Books › And the ass saw the angel
And the ass saw the angel
First published 1989 · 416 pages
A feverish, dread-soaked descent into the mind of an outcast navigating a nightmarish valley of religious fervor and madness.
What it feels like
This novel offers a deeply oppressive and feverish reading experience, plunging the reader into a nightmarish Southern valley steeped in religious fanaticism and profound ignorance. The mood is dread-soaked and claustrophobic, anchored by the intense, disturbing perspective of a mute outcast spiraling into isolation and insanity. While the prose retains a brilliant, cult-classic edge, it moves with a steady, accessible rhythm that clarifies the harrowing emotional descent. The atmosphere feels heavy with impending tragedy, making it an unsettling but gripping journey. It is a book built for readers who are drawn to dark, atmospheric tales of profound alienation, where the boundaries between divine conviction and madness blur into terrible, inevitable consequences.
- Mood
- oppressive
- feverish
- dread-soaked
- claustrophobic
- Tone
- dark
- disturbed
- intense
- nightmarish
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- profound alienation · religious fanaticism · descent into madness · social isolation
- The writing
- The prose is intense and brilliant, reorganized for clarity while retaining a dark, cult-classic edge.
- The arc
- The reader follows a harrowing descent from profound isolation into feverish obsession and inevitable tragedy.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave dark, atmospheric tales of outcasts and religious fervor will devour this book.
Content notes
- alcoholism
- incest
- child neglect
- mental illness
- religious fanaticism
About the book
Outcast, mute, a lone twin cut from a drunk mother in a shack full of junk, Euchrid Eucrow of Ukulore inhabits a nightmarish Southern valley of preachers and prophets, incest and ignorance. When the God-fearing folk of the town declare a foundling child to be chosen by the Almighty, Euchrid is disturbed. He sees her very differently, and his conviction, and increasing isolation and insanity, may have terrible consequences for them both...This new edition of Cave's cult classic has been cut down and reorganized by the author so the plot is clarified and the characters stand out more clearly. The book retains all its brilliance but is much more accessible to the general reader.
Description from Open Library.
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