Interview with a Vampire: Anne Rice

Reading this book I was less than enthused, I’m not sure why I wasn’t as gung ho to read this book because honestly at first I was intrigued. I had heard so much about the movie and the novel itself and I know Anne Rice was such a prolific author in the Vampire culture of America, but for some reason I couldn’t wrap my head around the book. I can see where this book contained all the classic elements of vampire lore. We have the overtly seductive Vampire who, in a sense entrances the victim and introduces him to this new fantastical world, where he didn’t need to be afraid of the things surrounding him or of anyone really, and you also have the main character as a sort of all knowing being who, we as mere mortals, couldn’t exactly “pull a fast one over”, even if we tried. The main premise of the story is a vampire who is relating his entire 200-year existence to a reporter that is referred to as “the boy” despite the fact that we are told his name, Daniel Malloy. I found the characters to be very interesting with very human and very typical emotions and internal struggles. I particularly took to Claudia’s story line because it was a thought-provoking notion on wanting to grow up but not being able to. Thanks to Claudia’s being “turned” at a very young age, her mind progressed but her body could not leaving her in this really weird limbo of how do you grow up when others around you won’t acknowledge you as an adult. It’s this problem of never truly being able to realize her potential I feel that causes her to lash out and grow a putrid, festering hatred for Lestat, who she blames for turning her and leaving her in such an awkward position.  Another very fascinating idea presented in the novel is “in the end is immortality worth it?” This is perhaps the main idea behind the primary character arc, that of Louis. He has seen so many things like the death of Claudia, who is like a daughter to him, and the loss of his family in general and having to burn down his family’s plantation and flee from the people of his homeland. In fact his entire reasoning behind the interview was to show that while the glitz and glamour and allure of vampirism is all well and good, it’s only a gilded notion under which lies the rotten truth of the matter which is that immortality isn’t worth the suffering and the loneliness, which is what he had to endure.  Although I didn’t take to this book I do see why many people liked it. I think it did a very good job in bringing out very mortal elements in immortal beings. I think it was an excellent representation of what vampires in the typical sense might have to endure. I really did find the book to be intriguing as an idea, I just wasn’t particularly fond of it as a whole.Reading this book I was less than enthused, I’m not sure why I wasn’t as gung ho to read this book because honestly at first I was intrigued. I had heard so much about the movie and the novel itself and I know Anne Rice was such a prolific author in the Vampire culture of America, but for some reason I couldn’t wrap my head around the book. I can see where this book contained all the classic elements of vampire lore. We have the overtly seductive Vampire who, in a sense entrances the victim and introduces him to this new fantastical world, where he didn’t need to be afraid of the things surrounding him or of anyone really, and you also have the main character as a sort of all knowing being who, we as mere mortals, couldn’t exactly “pull a fast one over”, even if we tried. The main premise of the story is a vampire who is relating his entire 200-year existence to a reporter that is referred to as “the boy” despite the fact that we are told his name, Daniel Malloy. I found the characters to be very interesting with very human and very typical emotions and internal struggles. I particularly took to Claudia’s story line because it was a thought-provoking notion on wanting to grow up but not being able to. Thanks to Claudia’s being “turned” at a very young age, her mind progressed but her body could not leaving her in this really weird limbo of how do you grow up when others around you won’t acknowledge you as an adult. It’s this problem of never truly being able to realize her potential I feel that causes her to lash out and grow a putrid, festering hatred for Lestat, who she blames for turning her and leaving her in such an awkward position.  Another very fascinating idea presented in the novel is “in the end is immortality worth it?” This is perhaps the main idea behind the primary character arc, that of Louis. He has seen so many things like the death of Claudia, who is like a daughter to him, and the loss of his family in general and having to burn down his family’s plantation and flee from the people of his homeland. In fact his entire reasoning behind the interview was to show that while the glitz and glamour and allure of vampirism is all well and good, it’s only a gilded notion under which lies the rotten truth of the matter which is that immortality isn’t worth the suffering and the loneliness, which is what he had to endure.  Although I didn’t take to this book I do see why many people liked it. I think it did a very good job in bringing out very mortal elements in immortal beings. I think it was an excellent representation of what vampires in the typical sense might have to endure. I really did find the book to be intriguing as an idea, I just wasn’t particularly fond of it as a whole.