Darker Angels

What a rich and diverse tapestry is S. P. Somtow's Darker Angels, a dark novel of the Civil War that's told as a phantasmagorical series of stories within stories like concentric rings. There's really no way to do justice to its structure in this brief description, but it must be said that such a potentially intrusive device here causes no confusion and indeed takes nothing away from the desperately grim beauty of the words that make up each and every narration. From the strange beginning, in which the recently widowed Mrs. Paula Grainger meets Walt Whitman while clandestinely visiting the body of the just-slain Abraham Lincoln, to the whirling, wild, wonderful stories of the war later told by Whitman and his young friend, Zachary Brown, and then the stories told by those within the stories ... about the elderly voodoo prince, Old Joseph, who as a free slave raises black Union soldiers from the dead for one last skirmish, and the boy preacher who may have killed his own father, Jimmie Lee Cox, and Tyler Tyler, the young soldier with no arms, and bewitching Phoebe, the voodoo priestess who holds the power to transform herself into a black panther, and finally re(folding) back onto the Reverend Grainger--whose correspondents include Edgar Allan Poe, Lord Byron, and the President himself, and who is not at all quite the way his wife thinks him to be. This is a novel of transformation, of being, of death, and of living the true life that only the grimness of death can bring. It's a novel less about the Civil War than about all wars, but it is quite specifically a Civil War novel, in which the richness of the themes runs like blood spilled between brothers and comrades, masters and slaves. This novel is grotesque, yet it makes such wise statements about the grotesqueness of war and slavery and religion that its own gruesomeness seems not only natural but necessary. Composer and film-maker S. P. Somtow weaves together so many disparate narrative voices yet produces a single cloth of intense beauty and rage, in which inhumanity vies with love as the fiercest of emotions. A novel such as Darker Angels cannot easily be described--it has to be experienced. It's a mystery to me that this great work of literature--yes, literature--will slip between the cracks because of its macabre subject matter. Perhaps too many critical voices need to stop paying attention to labels and focus instead on the heady work beneath this attractive cover. If you missed the first printing, by all means treat yourself to a special order--this trade paperback edition will fit easily on the shelf next to the Poe, Whitman, and Byron to which it so intriguingly refers. A true masterpiece of historical fiction, Darker Angels sings with a grim joy rarely achieved by novelists who dare touch subjects such as these. Review originally in Chizine

"Stories within stories within stories! And always, it took another story to explain the one that preceded it." --Paula Grainger, narrator of Darker Angels Paula Grainger is the widow of Rev. Aloysius Grainger. Viewing President Lincoln's body as it lies in state, she encounters Walt Whitman, who is also there to pay his respects. A conversation ensues, and Paula invites Whitman to her home for tea the next day. Paula feels something important has just happened, but doesn't realize the tremendous change she is about to undergo--her chance meeting with Whitman will utterly transform her, as secrets are revealed and lives are irrevocably changed. Whitman arrives the next day accompanied by his lover, former Union soldier Zachary Brown. Brown tells Paula a story about a past encounter with her husband, and unleashes a torrent of related tales, each illuminating mysteries raised by its predecessor. Zach's narrative is composed of several second hand tales, related to him by the Rev. Grainger, the armless Tyler Tyler, faith healer Jimmy Lee Cox, and a wealthy slaver named Bledsoe. These stories are further amplified by letters from the Reverend to Paula, which in turn reference epistles and diaries from Edgar Allan Poe and Lord Byron. The stories weave a bizarre tapestry of voodoo, slavery, war, death and resurrection. It dawns on Paula that she is being told these stories for a reason; she eventually realizes that they represent a plea from her husband from beyond the grave. Paula needs the information to make an important decision, which, when made, provides an uplifting and quietly appropriate ending to this fine novel. Along the way, Paula sheds her old life, and, like the zombies that populate this dark fantasy, is resurrected, her mind opened, her sexuality awakened, her path made clear. Somtow is in total control of his material, deftly combining the fantastic and the historic, expertly melding the numerous subplots he sets in motion. The cascade of stories holds the reader spellbound--each story springs from its precursor and leads into its successor, creating a complex labyrinth which the reader explores with Paula. The book is full of intriguing contrasts--the idea of raising the dead is repulsive, but pales next to the atrocities committed by both sides during the Civil War. In Somtow's world, resurrection can be horrible, but also redemptive, as when Jimmy Lee Cox brings his father back to life and reconciles with him, foreshadowing the book's touching climax. Rich in character and atmosphere, Darker Angels is dark fantasy at its finest, a passionate work that reflects the fierce intelligence of its talented creator.

In his earlier novel, MOON DANCE, Somtow created a nightmarish American epic: a tale of the clash between European and Native American werewolves. In DARKER ANGELS he makes a triumphant return to his alternate history where magic and shape-shifters (were-leopards this time around) are real.At about 200 pages less than MOON DANCE, DARKER ANGELS is in many ways the more successful novel. I must also note that it contains one of the most successful uses of a non-linear narrative I have yet to encounter. This is not a book for anyone looking for a light and easy horror/dark fantasy read. It deals unflinchingly with war, slavery and homosexuality. But I highly recommend it for readers who aren't afraid to brave the darkness to find the riches therein. DARKER ANGELS may be a work of fiction, but there is more truth in its pages than in many non-fiction history books.

It would be easy to say this book is simply Somtow doing for the Civil War what he did for the West in "Moon Dance." But this novel is so much more than that, despite the fact both books share such themes as shape-shifting and a raw, unflinching interpretation of history. The complex narrative, which turns backward upon itself bears careful reading, but the rewards are rich. "Darker Angels" is beautiful and disturbing, like all of Somtow's work.

A Civil war fantasy about slavery, racism, class structures and power (of all sorts) revolving around Phoebe, a woman who can change into a leopard and believes herself to be "some kind of Negro messiah." Filled with stories within stories, "Darker Angels" conjures up voodoo and creatures of the night, and places historical figures like Walt Whitman, Edgar Allen Poe, Lord Byron and Marie Laveau in the middle of it all. The result is Somtow's best book since "Moondance" (an historical western involving werewolves). You'll be turning pages long after midnight. (from the "Des Moines Register," copyright 1998)