Blue Angel, A Novel

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, tattooed student with a rare gift for writing. Fearless and ambitious, Angela seems like the answer to Swenson's prayers. Better yet, she wants his help. What could be more perfect? However, as experience shows, the road to hell is paved with good intentions... A sublime stylist and satirist, Francine Prose is one of the treasures of contemporary literature. No one writes more wisely about love and marriage, or about the many forms of seduction: the seduction of youth, Of fame, of literary success. Blue Angel is also a withering take on modern academic mores, a scathing tale of colliding cultures that vividly shows just what can happen when academic politics crashes head-on into political correctness -- and to the innocent (or not-so-innocent) men and women caught in the wreckage. Blue Angel is that rarest of gems: a novel that is a delight and a pleasure to read, a comic tour de force by one of our most inspired and gifted writers. Blue Angel does for creative writing programs what Upton Sinclair's The Jungle did for the meat-packing industry.