A good read

The best thing about vacation is that I’ve got plenty of time to read. The worst thing about it is there’s so many other things I want to do too. But so far I’ve been through one book at least and though I haven’t been reading non-stop, as I usually do, it was a good read.

Once again Anne Rice has created a marvelous and inspiring story and this time about werewolves. The wolf gift takes place in todays San Francisco where Reuben, a young newspaper journalist, is called out to this mysterious old estate of which he’s supposed to write an article. The owner, Marchent Nideck, a handsome woman in her late thirties, tells him the story of the house and her uncle, Felix Nideck, who mysteriously went missing twenty years ago. Reuben can’t resist falling in love with both her and the house.

Then there’s an attack to their lives and a huge strange beast intervenes changing Reubens life forever.

 The bite doesn’t only give him the ability to change into a beast in the night but also changes him as a person. The gift of physical strength and power gives him a self confidence he never had before which naturally changes his position amongst his family and friends. He’s no longer the same “Baby Boy” of his mother or the “Sunshine Boy” of his girlfriend. We follow him as he struggles to understand and control his new gifts while trying to solve the mysteries of Nideck Point where everything began. Who or what was the beast that made him? What is the meaning of this way of life? And is Felix Nideck really dead?

 A classic in many ways and a good one. I really enjoyed this read and will probably come back to it someday. It reminds me a little of Kelley Armstrong’s Bitten which is also a great werewolf novel, but Rice is more intellectual and philosophical I guess. There’s many references to great composers and writers I’ve heard of but since I don’t know their music or writings I only know that the characters (the writer) is more educated/interested than I am. I suppose such details create an illusion of greater depth to the existential musings of the characters if they at the same time refer to “greater” thinkers than themselves but I don’t care much for that.  Using their big words to back up your own thoughts doesn’t make your point more impressive (actually rather the opposite in my opinion). Maybe I only think that just because I envy those who makes an effort to know these things and resent the fact that it makes me seem/feel ignorant, though I rather like to think that these “great” people are only just people like the rest of us. No matter what I think, Rice still manage to take those inevitable existential questions of good and evil into serious consideration and make it feel real in a way that can only happen in a story like this. Once again I find myself wishing that the universe is big enough to make it possible for me to actually meet these people I’ve glimpsed through this window of another person’s imagination and excellent writing.