Log in to track your reading progress.
Overview
Set in one of New York City's toughest neighborhoods, Bad Angel is the hard-hitting and heartbreaking story of a Dominican-American teenage mother, Bianca Diaz, struggling to see past the hopelessness of her situation to make the right decisions for herself and her baby daughter. Told in shifting first-person voices that ring with truth and the poetry of the streets, the novel offers a variety of memorable characters. There's Teresa, Bianca's mother, a deeply religious woman who has sacrificed much to keep her family together, but finally comes to the painful conclusion that she must break it apart in order to save its individual members. Bianca's friend Roberto is worn down by the violence that surrounds him, by the "dead young faces lying in the coffin, eyes that seen no more'n eighteen years of life closed forever..." and dreams of a better life for himself and Bianca. But it is Bianca's voice - full of sharp humor and edgy teenage bravado that barely covers the confusion and aching loneliness underneath - that is the most arresting of all, a voice that touches the heart and shows us something we need to see.Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
Good intentions and a good ear carry Benedict (A World Like This) only so far in her second novel. To her credit, she has created a credible first-person voice for Bianca Rodriguez Diaz, a 14-year-old Dominican-American in New York City who, along with her infant daughter, has been abandoned by her young husband. Bianca's voice alternates with that of her mother, Teresa, a deeply religious woman who cleans subway cars for a living. Bianca's no dope, but she's clearly too young to mother her daughter. She resents the child for existing and refers to her as "the baby" rather than by her name, Rosalba. Along comes white newspaper reporter Sarah Goldin, who has been unsuccessfully trying to conceive a child. After Rosalba is hospitalized as a result of Bianca's violence, Teresa asks Sarah whether she would be interested in adopting the baby. To overcome the reluctance of both Sarah and Bianca, Teresa devises opportunities for Sarah to bond with the baby and for Bianca to be dazzled by what Sarah's relative wealth could mean for Rosalba. Bianca's second thoughts after she has surrendered the baby to Sarah lead to a made-for-TV finale in family court. Benedict, a journalist, captures something undeniably real about her characters' lives. But it's a surface reality, and in the end Bianca, Teresa and Sarah are less human beings than sociological profiles. (Mar.)Book Details
Published
March 27, 1997
Publisher
Plume
Pages
304
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9780452275867