Violin by Anne Rice Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $0.48 You Save: $7.51 (94%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Violin
Book Review: Not my favorite Rice novel
Summary: 3 Stars
Heroine: plumpTriana Becker has lost so much in her life: parents, siblings, husbands, daughter. And now it would seem her sanity has fled as well. Surely it has or she wouldn't be dreaming of lying in her loved ones' embrace deep in the silent grave, wouldn't hear the siren call of a tormented ghost and his unearthly violin's haunting music.
Can Triana resist the seductive lure of the virtuoso or will she follow him into darkness?
What worked for me:
I could relate to the heroine as far as her size and her fierce desire for a musical ability she has always lacked. I also understood her self-flagellation, though not the extreme depth of it. The author's use of first person point of view really drove those feelings and insights home.
The spectral prince and his narrative were intriguing. (Honestly, I didn't get into "Violin" until he revealed his history to us halfway through the book, though I didn't fall for him like our heroine did. He just wasn't mesmerizing for me.)
Size-wise Triana was short and pear-shaped. One of her sisters was also quite round.
What didn't work for me:
This novel felt a bit like "Amadeus" meets "A Christmas Carol" meets "The Red Shoes", as channeled by Gertrude Stein through Anne Rice. The writing was pretty convoluted at times in order to capture the essence of madness, but if you aren't in the mood for that sort of thing trying to slog through it will likely drive you mad yourself. (My own head wasn't in the right place for this book when I read it. I wanted it to recreate that delicious chilling thrill I'd had while reading "Queen of the Damned" during a house-sitting stint on a dark and stormy night. An unfair standard, I know. But frankly, the old Zebra gothics did more for my goose bumps than this particular Rice venture did.)
Overall:
"Violin" is a dark and intriguing look at family dysfunction, but don't pick it up expecting to have your hair and toes curled by page three. Or at all.
Warning there is an extreme fixation with death and a few disturbing images in this book.
If you liked "Violin" you might also enjoy "Etta Mae's Little Theory" and the Halloween reading list.
Book Review: Not one of her best
Summary: 3 Stars
I had to at least rate this book as a three, because she does do a good job in her poetic descriptions. This book is very richly written and it is done in a literary style that I have never been exposed to before. Too descriptive and very abstract. I had a very hard time trying to gain a footing in her novel. Just as soon as I thought I got what she was trying to convey in her book, I lost it. This is a very hard read and I did not enjoy the story at all. I am going to give her a rest for a while before I read another of her books! The whole Violin thing I just did not get it. Very well written though.Book Review: One Star is TOO much
Summary: 1 Stars
I gave this book one star because zero wasn't available.Anne Rice has always been marvelous at drawing mental pictures for me as I read her books. This one drew mental blanks.
Actually, the story line is very good. The ghost, the history, the intertwining stories of the Russian prince and the New Orleans Socialite were intriguing. But the excess of words! Rice's flowery writing has always caused her stories to soar. In this one, the prose was a boat anchor. For a while, I reread every paragraph trying to figure out what she had said, but finally gave up. I had to force myself to finish it.
Book Review: Painful and Torturous
Summary: 1 Stars
I have tried and tried to read this book. The first time, I made it only to page 14. Feeling that maybe it picked up after that, I gave it another chance and, after two weeks and sixty seven pages, I am crying uncle. I think that a book should pull you in - it should be read out of entertainment, not perserverence. Rice is usually the very best when it comes to character development but her efforts here to pull you into the main character's madness results in pages and pages of ramblings from the character's mind about classical musicians and disjointed recollections of unintroduced and/or undeveloped characters. While she convinces you of the near madness of the character, she fails to begin to develop the plot. Each little thing that happens in the story - and there have been frustratingly few of those so far - sends the character into long departures from the story line. While other writers, like Gilman (The Yellow Wallpaper) have successfully used stream of consciousness writing to portray madness, Rice's tendency towards the inadvertant ramble makes this a inadvisable attempt on her part.
Plus, new characters keep being introduced so that it is difficult to keep the 'cast' straight in your head for the main character's coherent moments when it would be nice to remember, for example, which chaffeur had always been around and which was the new one. Vague references to her life before meeting her present late husband leave the reader reeling trying to figure out where the character has been, what happened, and which of the people she talks about are actually involved with the current story line. On average, I would say that there is about one paragraph of explanations to every two to three pages of ramblings.
Having faith in Rice, who is one of my favorite fictional authors, I wouldn't be surprised if the story eventually took hold and blossomed. But it will only be the determined reader and avid Rice fan that will make the effort to find out.
Book Review: Pure babble
Summary: 1 Stars
Have you ever sat down to read a book, read a chapter-full of words, then realized you absorbed nothing? So you yell at the kids to quiet down or turn off the TV. You re-read the chapter, but the result is the same. The Violin is the literary equivalent of someone picking up a violin for the first time and running the bow across the strings aimlessly and incessantly. Pure babble. I have not read her other books because I find the vampire theme boring. I jumped at the opportunity to read The Violin. Getting to the end of the book was an empty chore, not a pleasure.