On Wings of Song is a 1979 science fiction novel by Thomas M. Disch. It was first published as a serial in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in three installments in February to April 1979. Like Disch's previous novel 334, it is a bitter satire that depicts a near-future America falling into worsening economic and social crisis. Despite being critically well received, it was a commercial failure.
"On Wings of Song" is the English title of...
more
On Wings of Song is a 1979 science fiction novel by Thomas M. Disch. It was first published as a serial in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in three installments in February to April 1979. Like Disch's previous novel 334, it is a bitter satire that depicts a near-future America falling into worsening economic and social crisis. Despite being critically well received, it was a commercial failure.
"On Wings of Song" is the English title of the German Romantic poem "Auf Flügeln des Gesanges" by Heinrich Heine, which was set to music by Felix Mendelssohn. The lyric speaks of flying with a lover to a peaceful paradise in "the fields of the Ganges".
The novel takes place in suburban Iowa and in New York City, around the middle of the 21st century. Its first section describes the childhood and adolescence of Daniel Weinreb, an imaginative boy who manages to adapt well to his conservative surroundings until a minor act of rebellion sends him to prison at age 14. Daniel's experience...
less
