I believe I first read Anne Rice in my late teens and I'm pretty sure that I got the book as a gift from my dad, who doesn't really like fiction, but does his research when buying gifts and he knew that Rice's vampire books had been come really popular. I've never been much of a horror fan, but I was immediately in love with her work. Cry to Heaven became my favorite book ever. I sent a copy to my friend in Germany and she sent me back a copy of Patrick Suskind's Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, which then replaced Cry to Heaven as my favorite book. The over the top richness of her prose combined with the historical setting really hooked me.

At this point I haven't read an Anne Rice book in at least 10 years (other than one of the newer books I gave up on), but I've had this biography laying around for at least 20 years and had heard Anne was pretty freaky so I decided to finally give it a try.

It's extremely detailed. It takes each of her books (up to the point of writing) apart dissecting the plot, the characters, what Anne was trying to get across etc... And then it also includes what was going on in her life at the time. Anne was definitely not a follower, that's for sure, and her life was pretty interesting (hopefully it's still interesting). I remember when I bought this book someone telling me that she was "a total freak" and something about sex between her husband and her son. Glad to report that this "gossip" was exactly that. She did write porn novels involving BDSM and she also wrote novels in which older men were in strange relationships with children (like Lolita), AND she was really fascinated by gay men, but according this book, she never really got involved, at least publicly with any of the scandalous sex stuff and there's no mention of her even fantasizing about pedophilia.

I would recommend this for hardcore Anne Rice fans only. I would have been satisfied with half the detailed analysis of the plots, characters etc.... ( )

From the hauntingly imaginative worlds of the supernatural to the dark sexuality of the truly erotic, the novels of Anne Rice have had the chilling power to connect with readers' deepest, most secret fantasies and have given rise to questions about the enigmatic author herself. Now, in this first full-length biography, emiment scholar Katherine Ramsland provides a revealing portrait of Anne Rice, the woman; a history of the circumstances that led to the writing of her irresistible books of the macabe and the forbidden; and in-depth analysis of her major novels, including "Interview With the Vampire, the Vampire Lestat, The Witching Hour, " and the "Sleeping Beauty" trilogy. Here is the whole story of the young Anne Rice, born Howard Allen O'Brien in a Gothic-like New Orleans to a brilliant and doomed mother and complex father, who took his daughter for walks in the decaying cemeteries of the"Big Easy" of Anne's passionate love for poet Stan Rice that began in her teen years; of their married life in the turbulent San Francisco of the 1960s; and of her first efforts as a writer, which would climax in her daughter's death. At once disturbing and fascinating, this dramatic, informative account brings to vivid life Anne Rice, the author and the woman. It is essential reading for students, fans, and anyone who wishes to better understand the stories of this masterful necromancer of words.

I couldn't make it but about half-way through this one. I don't know why, but while I adore Anne's novels, I just couldn't get into this biography.Maybe it was all the in-depth detail the author went into about certain things that just didn't interest me. I mean, I don't need to know what Anne likes for breakfast each day. Plus, there are large sections of this book that are devoted to descriptions of Anne's novels. While I found this helpful for the few I haven't read, it was pretty much a waste of paper for me in particular because I've read so much of Anne's work.I don't know, I find the woman interesting but I guess not interesting enough to read this bio about her. ( )

New Orleans & discovery of literature, self

8.93 ( )