I'm looking for a new book, and a few people have told me they like Anne Rice. I read the synopsis for some of her novels and didn't think they were my sort of thing. Are they books that have romance as a key element of there story? If they are, than I probably won't read them. Three of my all time favorites: - The Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy 'Douglas Adams' - The Road 'Cormac McCarhty' - To Kill a Mocking Bird 'Harper Lee'
Anne Rice is more of a Dark Narrative/Romance. I am a science fiction and a "coming of age" reader and I do admire Anne Rice's writing, especially for the time it was written. You may say I like her because I am goth, but I fell in love with her writing style and how she told the story. I do like To Kill a Mocking Bird. Awesome story I have read in my childhood.
I would not class Anne Rice novels as romances, although certain of the books have romantic threads (Blood and Gold with Marius and Pandora etc). They are horror, gothic tales usually written in a biographic style (with Interview with a Vampire, The Vampire Lestat autobiographical), but her Mayfair Witch stories are like collections (rather like Stephen King's Carrie). I believe they have a reputation as being 'female orientated' but that is just sexism because of the authors Gender. I've read the Road and Hitchikers. I love Hitchhikers but they are not similar at all, found the Road a little bleak, but Anne Rice often explores ideas of despair akin to the Road. They are not humourous though. Start at Interview with a Vampire, and see how you feel from there.
There is little in the way of "romance" in those books, as far as how it is popularly defined. Classically defined, that may be another story. But, Rice does successfully put a very real and very palpable twist on "romance" concerning Vampires and she does it with a masterful hand. Strong feelings between vampires do exist, but they are not sexual, not romantic, in a soap-opera'ish way, and definitely not something a normal human would experience. They have to do with power, knowledge and the ability of the personal relationship to keep the vampire's anchored, involved and interested in the present time, rather than reverting to habits from their past existence and losing contact with the ever-changing world of those who are immortal. A vampire that loses touch, loses the immediacy of their current time, loses critical connections to the living world ends up going mad, more often than not. Being immortal can be a pain.. That being said, I'm not a huge vampire-novel fan. They're passe', these days. But, Rice's work is unquestionably of high quality in the first Vampire Chronicles novels and I would recommend them to anyone. That I am able to understand how she used ideas of western romance with a vampiric twist after all these years have passed since I read her novels is a testament to her skill. Read "Interview with a Vampire" and "The Vampire Lestat." Your time will not be wasted.
