A new look (for me) at Anne Rice. I became a devotee of Anne Rice back in the eighties?, ninties? When she was the queen of porn. There has never such good writing since the “Story of O” in the sixties. I gave up on her when she switched to evil. Vampires aren’t my thig – I tried a few of her Lestat vampire novels, but no, not my thing.
I heard that she had “found God,” and was writing about angels. That was at least a decade ago. I tried one of her “new” works but found them struggling for clarity, in her own mind and her writing. It’s only recently that I picked up a piece of her current writing. It’s not easy to write about spirituality. Or better said, it’s very easy to write about spirituality, but very difficult to be
understood.
She has achieved the clarity of a piano tuner’s fork; better yet, the clarity of a paino tuner’s ear, when it comes to capturing spiritual feelings. I picked up Rice’s book along with a Forsyth action thriller entitled, “The Cobra”. Forsyth’s “stuff” is created to keep you on the edge of your seat, and, as expected, before I put it down, I was three chapters into it. Rice’s book I read slowly, a chapter at a time. In was intriguing, and by the end of a three day weekend, I was six chapters into “Love & Evil”; and hadn’t returned to Forsyth. Anne Rice was presenting a compelling story with clarity and conviction.
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Was this a classical 20th century American immigrant tale ?.? It was a multi-generational German memoir spanning father and son during the half-century in the middle of the 20th; 1925-1975.
When
we enter the twenty-second century, will there be stories about American immigrant Mexicans, Croats, Viet-Nam-ese, Turks, Afghans, Iraqis, Tunisians, Koreans, and Serbs?.? I think not. The assimilation era has been replaced by multi-culturalism. If told, their stories will be in their native tongue. Britain and France have fought a losing battle on this issue for decades. This means no more dumb Pollack jokes (including Norwegians, Swedes, and Finns). Also there will be no more gangster Italians, penny-pinching Jews, lascivious Frenchmen, drunken Irishmen, and bland, sexless Englishmen. Comedy, and English Lit will never be the same.
The book is well written, the character development is outstanding; motivation, superb. The book provides an interesting and rare point of view on American 20th century history. It was especially poignant to me because I minored in German language in college, spent two years in Heidelberg, all expenses paid by Uncle Sam, and married, almost fifty years ago, a Schwartzwalder woman who is still one of my best friends.
I heard that she had “found God,” and was writing about angels. That was at least a decade ago. I tried one of her “new” works but found them struggling for clarity, in her own mind and her writing. It’s only recently that I picked up a piece of her current writing. It’s not easy to write about spirituality. Or better said, it’s very easy to write about spirituality, but very difficult to be
understood.She has achieved the clarity of a piano tuner’s fork; better yet, the clarity of a paino tuner’s ear, when it comes to capturing spiritual feelings. I picked up Rice’s book along with a Forsyth action thriller entitled, “The Cobra”. Forsyth’s “stuff” is created to keep you on the edge of your seat, and, as expected, before I put it down, I was three chapters into it. Rice’s book I read slowly, a chapter at a time. In was intriguing, and by the end of a three day weekend, I was six chapters into “Love & Evil”; and hadn’t returned to Forsyth. Anne Rice was presenting a compelling story with clarity and conviction.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Was this a classical 20th century American immigrant tale ?.? It was a multi-generational German memoir spanning father and son during the half-century in the middle of the 20th; 1925-1975.
When
we enter the twenty-second century, will there be stories about American immigrant Mexicans, Croats, Viet-Nam-ese, Turks, Afghans, Iraqis, Tunisians, Koreans, and Serbs?.? I think not. The assimilation era has been replaced by multi-culturalism. If told, their stories will be in their native tongue. Britain and France have fought a losing battle on this issue for decades. This means no more dumb Pollack jokes (including Norwegians, Swedes, and Finns). Also there will be no more gangster Italians, penny-pinching Jews, lascivious Frenchmen, drunken Irishmen, and bland, sexless Englishmen. Comedy, and English Lit will never be the same.The book is well written, the character development is outstanding; motivation, superb. The book provides an interesting and rare point of view on American 20th century history. It was especially poignant to me because I minored in German language in college, spent two years in Heidelberg, all expenses paid by Uncle Sam, and married, almost fifty years ago, a Schwartzwalder woman who is still one of my best friends.
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