He eventually connives to get Robin’s address and meet him in person. Grant becomes obsessed with Robin’s work and meeting Robin. However, we find out later that Johnna seems to have deliberately exposed him to Robin’s work to get Grant out of his funk and to get Grant to take an interest in her work. Thus, like the Funhole showing up in the closet of an apartment building in The Cipher or Austen’s brain damage and visions after stumbling in a convenience store parking lot, the beginning of Grant’s obsession seem accidental. Johnna protests Grant even looking at the artwork and says it’s a violation of patient-therapist confidentiality. Grant’s quest begins when he sees a patient’s artwork that Johnna brings home. (Yes, this novel was published the same year as Koja’s “A Disquieting Muse”, another story featuring an art therapist.) Grant photographs plants, but the novel opens with him not working, depressed, and living with art therapist Johnna. He’s another non-producing artist like poet Nicholas in The Cipher or painter Austen in Bad Brains. Madness or death is the price paid for their obsessive quests. Strange Angels, Koja’s fourth novel, is something of a transitional novel, and the last of her early novels where characters go on a journey of transformation and do not emerge from the fire unscathed.
The Early Novels of Kathe Koja: Strange Angels.
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