The Feast of All Saints by Anne Rice
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Book Reviews of The Feast of All Saints
Book Review: A bit unevenly paced, but excellent story!
Summary: 4 Stars
The problem with Saints is the first 100 or so pages are stuffed with historical detail, the next few hundred pages lull into an easy going story, and the last 50 or so pages load in a lot of climax. So don't be turned off in the beginning, it is quite an excellent story it just takes it's time to develop.Book Review: Great characters, fascinating history, but...
Summary: 3 Stars
The characters in Saints are all interesting, and the fact that this is historical fiction certainly helps make them more so. My biggest gripe is that the narrative is excessive and bogged-down at times - not as bad as some scholar might have it - but still leaving you doubting most of the time that much of the extra detail helps develop the story. Also, the author's strength lies in straight-forward story telling, there's no artistic style to her words, but none the less her stories are gripping on their own.Book Review: Nice background - but a slow-turner
Summary: 2 Stars
I usually have patience when it comes to reading works that require more effort than your average bestseller, but this was really pushing it. I read "Interview with a Vampire" which was a great mood piece. Anne Rice's use of description in that case really fit the story and made me enjoy the darker aspects of 19th century New Orleans and Paris. In this novel, Anne Rice's use of description really made the work seem bloated. It kept getting to the point where I was wondering when she would get the the real meat of the plot (if there was one). Her characters were interesting, especially Marcel, Anna Bella, Christophe, and his mother Juliet. But most activities involving these characters are interrupted by descriptive paragraphs on every flicker of emotion or curve of woodwork. I saw a TV movie based on the novel, which is what peaked my interest, but the writing style Rice used was more annoyingly descriptive than I expected. The stream-of-consciousness in the novel also made reading it difficult. I've read a few shorter novels using that style of writing, like "Mrs. Dalloway" , but in this novel of a little over 600 pages, it really tested my patience. This book could have really benefited from some considerate editing. If you're interested in the subject of the gens de colour of New Orleans (and willing to display more patience than I could gather)then you could check this out. This for me was disappointing considering how accomplished "Interview with the Vampire" was.Book Review: what a pity...
Summary: 2 Stars
This book has an author of obvious talent, interesting characters and fascinating little-known history, and yet it fails. I believe that reason for this is that it reads as if it was written far far too fast. It is a story about a vanished world, that of the Gens de Coleur Libre in Pre-bellum New Orleans. The main character is a talented, blond black boy, who develops a relationship with a man, a successful author who has returned from Europe to open a school in his native city. The boy is desperate to escape from the provincial town to Paris, which his plantation-gentleman father promised to him and his concubine mother.
Is it arrogance or sloppiness that allowed Anne Rice to write this so quickly and carelessly? Was the editor scared to get her to edit it and re-write it, as she obviously did so brilliantly in her first two Vampire novels? We may never know. It is another example of what I regard as a squandered talent. I will probably not try to read anymore of her books.
Of course, if you don't care how well a novel is written, and perhaps my standards are too high, this is a fairly good read.
Book Review: Like Wading Through Treacle or Drowning in Chocolate Cake
Summary: 1 Stars
I am on page 200 and will probably not go on. I agree with the reader who said reading this book is almost painful, it is SO SLOW and there is so little PLOT. Just dense dense background and evocation of New Orleans in 1830. I love re visiting the New Orleans of 1830, but this novel is so artificially constructed. There are many build ups where the reader thinks: at last something is going to happen - only to have another very flat climax. On one page our 14 year old hero spoke "wearily" 3 times!! I too was speaking wearily after drudging through this book. Probably only for true Rice devotees.