And the Ass Saw the Angel
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And the Ass Saw the Angel is the first novel (and only one to date) by the rock musician Nick Cave, originally published in 1989 by Black Spring Press in the UK and Harper Collins in the US. It was recently re-published by 2.13.61 in 2003 with ISBN 1880985721.
And the Ass Saw the Angel tells the story of Euchrid Eucrow, a mute born to an abusive drunken mother and a father obsessed with cruel traps and animal torture. An outcast in a valley of fanatically religious Ukelites, Euchrid bears silently his mother's beatings, his father's inturned indifference, and the hatred and loathing of an entire town. His increasingly fractured mind teems with words and his own horrible angelic visions narrated by his own southern drawl. Raised to inevitable madness in this his world of inbreeding, moonshine, and fanaticism, Euchrid will exact his terrible vengeance on the people who have made his life one of nearly unrelenting pain.
The lyrics of some of the songs from the first few albums of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (From Her To Eternity, The Firstborn Is Dead and Your Funeral, My Trial), are often extensions of the same ideas represented in the novel. Being written at approximately the same time, it seems that these songs inspired the novel while the novel inspired the songs.
To quell excessive literary interpretations, Nick Cave has said himself that the book is not a parable.
Template:Wikiquote The title comes from the Bible, the Book of Numbers 22:23, where Balaam does not see the angel of the Lord but his mule does.