Now I will read just about anything that seems mildly interesting and I love (or used to love) Anne Rice, but I never made it through this book. It is very rare that I don't finish a book, but this one just held no interest for me. How could I possibly be interested in the author as the main character? It was probably vaguely entertaining when she finally got to the violinist, but it just took too long. Now, if like Stephen King, she had actually just come out and said she was the main character and sandwiched herself discreetly into the book somewhere, it would have been a different story. But she didn't. If she wanted to write an autobiography/personal fantasy she shouldn't have tried to pass it off as a novel. That's all I'm saying.