And the Ass Saw the Angel

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**Title** **And the Ass Saw the Angel**

Author	Nick Cave
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre(s)	Novel
Publisher	Black Spring Press, Harper Collins
Released	1989
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	320 pp
ISBN	ISBN 1-880985-72-1

And the Ass Saw the Angel is the first and only novel by the musician and singer Nick Cave, originally published in 1989 by Black Spring Press in the UK and Harper Collins in the US. It was republished in 2003 by 2.13.61 (ISBN 1-880985-72-1).

With its Southern Gothic setting, critics have compared it favorably with novels by American authors William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor.^[1] ^[2]

1 Plot introduction
2 Major themes
3 Awards and nominations
4 Notes

[edit] Plot introduction

And the Ass Saw the Angel tells the story of Euchrid Eucrow, a mute born to an abusive drunken mother and a father obsessed with cruel traps and animal torture. An outcast in a valley of fanatically religious Ukulites, Euchrid bears silently his mother's beatings, his father's inturned indifference, and the hatred and loathing of an entire town. His increasingly fractured mind teems with words and horrible angelic visions, narrated by his silent Southern drawl. Raised to inevitable madness in this world of inbreeding, moonshine, and fanaticism, Euchrid will exact his terrible vengeance on the people who have made his life one of nearly unrelenting pain.

[edit] Major themes

The lyrics of some of the songs from the first few albums of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (From Her To Eternity, The Firstborn Is Dead and Your Funeral, My Trial), are extensions of the ideas represented in the novel.

To quell excessive literary interpretations, Nick Cave has said himself that the book is not a parable.