Bokelskere.no

Oh, how I love this book!

Sigh. Ponder. Blush.

I had been wanting to read it for a few years now, but I had sort of forgotten it among all the other books I’ve been so eager to explore. Not only that, but every time I’ve been reminded of it, every time I’ve glimpsed the cover, I’ve thought about my own tragically impossible dream of becoming a vampire myself. The very moment I’m reminded of this secret, I sprout romantic notions of immortality and I feel both anxiety for the consequences of it as well as reverence for the possibilities ahead. This particular book has promised ideas and sentiments so pure and intense that I’ve hesitated to even touch it, lest the story and knowledge kept within might overwhelm me with epiphanies about life and death. In a manner of speaking, I’ve come to look upon this book with sublime reverence and grandeur too terrible to behold.

If you haven’t read it before, I’ll quickly explain that it’s about a man, Louis, who’s turned into a vampire in the 18th century by another vampire, Lestat, and then they develop a special kind of relationship, a bond of some kind, which grows in fascinating ways. The interaction between them (and other vampires) are captivating. Equally captivating is how Louis ultimately comes to terms with vampirism and the concept of immortality. He shares his life story in modern times in an interview with a young man, and through the wisdom of hindsight, paints a marvelous picture of power, regret, tragedy and love.

In essence, Louis tries to find an answer to his own question: “What have I become in becoming a vampire?” (69).

It’s so satisfying when a book lives up to my expectations. I wanted a book filled with deep philosophical conversations about life and death, a narrative imbued with decadence and stained with blood and written in cold, poetic prose – and that’s what I got! Rice delved so brilliantly and intelligently into her character’s psyche that I’m convinced she conducted a similar interview once. These vampires aren’t merely savage monsters, for they are, as Audrey Niffenegger describes in the introduction: “complex beings; made from humans, they are intensified, more wondrous and monstrous than their human selves” (2), and as a consequence, they agonize deeper, they rage harder and brood more intensely than we could ever imagine, for they are also “philosophical: they wish to discovery their true nature – indeed, they wish to understand why they exist, whether they are inherently evil, whether they have a purpose in the grand scheme of things”. Lestat might be right when he sneers vehemently and simply conclude that they are just “brooding vampires that haunt our own lives” (121).

And don’t get me started on how deeply they love too, as love has become so much more in immortality, especially when it’s merged with existential despair and murder.

Aah, it was such a pleasure to read. I became really invested and could read this book again someday. No doubt about it. It a tense read with a succinct sharpness to it, an intellectual thrill, an awe. The conflicts are plentiful and engaging, and the burden of immortality weighs heavily on the heart.

What a blood-curdling beauty of a novel!

It’s like drinking a glass of revolting, but exquisite blood while sitting in a horse-drawn carriage through a withering garden under a full moon, sensing hungry eyes staring at the back of your neck from behind some obscure trees you just passed.

And then you’re turned into a vampire.

Violent, profound and liberating.

Jeg liker måten vampyrer blir framstilt på av Anne Rice, og handlingen er veldig spennende! I tillegg liker jeg at språket er litt mer utfordrende enn i andre vampyrbøker.