Speaking with the Angel - Softcover

Hornby, Nick (editor)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140297790 ISBN 13: 9780140297799

Publisher: London: Penguin, 2000

Synopsis

Twelve completely new stories, written by twelve of the most celebrated voices in fiction today; clever, outrageous, witty, edgy, tender, wicked... this is what they meant by "original."

Bestselling author Nick Hornby has brought together a star-studded group of writers to create this one-of-a-kind collection of first-person narratives. Here are Melissa Bank, Roddy Doyle, Dave Eggers, Helen Fielding, Colin Firth, Robert Harris, Patrick Marbis, John O'Farrell, Giles Smith, Zadie Smith, Irvine Welsh, and Nick Hornby himself.

"Speaking with the Angel" is the anthology of the year: hot... hilarious... lively... literary... and all original.

About this title

Review

There are lots of reasons to buy Speaking with the Angel, an anthology of first-person narratives by bright, young, mostly British literati: these are smart and original stories, none of them previously published elsewhere. What's more, it's for a good cause. Nick Hornby, editor of the collection and author of one of the pieces, has an autistic son, and in a raw and wrenching introduction he stresses the importance of educational institutions to serve such children, who "have no language, and no particular compulsion to acquire it, who are born without the need to explore the world." Accordingly, a portion of each sale benefits autism charities around the world.

Still, this is a collection that stands on its own merits, and requires no act of charity to purchase. In Roddy Doyle's "The Slave," for example, a 42-year-old family man discovers a dead rat on his kitchen floor, and this unwelcome incursion from the natural world plunges him into a midlife crisis. In "Last Requests," Giles Smith introduces us to a prison cook who specializes in, well, last suppers. It's both hilarious and shocking to encounter this egomaniacal chef on the job:

They can have what they like, within reason, up to a maximum of three courses, with coffee or tea and a piece of confectionary or a biscuit if they want it. No alcohol, for obvious reasons. Obviously, you'll get the jokers, like the one who said he wanted a whole roast pig with an apple in its mouth. Or the governor's head, one of them said he wanted.

Elsewhere, in Hornby's own "NippleJesus," a skinhead bouncer becomes a museum guard and falls for the painting he's charged to protect, a crucifixion collage made up of thousands of tiny breasts cut out of porn magazines. The stories in Speaking with the Angel all feel up to the minute, abounding with references to politics and popular culture. Yet the obscenity and slang ultimately amount to a form of bluster, an acknowledgement of the intrinsic fragility that all 12 of these narrators share. --Victoria Jenkins

About the Author

Nick Hornby is the author of six bestselling novels (High Fidelity, About a Boy, How To Be Good, A Long Way Down, Juliet, Naked and Funny Girl), as well as a novel for young adults, Slam, and four works of acclaimed non-fiction: Fever Pitch, 31 Songs, The Complete Polysyllabic Spree and Stuff I've Been Reading. He has written the screenplays for the films Fever Pitch, Wild, Brooklyn and An Education, which was nominated for an Oscar. He lives in Highbury, north London.

Edition details

• Publisher: London: Penguin
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0140297790
• ISBN 13: 9780140297799
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 210