When the Angels Left the Old Country
Apr. 5th, 2023 02:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psocopteraWhen the Angels Left the Old Country, Sacha Lamb, 2022 novel. I fell for these characters basically at first sight - less than a full chapter - and would happily read another entire book about them right now if one appeared, so. Maybe that is enough of a recommendation right there. But I will also recommend it to fellow fans of The Golem and the Jinni, and maybe Rachel Hartman, and I think it's being marketed to to Good Omens-the-series fans (I suppose also the book but especially the show fandom). I think it is not spoilers to say that it is a coming-to-America story and a story about the ways that makes people change, or gives them the opportunity to change, or not. And specifically Jewish. And queer. And delightful.
Spoilers. I love the angel in particular, who is so distractible and hyperfocused and makes a life-altering decision in what seems like a very spur-of-the-moment way, but it's actually so deep and loving a choice, and, I don't know, I really loved this character and what Lamb might be saying here about trusting people with their own identities.
One note: I know some people really don't like "it" as a pronoun for person characters, and that is the pronoun of one of the main characters here. I actually like "it" for certain kinds of narration, it's othering and dehumanizing and I think that's really effective to emphasize deep non-humanness of a character (like bot or construct, alien, or in this case an angel). But I respect the argument against, so heads up that such use is a major thing in this book. (Lamb themself uses they/them, if that is relevant to anyone's trust level around pronoun choices.)
Spoilers. I love the angel in particular, who is so distractible and hyperfocused and makes a life-altering decision in what seems like a very spur-of-the-moment way, but it's actually so deep and loving a choice, and, I don't know, I really loved this character and what Lamb might be saying here about trusting people with their own identities.
One note: I know some people really don't like "it" as a pronoun for person characters, and that is the pronoun of one of the main characters here. I actually like "it" for certain kinds of narration, it's othering and dehumanizing and I think that's really effective to emphasize deep non-humanness of a character (like bot or construct, alien, or in this case an angel). But I respect the argument against, so heads up that such use is a major thing in this book. (Lamb themself uses they/them, if that is relevant to anyone's trust level around pronoun choices.)
