Regards from the Angel

Regards from the Angel enacts issues of loss, event, and representation. It interrogates ideas of what the psychotherapist John Bowlby calls a "secure base." The novel acts out events, as theorised by Badiou, Deleuze, and Lyotard. It dramatises the effects of the death of a parent, of abuse; and of the loneliness of spiritual "lostness," via Derrida's analysis of Freud's idea of melancholy and mourning. In the novel "lostness" produces certain symptoms: addiction, promiscuity, and even psychosis. The novel takes a classic format: five acts. In each act a new factor is introduced. In the first, the protagonist moves to London and meets the antagonist. In the second he experiences the realities of living in the city. In the third, he meets a woman called Megan, with whom he falls in love. In the fourth, he suffers a loss of unity and becomes divided from himself. In the fifth, he lives with and then leaves Megan; and the antagonist dies; the protagonist suffers a breakdown. The novel is high! y intertextual. Because of the nature of the characters, especially Megan, there are many references to other texts. The very short thesis that follows investigates some of the issues raised in Regards from the Angel. Bowlby's idea of "the secure base," Derrida's refutation of the classic Freudian model of mourning, and Badiou' s theory of the event all are discussed. Ultimately though, Regards from the Angel is a novel about loss, event, and love.