PULLING THE WINGS OFF ANGELS

Reviewed by Steven H Silver

K. J. Parker's Pulling the Wings Off Angels opens with a theology student whose only talent seems to be losing at games of chance coming face to face with Florio, the gangster to whom he owes a truly large amount of money. Florio offers to forgive the debt, and allow the student to keep his body intact, if the student will help him capture an angel, a task which may seem random, but ties into the student's family history.

As the student narrates his adventures with Florio, as well as the true story of his family's history as he understands it, it becomes clear why Florio would think he might know how to find an angel. It also becomes clear that he is a pawn in a game that is much larger than himself, a game that includes Florio's ambition, the crimes his grandfather committed, a god bent on punishment, and a theologian who desires to teach the god a lesson. The narrator, on the other hand just wants to live out his own life.

Throughout the novel, Parker lays out the worship, beliefs, and creed of his worshippers of God, the Invincible Sun, which bears many similarities to Christianity, even if god is not a trinity. However, Parker uses the similarities to explore aspects of Christianity that may seem unjust, such as predestination and original (or inherited) sin. Because god was unable to punish the narrator's grandfather for his crimes against god, the bill has come due and the narrator will have the eternal punishment that should have befallen his grandfather.

In the case of predestination, the narrator discovers that his life is not only defined by the will of God, the Invincible Sun and the threats of Florio, but is also strongly guided by the invisible hand of Salonius, one of his professors who is clearly more than he first appears and, even more than god or Florio, may have orchestrated everything the narrator sees going wrong with his life.

For an author who is best known for writing humorous works, Pulling the Wings Off Angels tackles a serious and complex topic. By creating an analogous religion, Parker is able to provide some separation between his world and our own, as well as tailor the beliefs and reality of the way his world works in order to drive home his points and underscore the manner in which the system may be flawed, which doesn't diminish his message. Although let overtly comic than many of his works, his sense of humor lies beneath the surface, making his story more palatable and less dire.

Parker's light touch means that although the novella is dense with theological and philosophical concepts on the nature of crime, predestination, punishment, and belief (or lack thereof), the reader isn't beaten over the head with those arguments. They are woven into the story well and the reader hopes that the narrator will find a way out of his dilemma, which could be likened to the Biblical trials of Job, although in that case, Job's punishments were specifically created as a test, while in Pulling the Wings Off Angels, the narrator's trials are due to his existence in an arbitrarily unfair world.

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