Angel's Oracle

GARY BOLICK was born and raised in North Carolina. He graduated from Wake Forest University with a degree in French. Bolick has tried all sorts of jobs, from being a taxi driver to a flight attendant to a writer. He lives with his wife and two sons.

Beginning with the legend of four "first batch" angels, who wished neither to join Lucifer's rebellion nor remain in heaven-just have free will-this story is of the seasonal winds these outcast angels have become within the community of Angel, Mississippi in 1959. It's a watershed time here, in ways harking back closer to a century before than a few years hence when civil rights would gain a foothold in the South. The protagonist is Virgil Burnett, one eighth black and an albino, who embodies what is decent and noble in the exercise of his free will. Opposing Virgil's influence is the local sheriff, Billie Sloan, twisted, cruel, hate-filled, but understandably pathetic due to the sick forces that shaped him. Race relations within Angel are symbolized by a huge marble formation, called Angel's Oracle by whites and Moses' rock by blacks, through whose slits blow the musical winds of free will of the banished angels. Hate vies with love, antebellum slavery tradition with equality. Bolick's novel is imbued with hard-won compassion; his characters, both moral and vile, are rich in dimension. The story breathes.