Book Review: Cowards And Angels
by Aileen Muhammad
Publication Date: Sep 28, 2012
List Price: $23.42
Format: Hardcover, 156 pages
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9781466955332
Imprint: Trafford Publishing
Publisher: Author Solutions
Parent Company: Najafi Companies
Read a Description of Cowards And Angels
Read an Excerpt from Cowards And Angels
Book Reviewed by Robert Fleming
In this slender novel, Cowards and Angels, Aileen Muhammad tries to do an
almost impossible task in African American literature, to recreate a modern
neo-spiritual version of Jean
Toomer’s 1923 innovative Cane. Like the black fictional classic of
years ago, she shifts the topic from an over-emphasis on the issues of color
and caste to encompass the larger subjects of the soul and spirituality.
This is not to say that Muhammad lacks the courage to toss caution to the
wind and occasionally risk it all in her search for something modernistic
and highly unique. She is fearless, determined, and bold in her choices.
The central story begins with Ace Smart, the son of a physician and a writer
of the fabled Harlem Renaissance. He is not immune to tragedy, for his
father is discovered hung in his office and his mother dies shortly after
her man’s needless death. However, the family tree of the Smart blood line
is black and his ancestors were very proud of it. It seems that Ace’s
father, Dr. Jabbar and his parents came from the Fjelland Plantation, with
his grandfather guiding fugitive blacks to their freedom. Serving the race
was a part of his clan’s DNA.
When Ace’s wife, Ava, dies, he is bitter, feeling that a dark cloud of death
and sorrow is following him. He is left to raise their two daughters, Mia
and Estelle, but the emotional turmoil leaves one crushed beneath depression
and despair. Although his wife has been dead for a year, he is stunned to
learn Mia is being treated in a psychiatric center, not realizing that the
demise of her mother has hit her so hard.
Some of Muhammad’s best writing comes when she deals with the turbulence of
Mia’s psyche and the comparison with her now-tearful sister, Estelle, “the
perfect sister”: “What pain made her not want to look up, not want to
breathe? How in the world did she get here and why were her sister’s eyes
loaded?” (pg. 20 – 2nd graph)
With this compact book of sketches of effective praise-songs and
introspective dramatic dialogue, Muhammad experiments with the traditional
story-telling methods, bending and twisting the arc of the tale in tone,
texture and form. She manipulates time, going from life on the island of
Sokotra in 1825 to existence in Steelton, Pennsylvania in the 1900s on to
the black cultural hey-day in Philly in 1969. Sometimes the author loses our
focus with her busy attention to detail, but she holds us firm and steady
when the story concentrates the spiritual evolution of Mia.
While Ace fixes on Vanev, one of his wife’s former girl-friends, Mia’s
mental resolve is taxed by the aftermath of a rape. This is one strong black
woman despite her flaws and eventually she sets on her spiritual search to
give her life meaning. Struggling to find stability for her broken life, she
tries to quiet her mind while soothing her soul. Like many young
people of her generation, she explores the Scriptures and traditional
religion before turning to the teachings of Islam. This is not before she
attempts to subdue some of her most troubling demons within herself.
Aileen Muhammad’s modernist novel, Cowards and Angels, is a celebration of
the endless human quest to find a deeper meaning for life. Endlessly
entertaining, probing, and smart, it’s fiction that is hard to put down
despite some miscues and bad choices. Her execution of the plot is
admirable, but it should be longer and more controlled. Students of black
literature classics will find this tasty morsel quite satisfying.