“And Bagger, already weighed down in mud and blood, further heavies in the dreary certainty that the shriek won’t ever end, just like the war won’t ever end, just like the carnage won’t ever end, it’s a sentence in a book careening without periods, gasping with too many commas, a sentence that, once begun, can’t ever be stopped, a sentence doomed to loop back on itself to form a terrible black wheel that, sooner or later, will drag each and every person to their grave.”
Angel Down is one of the darkest and most violent books I can recall ever reading. Ironically, it was also one of the most refreshing books I have read in a long time. Daniel Kraus managed to earn literary prestige, experiment with form, and explore very deep thematic material, all while playing in the genre sandbox of horror, fantasy, and science fiction. I am often skeptical of contemporary literary fiction that trends towards post-modern deconstructions, or naval-gazing preoccupations with identity, social issues, or politics. Angel Down really stays away from that. This is a book that is certainly about serious issues, such as war, human nature, and religion. Over and over again, we see the characters grapple with what it is they are fighting for, and what they are willing to die for. But at no point in the novel did I feel I was reading a distillation of the author’s ideology. This is not that kind of book. Angel Down is a literary pig in mud, covered in the mess of life. Do I agree with some of the dark conclusions this book presents? No. But that did not detract from my enjoyment and appreciation for the story being told. While Angel Down may be gruesome, I felt the violence and tragedy was never gratuitous. Rather, the unfiltered way Kraus writes about the First World War felt highly immersive.
Beyond the big themes, I also really enjoyed the story itself. Angel Down is an impressive genre-bending work of historical fiction with horror and science fiction elements that reminded me of some of my favorite novels, such as Dan Simmons’ Hyperion and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. The main protagonist, Cyril Bagger, is a complicated man with a lot of emotional baggage and guilt about his faith and his family, and while he spends much of the novel determined to “save” the angel, I struggle to call him a hero. The teenage Arno is the closest thing to an innocent soul this novel offers.
Without getting too deep into spoilers, I will note that a number of the secondary characters in Angel Down experience some of the most horrific deaths I have ever read. There are some scenes from this book that I will not soon forget. As for the titular angel herself, there is a lot to unpack, and Kraus leaves a lot up to interpretation. While possible answers and explanations are sprinkled throughout the novel, I still found myself finishing the book not entirely sure who she was, what she wanted, and how her powers worked. Kraus threw a lot of ideas and imagery into this being (theology, commentary on modern warfare, sexual desire, shapeshifting, apocalyptic visions, art history, angels vs. demons), and I could have used a little more resolution than what we got by the end.
Finally, I want to quickly comment on Angel Down’s prose, specifically Kraus’ decision to write the novel as a single sentence, with each paragraph beginning with “and” and ending with a comma. At first, I was worried this was a gimmick, but I actually think this experiment worked pretty well for this fast-paced, action-packed war story. Furthermore, the stylistic decision to write the book as one long sentence actually ties into the story itself, both at the beginning and end of the novel, and I did not find the choice at all distracting as I was reading.
The Once and Future Lit 