Another Endless Night

Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice

As the title says, this great read is a story about an interview freely given by the Vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac. With few interruptions, Louis gives his story from his transformation to immortality to present. He speaks of the struggle of good and evil along with stories of love, hatred, loss and acceptance. The story of Louis is one that many have read and seen. In this story we meet Louis in New Orleans, where the vampire Lestat changes Louis for selfish reasons of money and property. A rocky relationship from the very beginning Louis hated Lestat. That hatred did not change but only accelerated when Lestat changed five year old Claudia. As time continues the three of them do not age, but relationship strains during that time and things change.

Of course, everyone saw Interview with the Vampire in the early 90’s. What with Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, I was not the only teenager having a vampire fetish. When Twilight wasn’t even a twinkle in Stephenie Meyer’s eye, Anne Rice was racking in the funds with a top grossing movie and almost 20 years later selling more copies to new vampire lovers. There is something about the immortal blood suckers that brings in a crowd. Of course there were a few points that were very different in the book and the movie (from what I remember about the movie). One item was that Claudia was supposed to be 5 years old. In the movie, a very young Kirsten Dunst was probably around 12 or 13. Which is fine, we still get the point that Claudia is very young in body but growing old in her mind. Also, there were key points that were not discussed in the movie, but were pretty forefront in the book. I know that changing a book into a movie must be incredibly hard, and I do think they did a great job. The main difference is the ending. Where I was expecting Lestat to return with all of his glory, we see him withering away in a broken down house with rotting animals surrounding him with flies and other sick decorations.

Anne Rice has a way with words that I have not read before. She has this detail about her writing that was very impressive. That is probably why she’s a world famous author. There was a sentence that I wanted to share. “It was as if this night were only one of thousands of nights, world without end, night curving into night to make a great arching line of which I couldn’t see the end, a night in which I roamed alone under cold, mindless stars.” To me, this is a great explanation of a miserable vampire. To be forced to live out every night alone and hating what you are and thinking that everything you do is evil. Louis felt trapped in his own existence but was not brave enough to end it himself.

Overall this book was a great read, so vampire friends, have you ventured out of the teen vampire books to an adult series or book? If so, what have you read? I say that you cannot be a true vampire fan without getting to know them all: up next is The Vampire Lestat, then? I hope Dracula! Thanks for reading!