And the Ass Saw the Angel by Nick Cave
My rating: 5/5 cats
so i am going to review this one after all, because the book i am reading now will probably take me forever, and i don’t want to get out of practice writing reviews that have nothing to do with the book. it’s a tricky skill, you understand, it must be honed. this may be one of my favorite books ever. i have gone through so many copies of this because i never learn not to lend it to people, particularly people i might be kissing. i think i gave this to two of them, wayyy back in my kissy youth. and of course, we went our separate ways (that’s me and the book, as well as me and the kissed-upon) so i have solved that problem by keeping my lips to myself. and i will never lend this one out again, because it comes and goes in print (right now—out of print) and i couldn’t bear to be parted from it again. that being said—it’s by no means perfect. the biggest gripe is obvious: writing in dialect is tricky, writing in a dialect not your own is even worse. you catch the rhythm after a bit, but it’s still not perfectly rendered. i also wonder what mr. nick cave would think about the word “antihero” being applied to this book, because this one is even more of an antihero than bunny munro, and if he was surprised at b.m. being judged as antiheroic, i wonder about his acceptance of what is an obvious judgment by the reader. but the story…it’s so well-written and well-conceived. his powers of description are unbearably good. i haven’t read this book in at least 5 years, but i can still see every character, every building, fortress, dog, prostitute, church—everything. it has some of the most gruesome descriptions i’ve ever read, but also some of the most lyrical. it’s love and madness and biblical misinterpretation and power and callousness and industry. if the three most important rules of door-to-door salesmanship, as we were taught in The Death of Bunny Munro are “vagina, vagina, vagina,” this book teaches us the three most important rules of messiah-dom, “crazy, crazy, crazy.” but, damn he’s endearing. he shouldn’t be at all, but euchrid eucrow is one of my favorite characters in all of literature. and that one scene, where it switches from first- to third-person is devastating precisely because you fall in love with him. and then, when that perspective is given—just a gut-punch. i may have to read it again soon, but don’t even ask me for my copy because the answer is an emphatic “no.” who says i can’t be taught?
oh, and i almost forgot- this book also has a soundtrack – which elevates it above most other books.
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