Sat 29 Apr 2017
A 1001 Midnights Review: WILLIAM HJORTSBERG – Falling Angel.
Posted by Steve under 1001 Midnights , Obituaries / Deaths Noted , Reviews[5] Comments
by George Kelley
WILLIAM HJORTSBERG – Falling Angel. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, hardcover, 1978. Fawcett, paperback, 1982; Warner Books, paperback, 1986; St. Martin’s, paperback, 1996. Millipede Press, trade paperback, 2006. Film: Tri-Star, 1987, as Angel Heart (with Mickey Rourke as Harry Angel).
William Hjortsberg is a highly unconventional writer who delights in mixing genres and breaking molds. His first novel, Alp (1969), blends pornography and mountain climbng; his science-fiction novel, Gray Matters (1971) features a Utopia run by incredible cybernetic machines dedicated to human transcendence while humans rebel against the perfect society. Other experimental works include Symbiography (1973) and Toro! Toro! Toro! (1975).
In Falling Angel, Hjortsberg combines 1940s private-eye fiction with the occult. PI Harry Angel, a specialist in finding missing persons, is hired to track down a famous Forties singer, Johnny Favorite. The trail leads to Central Park, voodoo ceremonies, a black mass in an abandoned subway station, Coney Island fortune-tellers, and bizarre murders. Harry Angel finds he’s involved in a satanic plot, and he might not be able to escape alive.
Fallen Angel is William Hjortsberg’s most successful book; descriptions of New York City in the post-World War II era are clever and accurate. A condensed version of Falling Angel was published in Playboy and proved very popular. In trying to describe Falling Angel, Stephen King said, “I’ve never read anything remotely like it. Trying to imagine what might have happened if Raymond Chandler had written The Exorcist is as close as I can come.”
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Reprinted with permission from 1001 Midnights, edited by Bill Pronzini & Marcia Muller and published by The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, 2007. Copyright © 1986, 2007 by the Pronzini-Muller Family Trust.
WILLIAM HJORTSBERG, R. I. P. Quoting from The Rap Sheet earlier this week:
“The New York City-born Montana novelist who gave us private investigator Harry Angel (in 1978’s Falling Angel), the lively detective pairing of Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini (in 1994’s Nevermore), and a drug-fueled nightmare excursion through 1960s Mexico (in 2015’s Mañana) passed away this last Saturday night of pancreatic cancer. Author William Hjortsberg, who was known to friends simply as ‘Gatz,’ was 76 years old.”
April 29th, 2017 at 4:27 pm
I’m sorry to hear about William Hjortsberg’s death. I enjoyed his books. They were unconventional and surprising. Thanks for bringing this review back to life — I had forgotten all about it!
April 29th, 2017 at 9:00 pm
I’ve always intended to read the book as well as see the movie, and so far I haven’t managed to do either. I seem to remember that the movie got a lot of publicity if not notoriety for Lisa Bonet’s nude scenes.
April 30th, 2017 at 5:53 am
The movie had its points (though even in a role where he fits, Mickey Rourke annoys me), but the book was much more memorable to me. The only other one of his books I’ve read is ALP.
April 30th, 2017 at 12:33 pm
For one reason or another, I seldom do, but I always prefer to read the book, see the movie in that order. I’ll follow your suggestion, Jeff, and for this book, make sure that’s what I do.
June 5th, 2021 at 12:51 am
So saddened by the news of William Hjorsberg’s death, which haunts me still 4 years after his passing. His remarkable occult novel “Falling Angel” is mesmerizing and he was kind enough to answer in detail via email how he came to write it in response to my questions online. Wish I had met him in NYC but he remains an inspiration here.