Finalist. I am very much looking forward to reading more of Francine Prose's work.
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