Reveal: Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice is the book from Books & Beginnings XVI.  Sting wrote a song on his solo debut album called “A Moon Over Bourbon Street” inspired by this book. I adored the song. I adore New Orleans. I love the book.

I had loved Bram Stoker’s Dracula and it’s brooding creepiness. The concept of a vampire was far more terrifying psychologically than any film could ever convey. Then came Anne Rice and her Vampire LaStat and poor Louis. It was gorgeous. Most of the gibberish produced about vampires after paled in comparison.  There is a far deeper frightening aspect for the monster that is deeply human. Which is why I never much went for glittering, soulful vampires. It never struck me as real. What makes the vampires of Rice so interesting is being forbidden the sun, their inability to age (a problem if you’re frozen in pre-pubescent form), their horrifying strength and their vulnerability. Good stuff.

Up Next: I never read anything like this before and although this author has a famous protégé, he will never be replicated. No other author is able to execute flippant fourth-wall breaking prose style with such brilliance. Whenever I needed a laugh, to this author I would turn.

This is a story about magic and where it goes and perhaps more importantly where it comes from and why, although it doesn’t pretend to answer all or any of these questions.

It may, however, help to explain why Gandalf never got married and why Merlin was a man. Because this is also a story about sex, although probably not in the athletic, tumbling, count-the-legs-and-divide-by-two sense unless the characters get totally beyond the author’s control. They might.