Interview with the Vampire, by Anne Rice: **3/4

This book threatened to suck for a while, but then it got better and better, redeeming itself to the point of an enjoyable read. By the end I actually did feel some sympathy and sorrow for our lead, and for the entire vampire community, which was undoubtedly a lot of Anne Rice's idea. There is this push and pull, yin and yang, Rocky and Bullwinkle, attraction and repulsion about the vampire life, what with the immortality and the need for blood and all. The one part of it that I found a little bizarre was the idea that these vampires supposedly lived in New Orleans and had to kill a person every day to drink blood, and yet there never seemed to be any real trouble about the regularity of these bizarre murders. But ultimately, for a pretty mellow and relaxing (and occasionally even slightly scary, though not really) read, Rice's concept of the vampire life propped it up beyond simply "fun" to the level of "fun and interesting."

Note: I had not seen the movie when I read the book, and ultimately I did not like the movie. I found Cruise and Pitt to be kind of silly versions of the characters in the book, and not nearly as interesting. And Antonio Banderas, well, he's never very good. The movie had a pretty good look, but everything else seemed shortchanged and dull - the movie just jumped from one plot point to the next, minus the good book detail. If you liked the movie, well, this book is much better. If you didn't like the movie... try the book. It's much better.
(fall 2001)

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