The Fourth Angel

by John Rechy

Book Overview

Languages differ regarding both the ways they group words into phrases and the surface cues they use to indicate relevant phrasing patterns. Modeling intonation in as many languages as possible has become a central goal of theoretical and empirical linguistics. However, intonational research has only recently begun to devote attention to the analysis of spontaneous speech, one of the central issues of this book. The volume contains eight contributions...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0670326305
• ISBN13: 9780670326303
• Release Date: June 1973
• Publisher: Viking Books
• Length: 157 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Youth run wild

A gang of four alienated teens raise cain all over El Paso, Texas in this, one of Rechy's earlier novels. The teens--a jaded rich girl; her two male friends; and the "fourth angel" who joins them, a young man recovering from his mother's death--turn to drugs and a little bit of the old ultraviolence to block out the pain of their lives. As an examination of troubled youth, this novel sometimes plunges into the kind of cliches I associate with bad JD movies (emotionally wounded kids rebelling against hypocritical society, etc., etc.). But Rechy manages to create four vivid, distinct characters here; they're more complex than the street-corner nihilists they proclaim themselves to be--and that's exactly the point. Tight prose and a quick pace are additional assets. Though not as impressive as "City of Night," it's a readable book that hasn't dated much (except for the occasional "far out!" dialogue) since its initial publication in 1972, whereas Bret Easton Ellis' vaguely similar "Less Than Zero" feels lost in the '80s. It's worth reading.