Tom Slattery

The Goddess of Love and the Angel of Death Tom Slattery

The Goddess of Love and the Angel of Death revolves around a nude female nightclub stripper, Selina, and a nude male art model, Owen. Conceived of as a modernized "Adam and Eve," gender-reversing Owen tempts Selina with a piece of plastic sculpture. A generation later, their daughter, Lisa, who had been adopted as a baby, learns of them from a psychology professor who had met them while researching pornography in which they peripherally participated. As the story unfolds, Lisa learns that her biological parents were also talented artists. The story itself is a love story of a young black woman, Selina, and an older white man, Owen. If their art and love may be the "good" of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, neo-Nazi racism and drug gang-banging may be the "evil." The underlying theme is a triumph of art and life over pornography. The story's complex ending may bring sorrow and meaning while gladdening the heart.