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This love story is a fictionalized account of an actual experience of mine in 1980. I have changed all the names and behavior of the characters , and have done the same with most of the actual events and their outcomes. Although I report some events as they actually happened, such as the ski descent of the Front Chute on Mount Wichoacan, I have simply taken the circumstances of the experience as points of departure for the crafting of a very different course of events from those which actually happened. Consequently, none of the behavior, speech, or appearance of the characters in the story can be taken as representing the actual behavior, speech, and appearance of the people who inspired those characters.
Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite
Angelika is a contemporary fiction novel written by David Bennett Laing. Forty-year-old Asher Flynn enjoyed his current position on the faculty of the Colorado Rocky Mountain School. He loved teaching his classes in biology, and the seasonal skiing was superb and often challenging. The chilly weather was of little concern to the native Vermonter, and his relationship with Sandy Betancourt, the French instructor, a welcome change from his previous existence as provider and stable-boy for his now ex-wife and daughters' horses. He was discussing the Front Chute, an avalanche chute that was steep and forbidding, with his best friends, students Chad and Guy, over breakfast, when he brought up the new exchange student. Her name was Angelika Bezzegg, and Stu Sanders, CRMS's headmaster, had asked him to pick her up at the airport. When asked, Chad and Guy were both up for the trip to Aspen to meet her plane. As they watched the passengers begin to disembark, Asher saw her, tall, blond and heartbreakingly lovely, and he forced himself to remember that the eighteen-year-old was a student.
David Bennett Laing's contemporary fiction novel is an engaging and entertaining story of two most unlikely lovers and the second chance in life that Asher Flynn has been offered -- if he can step outside the cultural norms, attitudes and strictures of his generation. Laing's story is wryly humorous at times, especially when detailing the somewhat quirky relationship between Asher and Sandy, whose face reminds him of a "reasonably attractive lady baboon." I particularly enjoyed reading about Asher, Chad and Guy's adventure on Front Chute as well as the details of Asher's ski instructor job at the Hausberg Ski Area, an Armed Forces Recreation Center. Angelika is well-written and a joy to read. Laing also includes his original songs and scores in the text. Angelika is most highly recommended.
