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The name Sidney Sheldon brings to mind a fiction with elements of mendacity, betrayal and plenty of suspenseful drama. The Rage of Angels, first published in 1980, successfully delivers all of these. I have always wondered how a hard-core realist (in most matters), like me, can be roused by such a larger-than-life narration. Such is the power of fiction (or maybe I’m not such a realist after all!)
Nevertheless, this novel (started on the bus journey from Bangalore to Manipal on the night of April 7, 2016 – ended on the morning of April 15, 2016 at 5:00 am) was my much-needed neural vacation. Here are a few reasons why I loved reading Rage of Angels.
Firstly, I am in arrant admiration of Sheldon’s characters and their credulousness despite their ambitions and their colossal rise and fall. With the three books that I’ve read by the author (Doomsday Conspiracy, Tell Me Your Dreams and Rage of Angels), I appreciate the strong feminine focus of all the three. The protagonist of this one, the intelligent Jennifer Parker, is quite the heroine – braving all travails, to become a successful (no prizes for guessing…) lawyer. (She even manages to get a dashing Senator and a sexy Mafia to fall head-over-heels for her, yet hold herself with the utmost self-respect and dignity. Now, that’s a desirable woman!)
Secondly, the plot twists are sentimental, yet juicy enough to keep one on the edge of their seat till the final word. The changing points of view in narration gives the reader a fulfilling insight into the character’s head and gets one to vicariously feel the love, hate, pity, grief, idealism and sense of reason adopted by each of the three protagonists. For instance, my initial doubts about Michael Morreti’s intentions were erased when he thinks about Jennifer as the truly equal soulmate he deserves. Similarly, it is easy to understand Adam Warner’s (and Ken Bailey’s) questioning of Jennifer’s idealism, but as easy to be compelled by the sense of justice of a mother’s heart.
Thirdly, I praise the attention to detail and research that must have gone into penning the legal sequences. I am no law pedantic, but the quips and arguments sounded credulous enough to make me want to practice law, at least for a day (just like I wanted to be a hip-hop dancer after watching the Step Up movie series)! I particularly enjoyed the case where Jennifer proves the identity of a baby’s father by putting both the father and baby in light of the jury.
In all, if you are a fiction lover and don’t mind any drama over 300 pages, Rage of Angels is sure to be a gripping read.
Mehul Smriti Raje 