Title: And the Ass Saw the Angel
Author: Nick Cave
Type: Fiction
Page Count/Review Word Count: 280
Rating: 4.5/5
Nick Cave – And the Ass Saw the Angel
I’ve had this book on my shelves for six months or so now, but I’d heard it can be difficult and so I’d been putting it off for some reason. Then a friend told me it was her favourite book and as I happened to have it sitting on my shelves, I picked it up. And it was awesome.
If I had to describe the genre, I’d call it a sort of post-apocalyptic surrealistic western with a little literary fiction thrown in. It reminded me of everything from Stephen King’s Dark Tower series to Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, but it also had a kind of voice of its own that really helped to draw me into the story.
That’s a good thing, because the narrative is often difficult to follow and the dialect of the characters can be a challenge to decipher. For me, I just let it all wash over me and then sort of sat back and enjoyed the different snapshots of Cave’s unusual world as they came. I think with books like this, that’s the only way to read them, although I also think this is the kind of book that you could re-read and re-read and find something new every time.
As for my rating, it was a pretty solid 4/5 throughout until right at the very end, and specifically the epilogue. It was the perfect way for the book to finish and I also didn’t call it, so it hit me like a punch in the gut.
Nick Cave
