Violin by Anne Rice Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Violin
Book Review: Erg.
Summary: 1 Stars
As a general rule, I'm addicted to the works of Anne Rice... with the exception of Violin. Her words are like paint on a canvas, but Violin is an inkblot. I allowed hours to be drawn into the plot. With the turn of each page I hoped I'd find some concept to grasp, but I didn't. This one didn't work for me, but I've read several others since that have validated my addiction to Anne Rice.
Book Review: Give Anne a break!
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm in the middle of the novel, so far, but I have enjoyed it greatly. It's vintage Anne Rice in that it's dark and brooding. What I have been fascinated with is that it's like being in someone else's head. It reminds me somewhat of Ruth Rendell's psychological suspense novels.We all have things in our past we regret, wonder if we should have handled differently, stupid things we've said, and things that we will feel badly about for the rest of our lives. Like Triana, and/or Anne. The book, to me, has been the exploration of these "ghosts" that haunt Triana, besides Stefan. I guess you could say that it's just a different kind of ghost story, it's the ghosts of the past that haunt Triana, and Stefan is there to lead her through.
Anne Rice is as human as the rest of us; her work is bound to evolve in one direction or the other. I enjoyed her earliest Vampire Chronicles a lot, myself, too, but this is completely different from that and that's another thing I like. This book has been one that I can sit down with and completely loose track of time and space, and that's what I really enjoy in a book.
Book Review: Good story, Bad novel
Summary: 3 Stars
The Violin is perhaps better than good, as a story, but as a novel it is bad. Generally, it is twice as long as it NEEDED to be. It took too much time to say anything, which left me with too much time to figure out where it was going. If you've heard of boxers talking about someone `telegraphing' their punches, consider Rice to have done the literary version of same here. And the conclusion was drawn out needlessly. Perhaps the author is considered too important to edit at this point in her career. But I really believe this COULD have been a classic ghost story, if the story itself was given more importance than the page count. It reads like an excellant 100 page novella that had scenes stretched and added until it was merely interesting here and there as a novel. It's like the difference between having a glass of wine, or having a pitcher of water with a glass of wine poured in. The value, the enjoyment has been diluted. Which is going to taste the best?
It will make a great 90 minute film, or a terrible two-part made for tv miniseries.
But what DID she get right? The fascination with music. The appreciation of the great composers, which leads to few powerful scenes best not revealed in a review -- there are a few shining gems here. The ghost's genius temper gives rise to some fine arguments. Her exploration of departure and grief was well done. So well done, I would have to say that if you gave a grieving friend Matheson's What Dreams May Come, you could just as well hand them Rice's the Violin too. She did try to write something of value here. The potential is obvious, though the execution was flawed.
Book Review: Great writing, great story-GENIUS!
Summary: 5 Stars
Anne Rice's Violin is a perfect example of her writing. This book is tragic, exciting, and altogether perfectly entertaining. I've been reading reviews of this book on amazon.com, and am quite shocked that people didn't rate this book higher. The story was beautiful, and was only made better by the outstanding writing of the one and only Anne Rice!Book Review: Her Best Since "The Witching Hour"
Summary: 4 Stars
I just finished Violin, and must say its Rice's best since the Witching Hour. However, "Violin" is not for the masses. Be warned, "Violin" is a psychological exploration of one woman's nightmares and losses, not a horror or even a ghost story, as its advertised. If your interested in exploring a deep, character portrait, pick up "Violin". My one criticism is that towards the end, certain events occurr so rapidly and the story is wrapped up sooooooooo tightly that it takes away from the slowly unfolding pace of the rest of the novel. Its a rushed ending. I enjoyed this book for its handling of prose, which takes center stage leaving plot and characters on the sidelines. For the literary critic, pick up "Violin".