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Product Details
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Product Description
From Amazon
Gotta Find Me an Angel, the first novel by an author who has published two collections of poetry, is a tale of love and jealousy among lesbians. The narrator, in her 30s, is still hopelessly pining for her first love, a teenage girl, Madeline, who drowned years before, and whose ghost still visits her. The narrator lives with Billie, a somewhat deluded poet who drives a classic canary-yellow Pontiac Parisienne. Both of them are in love with Julia, a painter who has grace and charm to burn. Meanwhile, Billie's rival is a successful poet and academic, ffiona perks. Petty jealousies and envies percolate throughout, with much of the action taking place at dinners and parties.
Because the narrator works as a projectionist in a review cinema, there is plenty of opportunity to reference relevant classic films. Music is also a constant, especially the songs of Aretha Franklin. Because much of the story takes place in the narrator's head, this novel could have turned maudlin but is saved by its devastating humour, which is consistently bemused, cynical, and self-deprecating. The story is also filled with dazzling lines, as when the narrator addresses Madeline, "Oh, the tales I could tell--and will. You may be the ghost, but I'm the scary story," or when Billie describes her rival, ffiona: "Doesn't her voice sound exactly like someone's playing with their zipper?" Though rather thin on plot, the quality of the writing and the genuine characters make Gotta Find Me an Angel a worthwhile read.--Mark Frutkin
From Publishers Weekly
This heartfelt but structurally flawed first novel by Canadian poet Brooks tries to find a place where lyricism and lesbian chick lit might meet. The unnamed 30-something narrator is a Toronto repertory cinema projectionist who finds herself increasingly crippled in her relationships, haunted by the memory of her teenage lover Madeline's death 20 years earlier. Ostensibly an outpouring of feeling to Madeline's ghost one lonely evening, the book alternates between glimpses of adolescent passion and current scenes of humorous daily life, mainly involving the narrator's narcissistic roommate, the struggling poet Billie Smart. The narrator's emotional crisis intensifies when she meets Julia Riding, an elegant and accomplished painter who stirs up the first feelings of true longing she has felt since Madeline. Over the course of the novel, the narrator struggles to surrender her memories of Madeline in order to live more fully in the present—hopefully with Julia. There are funny moments with Billie (involving the competitive publishing scene), but as the narrative moves back and forth, the nostalgic spell Brooks tries to cast breaks repeatedly. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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First Sentence
I WONDER WHAT you'll think of everything I've been up to. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
I WONDER WHAT you'll think of everything I've been up to. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Book -- Moving and Poignant,
By
This review is from: Gotta Find Me an Angel: A Novel (Hardcover)
I found this book to be smart and very moving. Poetic language combined with a compelling plot. It was funny at times, but also serious and thought-provoking. A tale of yearning, desire and loss. A story also of redemption and hope. A lesbian protagonist with a univeral voice.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.7 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews) 2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
A nice surprise,
By wildlx - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Gotta Find Me an Angel: A Novel (Hardcover)
"Gotta Find me an Angel" is a story about love lost and possible healing. The narrator of the book, is a film projectionist in her thirties, whose childhood best friend and also first and only love, Madeline, has drowned at fourteen. The unnamed narrator lives with Billie, a wannabe poet, who introduces her to a painter, Julia, with whom they both fall in love. The narrator has lived most her life detached from other people and unable to love again. It is her relationship with Billie, and mostly her attraction to Julia, that are the catalysts for her finally having to deal with "twenty years' worth of pent-up grief and tears". Julia, by being able to make her feel things that she has been able to bury, unravels emotionally the narrator, who starts having panic attacks and to withdraw within herself again. One night she starts addressing Madeline inside her head, telling her what has happened in her life since she drowned, especially in the last year, when she met Billie and Julia, in order to try to finally get closure. The narration also allows us to understand what led to Madeline's drowning. Although the book's main theme is quite heavy, one of the great things about this book, besides the quality of the prose, is the self-deprecating and cynical humour of the narrator that permeates the whole story. I found myself laughing out loud at the description of Billie's attempts at learning to play the guitar and sing Aretha Franklin's "Gotta Find me an Angel", or at her cynical look at intellectual lesbian writers such as Billie's rival, ffiona perks. There are some minor inconsistencies in the plot and I would probably have liked to know more about both Madeline and Julia, but overall this is a very good book.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unique, intelligent, colorful, complex, memorable, and altogether enjoyable,
By Midwest Book Review - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Gotta Find Me an Angel: A Novel (Hardcover)
The debut novel of Brenda Brooks, Gotta Find Me An Angel is the imaginatively engaging story of a 30-something female film-projectionist whose haunting dreams of an old friend, having been dead for about twenty years, becomes reality as the young girl's ghost makes regular visits to her. With its distinctively vivid style of authorship, Gotta Find Me An Angel is also the compelling tale of an aspiring writer addicted to late night re-runs of "I, Claudius", his unconventional editor, as well as the intimate (albeit despondent) relationship of a young ghost and the story's narrator and heroine. Unique, intelligent, colorful, complex, memorable, and altogether enjoyable, Gotta Find Me An Angel is very strongly recommended reading that establishes Brenda Brooks (who has previously published two books of poetry, "Somebody Should Kiss You" and "Blue Light in the Dash") as a writer to take note of.
1 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not so hot,
By Jenn "Jay" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Gotta Find Me an Angel: A Novel (Hardcover)
I baught this book because I was doing a project on Brenda Brooks for my poetry class. She is a very good poet, but I didn't enjoy her novel as much.
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