Okay, this week I read Communion by Whitley Streiber; Conversations with Anne Rice, a writer’s commentary on her work; and part of her novel, Taltos. This indicates that I’ve been on a smarm kick. Big-time. I tell myself it's research.
Communion: Actually, I hopped around this book after Streiber’s long narration of his kidnap-hyphen-abduction and/or space travel (you choose). I think I got the main points. There’s an adage that says you don’t really learn until you cover the same material three times. It may be true. Well, Streiber heard of this concept and is quite willing to teach. That’s too bad; I'm easily bored, and when it comes to egocentric space-fillers, I get it the first time. We're talking each. Single. Separate. Particular. Individual. Discrete. step of his “investigation” into whatever he experienced is covered. If he’s the subject of an alien species’ ongoing fascination and experimentation I ought to care, oughtn’t I?
Conversations with Anne Rice : Ditto, I fear, for Anne Rice’s love of her own words. I picked up this book hoping I’d learn something about my craft. Maybe how to make up a weirdo. Make a buck. Write a million-seller. I'm still impecunious. Rice is interviewed by a personal friend of long standing. Sorry, I forget his name and I've lost track of the book. At any rate, he failed to edit sufficiently so I hopped around this book, too. I hasten to add that the lady herself is an interesting one, bright, articulate, vibrant and pretty, and she's a lot of fun to watch in an interview. Just to be fair.
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Taltos: As for Taltos, I’m maybe a quarter of the way through. It has my interest. In fact, it has sucked me in to an alternate world rich, strange and seductive, if episodic. Rice’s language is so atmospheric I almost smell the fug of mildew on the sheets. Her dialogue is so nuanced I almost hear the honeyed drawl that says “Nawleuhns,” making one word of two. The book is nearly 600 pages long, though, and I'm awash in stuff about a gentle giant and a genteel family. I wonder whether I'll discern a plot before the end?
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