Blue Angel

Starred review from April 3, 2000
Trust the iconoclastic Prose to turn conventional received wisdom on such subjects as predatory professors, innocent female students and the necessity for a degree of political correctness on campus on their silly heads. In this astutely observed, often laugh-aloud funny and sometimes touching academic comedy, she proves more skeptic than cynic, with an affection for her central character that is surprisingly warm. He is Ted Swenson, a happily married and reasonably content novelist who teaches creative writing at a much less than Ivy League college in darkest Vermont. Stuck on his own latest book, he is nevertheless charmed and intrigued by the writing skills of the unlikely, ungainly and punky Angela Argo. (Prose takes the considerable risk of offering chunks of Angela's work, and the reader can see in it what poor Ted does.) Out of the best intentions--and an only half-acknowledged but not compelling concupiscent itch--he encourages the girl, who is soon hanging on his every word of praise and hinting that if only Ted's editor could see her work... One moment of lustful madness that is not even consummated (a broken tooth intervenes), a disinclination of Ted's editor to see Angela's novel-in-progress and Ted's goose is cooked. Suddenly, every tiny hint of lechery or unfairness toward his students, an outburst at an unbearable dinner party, a kindly gesture are all evidence against him, dragged out in a climactic academic hearing that is at once farcical and horribly realistic. A slightly indeterminate ending--for where does poor Ted, sans wife and job, go from here?--is the only minor blemish on a peerlessly accomplished performance, at once tinglingly contemporary and timelessly funny.

February 1, 2000
Prose's latest novel charts the downward spiral of a creative writing professor caught up in a sexual harrassment scandal. The years ago, Ted Swanson wrote a major novel about growing up with a crazy father who later killed himself. Now Swanson's blocked on a new novel with a contrived plot and hasn't written anything in years. An autobiographical writer in the throes of a mid-life crisis, he feels he's suffocating in his comfortable, boring job at a small New England college, stuck with a predictable wife, a sullen daughter, and a life that offers him nothing to write about. So he becomes entranced by his most talented student, Angela, a girl with numerous facial piercings who can spin a page-burning novel out of her imagination. Soon, Angela's story of a young girl who becomes involved with a teacher seems to be coming true. Is Swenson lured by her to be coming true. Is Swenson lured to her writing talent, or is Angela entrapping him to conduct research? Prose interestingly juxtaposes questions of life and art with issues of complicity and harrassment. Like the professor's debasement in the Marlene Dietrich film of the same name, Swenson's impending entanglement is compelling and fascinating to behold. Recommended for all fiction collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 12/99.]-Reba Leiding, James Madison Univ. Lib., Harrisburg, VA

August 24, 2000
YA-Professor and novelist Ted Swenson's life is just about perfect. The publication of a well-received novel years earlier earned him a light teaching load at his small college, and if his fiction-writing students show little talent, that means there's plenty he can teach them. His troublesome daughter has left for college, and he and his wife are enjoying their cozy country home, where Swenson occasionally-very occasionally-works on his long-overdue second book. Enter Angela Argo, a quiet young woman with orange-and-green hair, multiple facial piercings, a dog collar, and more talent than he's ever seen in a student. Swenson's feeling generous-he'll take some time from his unbusy life and give her a little extra attention. The fact that the subject of her novel is a student with a crush on her teacher makes him a little nervous, but it's not like he's going to have an affair with her. He wouldn't do anything that stupid and besides, he loves his wife-. Prose's tightly written satire of college life and its new code of morality will have sophisticated teens laughing out loud. They might also do some serious thinking about love and sex, and about the many ways people can fall prey to one another. Note: the cover photo of a girl's exposed buttocks can be more problematic than the book itself.-Jan Tarasovic, West Springfield High School, Fairfax County, VA

Copyright 2000 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2000
Ted Swenson teaches creative writing at an isolated New England college. He's been at it for a long time, and he's both grateful and wistful that he's never once fallen into a sexual relationship with a student. After all, he's happily married--not to mention the fact that these days, there is so much tension surrounding, and attention paid to, issues of sexual harassment. Better for him to walk the straight and narrow. Ah, but along comes funky, punky Angelo Argo, who, in Swenson's workshop, shows herself to be a writer of considerable promise. Taking Angela under his wing is not the only position he assumes with her, and before you know it--or, more to the point, before Ted knows it--he is involved in not only an embarrassing but also a career-threatening situation. And his ill-conceived affiliation with Angela has its bad effects on his marriage as well. With her sharply etched characters and her keen sense of satire, Prose breathes new life into a standard story of academe. ((Reviewed April 15, 2000))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2000, American Library Association.)