A Better Angel: Stories | 
 enlarge | Author: Chris Adrian
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Category: Book
List Price: $23.00
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Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 149757
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Pages: 240
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.9
ISBN: 0374289905
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780374289904
ASIN: 0374289905
Publication Date: August 5, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
The stories in A Better Angel describe the terrain of human suffering—illness, regret, mourning, sympathy—in the most unusual of ways. In “Stab,” a bereaved twin starts a friendship with a homicidal fifth grader in the hope that she can somehow lead him back to his dead brother. In “Why Antichrist?” a boy tries to contact the spirit of his dead father and finds himself talking to the Devil instead. In the remarkable title story, a ne’er do well pediatrician returns home to take care of his dying father, all the while under the scrutiny of an easily-disappointed heavenly agent. With Gob’s Grief and The Children’s Hospital, Chris Adrian announced himself as a writer of rare talent and originality. The stories in A Better Angel, some of which have appeared in The New Yorker, Tin House, and McSweeney’s, demonstrate more of his endless inventiveness and wit, and they confirm his growing reputation as a most exciting and unusual literary voice—of heartbreaking, magical, and darkly comic tales.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Varied Themes Would Be Appreciated December 23, 2008
Randolph T. Hewitt (Ohio, USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The book, while cleverly written and engaging, is frustrating on a number of levels. The author clearly has a fascination with themes and imagery of 9/11, and while I do appreciate the strength of such imagery, it grew tiresome. The visceral imagery was potent enough, but through the stories which touched so strongly on this imagery (The Vision of Peter Damien, The Changeling, Why Antichrist),I found myself yearning for the author to move on to a new theme.
The writer easily has a talent for differing styles of writing, and his ability to illustrate a scene is well appreciated. I just wish he would find a new subject to harp on.
Caution October 22, 2008
Nick Abatino (Las Vegas, NV USA)
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
While the stories in this book are beautiful and haunting, if you are sensitive to the plight of animals I would recommend you skip this one. The torture, killing and horrible demise of cats seems to be a theme he enjoys. Interesting that a pediatrician and divinity student would have such a morbid view...
 Out Of Control October 15, 2008
Arthur H. Roach (Arlington, VA USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I really had to struggle whether to rate this a 5 or a 1.
One gets the feeling that Adrian has spent years thoroughly immersed in the writing of Flannery O'Connor. Starting with "A Good Man is Hard to Find," O'Connor points to the horrific inevitable ending of her story, and the reader, more astonished than repulsed, cannot turn his eyes away. And transcending every aspect of the story is O'Connor's relationship to an incarnational God who sometimes views Creation from afar.
I find "Stab" to be the best of Adrian's stories; and in this case his own better angel must have been the late O'Connor whispering in his ear. Within two or three pages, I knew where the story was going, and I couldn't dream of not going along for the ride.
Sometimes, as in "Stab," I would gasp aloud at Adrian's skill as a writer. Moving from O'Connor to another Southerner, Edgar Allen Poe, may I observe that at Adrian's best, every word contributes to the effect of the story -- one that sets a terror in the center of one's heart.
Other stories, it seems to me, are significantly less effective. The artist's craft is too effective by a half. His aim to shock and bring horror seems virtually out of control as one clever and well-crafted phrase follows another.
The stories are so intense that I found I could read only one a week. More than that led to sensory overload.
So, my profound respect to this gifted writer, and, Lord knows, we would all benefit from a true successor to Flannery O'Connor. As a divinity student, Adrian perhaps shares her affinity to a strong interior life, the fruits of which spill over into his writing. I think of her final masterpiece, "Parker's Back," and I hope that Adrian's journey as a writer leads him to similar heights.
Unique, terrific August 9, 2008
E. Gilbert (Los Angeles, CA)
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
If you are a serious reader of contemporary short stories or literature -- or just want to read and enjoy one of the most singular writers in this country -- "A Better Angel" should really delight you. The stories in this new collection by Chris Adrian are one of a kind, not what you expect when you begin each one and mesmerizing on their own terms as you get pulled into each one. And the title story is just simply remarkable, the sort of memorable story that makes me want to call friends and say, "I just read the most wonderful short story .... " What a great collection.
One of the best American writers today August 7, 2008
Evan R. Cassity (Louisville, KY USA)
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
It is common knowledge that Chris Adrian is both a pediatrician and a divinity student, and he somehow manages to pump out some of the most inventive and interesting writing being published today. The short stories in this collection have all been published elsewhere, but together like this one can see a continuity that may have been missed, before.
The stories are:
High Speeds
The Sum of Our Parts
Stab
The Vision of Peter Damien
A Better Angel
The Changeling
A Hero of Chickamauga
A Child's Book of Sickness and Death
Why Antichrist?
The first thing one will notice is that a great deal of these stories deal with the aftereffects of a loved one's death--usually a brother. The characters here react absurdly, sometimes, and silently others, but their reactions always show the absurdity of life after the death of someone you love. In a situation like the death of a brother, is not insanity the most sane of reactions?
Familiar characters to Adrian's universe are present in this collection--Pickie Beecher in "The Changeling" (previously called "Promise Breaker," as published in Esquire), a boy of the Claflin family in "The Vision of Peter Damien," or the quick mention of a Fie in "High Speeds." One could choose to believe that these stories are all happening in a separate universe, but there is comfort, I think, in allowing Adrian his creation.
Fans of The Children's Hospital and especially Gob's Grief will not be disappointed, nor will anyone picking up Adrian for the first time. Be prepared, though, to become just as obsessed with his writing as his characters are with their own unhealthiness.
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