Having recently read
The Myrtle & the Rose, I can agree with the last paragraph. While I realise that the power of books to elicit an emotional reaction increases in direct proportion to my age, both these slim volumes succeeded in spades, which goes to prove what a sentimental old git I really am.
The narrative is spoken by an angel sent by God to warn the Sodomites that if they do not mend their ways they will provoke their own destruction and that of their city. Of course we know how that turned out, and this book gives a kind of "back-story" to the Biblical event. Even Lot appears as a local grifter playing the two cities of the plain off against one another.
The poor angel knows nothing of humanity, or what it's like to be human, but acts on instructions and sets up as an ambassador from a distant master, who requires that the city and its population renounce their wicked practices, or suffer dire consequences. The angel, having materialised in the form of a beautiful youth, soon discovers exactly what it's like to be human, and suffers serious individual consequences as a result.
Much of the book reads a little like the Symposium in places, or the Dinner at Trimalchio's in others, with much argument back and forth about the activities that have so angered God; the Sodomites, naturally, remain unrepentant.
I hope the original volume will find a publisher one day to bring it to a new generation, and JM Thian has performed a true service in presenting an English translation worthy of publication on its own.
Quote: "It takes a certain level of . . . chutzpah . . . to ignore those gatekeepers"
The law is unjust and inhumane, partly because it doesn't understand nuance. There is all the difference in the world between the case under consideration and violating the copyrights of an author and publisher of a book in print who may be struggling to earn their livings from it and thus to be able to produce more books for the benefit of us all.
Saint Ours died in 1999. Efforts to trace his next-of-kin have failed - if they had been found and given their consent, the translation would have been published as a real book rather than being offered online. Un ange à Sodome has been out of print for even longer, so no one is earning money from it and the publisher is implicitly uninterested in trying to do so. So who is the injured party here? Isn't it a fair guess that if Saint Ours, in whatever paradise I hope he's in, knows what is going on, he's jolly grateful to JM Thian for reviving his book for a new readership?
JM Thian is not earning a penny from his "chutzpah". He translated this book purely out of love and respect for it, and a longing to see it widely appreciated. Do you really want to discourage him from giving more of his time for our benefit?
