The Tale of the Body Thief (Vampire Chronicles)

by Anne Rice | Horror |
ISBN: 034538475x Global Overview for this book
Registered by wingGoryDetailswing of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 1/13/2016
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Journal Entry 1 by wingGoryDetailswing from Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Wednesday, January 13, 2016
I enjoyed the first two books in Rice's vampire series, and after that rather lost interest, but I recently discovered that there's an audiobook version of this one narrated by the excellent Simon Vance, and wanted a print copy to BookCross after I've listened to the audio. When I came across this fair-condition paperback at a local Savers thrift shop I nabbed it.

I can't say I loved the story, which often seemed to consist of prolonged and repetitive philosophical chats between narrator Lestat and one or other of the few main characters. Not that I mind some in-character discussions of this kind, but oh, could these people TALK! There's also the slight problem with Lestat as narrator: he's a self-admitted monster, killing to live, and while in recent years he claims to have switched to hunting serial killers and other such nasty individuals, whose loss might benefit society, we learn right off the bat that he's still more than able to slay the innocent as well. (His own raptures over the attractions of wizened old women as well as lusty young men suggest that he's able to appreciate the full spectrum of humankind, but the culmination of this particular story begs the question, what if the final body-swapping had involved a deformed or hideous body instead of a near-angelic one...) Lestat often bemoans his condition, regretting his crimes against the innocent - and yet very much aware that he's going to do it again. So, seriously, it's difficult to sympathize with him, even when he makes a well-considered attempt to kill himself and (surprise!) survives, seemingly stronger and more beautiful than before. (The comparisons to Lucifer abound here, and are far from subtle, but even though Lestat claims to be *a* devil and not *the* devil, those closest to him seem all too ready to disregard or forgive his crimes.)

One interesting element: in the world of the novels, not only are vampires real but the books themselves exist - Lestat recommends the reader to check out the previous books, and they're mentioned as resources by other characters in-story. There's even a darkly funny bit near the end where Lestat describes how tourists who've read the books sometimes appeared at the New Orleans house that was his dwelling-place during the events of "Interview", and he mutters some complaints about them shouting "Here, Lestat!" and pointing to their throats when they saw him - or, presumably, anyone else who looked as they imagined him to. I found this all rather droll, but also distracting.

As for the story itself, well, the title sums it up. Someone contacts Lestat - who's been moaning for a long time about how wonderful it would be to taste the joys of mortal existence once again - with the offer to switch bodies with him. The negotiations about all this take up a good chunk of the book, from the logistics of transferring identities and money to the many (many!) cautions by Lestat's friends Louis (vampire) and David (mortal, Talamasca) not to even consider such a ridiculously dangerous thing. [They're not as concerned about harm to Lestat as to the rest of the world, if the body-thief has control of Lestat's near-godlike body.] From everything we know about Lestat, not to mention the title of the book {wry grin}, it's clear that the experiment will succeed, and the reader won't be the least bit surprised to find that the body-thief does not live up to his agreement to swap back within a couple of days. And I admit I was rather pleased with poor Lestat's first experience of mortality in two centuries, in a body that, however stunning, is immediately subject to a nasty cold turned to pneumonia, during a blizzard yet. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy, right?

Several odd things happened at this point, including the appearance on scene of a large, handsome, wolf-like dog with a collar-tag naming him "Mojo". The dog's tag suggests he belonged to the former owner of the house in which the swap takes place, but we never learn who that was or why the house - and dog - were abandoned. This dog took a liking to vampire-Lestat, something very odd as most dogs hate and fear vampires, and also recognized him after the swap, so of course I was expecting it to turn out to be a magical-spirit-dog of some kind. But no; as Lestat himself warns the reader, Mojo doesn't rescue anybody or do anything magical, and indeed gets left behind for a good part of the story. I'm guessing he's in there as homage to a pet of the author's, and/or to give Lestat one living thing that he's consistently kind to. While the dog's presence did comfort him during his early days as a mortal, it set the story off-balance, and left me wondering more about the dog's past than about Lestat's future. (Another tidbit involved the silver rings on the fingers of the body into which he leapt; these troubled him at first when he couldn't remove them, to the point where he thought of finding a jeweler to cut them off - and then we never hear about them again. I was expecting "magical/psychic tracing gadgets" at the very least...)

Lestat does suffer a good deal as a mortal, but he also commits some heinous crimes - which he writes about at length and in detail, and then claims to regret at length, but not to the point of refraining from future crimes. Not a nice guy. Really.

His relationship with David Talbot, 75-year-old mortal and head of the Talamasca, is perhaps the most interesting part of this story, though again I had to wonder why the brilliant and learned Talbot seemed to consistently rationalize away the evidence of Lestat's dark nature, remaining fond of him far beyond the point of sense. True, there's a deeper reason - and when all that boils to the surface in the novel's true climax, things get very dark very fast. (I was amused to find a short chapter in which Lestat cautions readers that, if they want an upbeat ending to this story, they should stop reading at that point.) Whether the conclusion strikes the reader as upbeat or not might vary, though; life's certainly more comfortable for Lestat and his closest friends by that point, but the power dynamics have changed a LOT, and we don't know yet whether that's for the best.

So... the story held my interest, though if I'd been reading the text instead of listening to audio I'd have done a lot of skimming. But its attempt to keep the reader on the side of the narrator even while showing his mercurial, self-absorbed, naive and often foolish, and always highly dangerous behavior - well, it felt strained at best.

[There's a TV Tropes page on the series.]

Released 8 yrs ago (2/1/2016 UTC) at Exit 8 Park and Ride/Boston Express bus stop in Nashua, New Hampshire USA

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

I plan to leave this book on a bench in the park-and-ride terminal at around 12:45 or so. Hope the finder enjoys it!

*** Released as part of the 2016 Heads, Shoulders, Knees, Toes release challenge. ***

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