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must be described as Koch’s amalgamation of the Eastern pantheon of goddesses, and of some
important Eastern fairy nymphs as well—the apsarasas, who, like Lakshmi, have suffered
through the catastrophic advance of the forces of adharma.
9.10.1. Guardian Angels Caught in the Storm
The first identified contact Langford makes with the Hindu pantheon, notably including
the apsarasas, comes with his initial visit to Madame Phan’s home in Saigon:
More Asian objets d’art, some of which Madame Phan identified for him, sat
on shelves: stone heads of Buddha; a bronze statue of Shiva; a stone bas-relief
of the naked Cambodian nymphs called apsarasas, dancing with serene smiles.
(HW, 126)
Koch has always acknowledged the importance of such icons as those found in Madame
Phan’s home, but more significant is how he populates his novels with the real thing. Indeed,
Langford’s first contact with a spirit-figure comes when he arrives at the cave-like entrance to
Madame Phan’s home, which is itself not unlike the entrance to the White Rabbit’s hole, and ‘a
small, fantastically narrow figure materialized in the darkness’:
At first, he says, he thought it was a child. But it was a young Vietnamese
woman, little more than five feet tall. She wore a white ao dai, the silk tunic
and pantaloons outlining her body from throat to hip, and her face was an
inverted triangle, peering at him through the bars. (HW, 123-24)
In Buddhist literature the apsarasas are angels or fairies (Jobes, 115), and Langford
remarks that the girl is ‘Like a fairy looking out of a cave’. She brings him inside, and
vanishes ‘as though into a crevice’, leaving him alone ‘in the semidarkness of a sort of
anteroom’ where ‘light came from a remarkable number of candles on shelves and low tables,
their flickering causing the whole interior to dance with a golden glow’ (HW, 124).
In another scene, Langford is visited by an angelic figure after a shrapnel wound in his
brain brings him to the U.S. Army operating table. Under anaesthetic, he sees ‘the surgeon’s
face, floating like a pink saucer. Another light shone to one side: softer, but with a bigger
glow. I want to be clear about this, but maybe I never can be. The light had a human shape,
with tall wings. An angel?’ Langford remains sceptical, but the image will remain with and
soothe him. ‘Just a shape; no face. And yet I knew it was looking at me. It made me feel safe.
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