Spring Break trash-read #2

...and, of course, I mean trash in the most loving way possible. There is more meaningful material in Anne Rice's books about vampires and werewolves than in several more acclaimed books combined. This book marks Anne Rice's return to her existential examination of life through the lens of a monster, and it delivers on all anticipated counts.

The first and largest portion of the book is dedicated to the story of Reuben Golding and his transformation into a werewolf. Rice fills the pages with intricate descriptions of architecture, history, setting, and character like only she can. The final portion of the book ends in a combined history of werewolves/theological speculation on the nature of god/the universe/humanity and the relationships therein.

This book was everything I have come to love about Anne Rice packaged in a tightly polished form. Some favorite lines:

"...he felt in all his parts that the striving of all living things was a form of prayer."

"Talk is suspect. When we talk about our lives, long or short, brief and tragic or enduring beyond comprehension, we impose a continuity on them, and that continuity is a lie."

"We always come back to that--that both the brutal world and the spiritual world are sources of truth, that the truth resides in the viscera of all those who struggle as well as in the souls of those who would transcend the struggle."