- Paperback: 304 pages
- Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd (26 April 2007)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0224081624
- ISBN-13: 978-0224081627
- Product Dimensions: 21 x 13.4 x 2.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,587,749 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Virgin of Flames
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More About the Author
Product Description
Guardian
"Abani is as adept at portraying [Black's] humanity as he is at
portraying the richness of his city. The Virgin of the Flames is fully of
beauty and insight. Suspenseful, too"
portraying the richness of his city. The Virgin of the Flames is fully of
beauty and insight. Suspenseful, too"
Newstatesman: Rev'd Natasha Tripney
`writing contains moments of real tenderness and beauty'
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Chris Abani's novel The Virgin of Flames, is, unusually for an African writer set exclusively in East LA. As with his tour-de-force Graceland, Abani's language in The Virgin of Flames is poetic, but retains a succinct approach to description akin to Saul Bellow or Walter Mosley. The story, peppered with literary, mythological and religious references, is driven by a deeply troubled character, Black, who is of Salvadorean and Nigerian extraction, and underpinned with references to the Los Angeles River and its history. As the plot unfolds it becomes clear that Black's obsession with the transsexual stripper Sweet Girl will come to no good - the question is how. Within the time it takes to answer that question, Abani entertains with his inspired portrait of Los Angeles he paints, a "rambling maze" of strip joints, whorehouses, dog fights in abandoned warehouses, fast-food stops and, of course, the guerrilla mural artist, Black, and his friend Bomboy Dickens - a Rwandan butcher. The characters in the book alone are enough to keep you enthralled - for example, Iggy a Jewish tattoo artist with steel loops under her skin; and Ray-Ray, the dwarf barista with a drug habit - but Abani keeps the plot ticking with timely revelations, side-stories and incidents. Nevertheless The Virgin of Flames is not perfect; at times it seems over-indulgent and the dialogue is barely credible, but, it is an ambitious book and Abani manages to entertain from cover-to-cover. Gladly recommended.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
6 reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
A Tale of Becoming in the Great American City
13 Feb 2007
Format:Paperback
In the Virgin of Flames Abani gives us a lyrical, daring portrait of a city and its inhabitants struggling to find their place between darkness and the sublime. Black, a mural artist, is a modern-day Hamlet searching for answers to the riddle of his past, fighting to create a whole from its fragments. This conflict is mirrored in the topography of Los Angeles, where the holy and grotesque combine in a city that reflects the struggles of post-9/11 America. Abani does not provide easy answers to any of this. Instead, he shows us characters that navigate violence and despair but retain the ability to truly care about one another and a city where, despite its urban malaise and constant veil of smoke and ash, people sing joyously in the streets. From its vivid dreamscapes to its gritty realism, Abani's novel will leave the reader breathless at the beauties and complexities of life.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
The Purpose of Art
8 Feb 2007
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The Virgin of Flames is odd, complex, and accomplished. We find many of Abani's earlier themes: lost, found, and created identities, violent acts and defered release and the consequences of both, surreal consciousness, sublime sexuality and abhorent flesh, choices, imperatives, the absence in the human condition of objectivity - all ignited on the page into an escalated blaze that can keep you up nights. Abani's writing is not for those invested in happy endings. The suicides of his protagonists speed up the inevitability of a death most of us strain to delay. Yet, this is fiction, and, if you give youself over to it, The Virgin of Flames reads as a unique, disquieting voice, an extended prosepoem which will leave you changed. What other is the purpose of art?
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Engaging, Enlightening and Entertaining
22 Feb 2007
Format:Paperback
I can't begin to tell you how much I enjoyed this book. Abani's characters leap from the page. It's a stunning book and I can't wait to go back and read some of Abani's earlier novels.
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