How do I even begin to describe this book?
Well, first of all, it's not a novel. It's a play. And it's my favorite play. Ever. Angels is separated into 2 parts (Millennium Approaches and Perestroika) and if you were to sit through a performance of the entire thing, you'd be in the theater for 7 hours. It's kind of a beast.
The play is set during the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and deals particularly with its effect on the gay community. But you don’t have to be a gay man with AIDS living in 1985 to relate to it. This play reaches out on a very basic human level. It’s about dealing with loss, love, sickness, regret, politics, betrayal, sex, religion, death, confusion, hate…it’s about facing yourself and trying to cope with what you find there. What does it mean to know that you are dying? How do you deal with yourself when you betray the person you love? How does it feel to be hated and alone at the end of you life? Could you give up your own happiness in order to live the life people expect of you? Do you have to change your values in order to be accepting of humanity?
There are also some paranormal aspects to this play. It's not called Angels in America for nothing. Millennium Approaches sets up the coming of the angel, with part of Perestroika taking place in heaven. Also, it doesn't hurt to have some knowledge of the culture and politics in 1980s New York when reading, though it's not necessary. Roy Cohn (a closeted lawyer famous during the McCarthy era and for his influence in the Rosenberg trial) is a main character here. I had only vague knowledge of him before reading this play and I wish I had known a bit more, though from the very first words out of Cohn's mouth we are able to see what kind of person he is.
If I could set the curriculum for a literature class, Angels in America would be top priority. I think it’s an important play and that everyone should grab a copy and just read the hell out of it.
Favorite passages:
- I usually say, "Fuck the truth," but mostly, the truth fucks you. (Prior Walter)
- The failure to measure up hits people very hard. From such a strong desire to be good, they feel very far from goodness when they fail. (Joe Pitt)
- Don't be afraid; people are so afraid; don't be afraid to live in the raw wind, naked, alone. (Roy Cohn)
- I just wondered what a thing it would be...if overnight everything you owe anything to, justice, or love, had really gone away. Free. It would be...heartless terror. Yes. Terrible, and...Very great. To shed your skin, every old skin, one by one and then walk away, unencumbered, into the morning. (Joe Pitt -- all of the ellipses are put there by Kushner in the text)
- And I think that what AIDS shows us is the limits of tolerance, that it's not enough to be tolerated, because when the shit hits the fan you find out how much tolerance is worth. Nothing. And underneath all that tolerance is intense, passionate hatred. (Louis Ironson)
- Well I hate America, Louis. I hate this country. It's just big ideas, and stories, and people dying, and people like you. The white cracker who wrote the national anthem knew what he was doing. He set the word "free" to a note so high nobody can reach it. That was deliberate. Nothing on earth sounds less like freedom to me. You come with me to room 1013 at the hospital, I'll show you America. Terminal, crazy, and mean. (Belize)
- Nothing's lost forever. In this world there is a kind of painful progress. Longing for what we've left behind, and dreaming ahead. At least I think that's so. (Harper Pitt)
- (The monologue on the last page also, but it gives to much away, so I won't write it here)
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