Bruce P. Grether's review of THE WOLVES OF MIDWINTER by Anne Rice
Though The Wolves of Midwinter, Anne Rice’s latest novel, arrived at my
home on publication day, I’ve waited a while to write my review in order to
carefully consider why I feel it’s so superb. Immediately upon receiving the beautifully
printed and bound hardcover, I placed in the front one of the signed bookplates
sent to me by the author. Let me apologize ahead of time for the over-use of
superlatives…
Though this novel clocks in at no more
than 388 pages, it exemplifies the best qualities of an epic tale. This truly
is an epic journey that embraces and enfolds you and sweeps you away, and you
don’t want it to end! It’s a journey in which a great deal of ground is covered
and many, varied adventurers unfold, though none of them seems rendered in
haste. At the same time, there’s no unnecessary padding—the prose is lean and
clean, with a classic undertone and still it sounds contemporary. I feel that
Anne’s somewhat “experimental” prose of Blood
Canticle, the last Vampire Chronicle, with an almost jazz-like quality, and
all of her writings since then feed into the quality of this one.
When I reached the satisfying
conclusion, I would gladly have continued all the way through yet another
volume of this series, that third novel which is hopefully on its way before
long. In this fantastic follow-up to The
Wolf Gift, various mysteries and revelations draw the reader all the way
through.
Wolves
may be Anne Rice’s finest writing so far, in my opinion, every bit as fresh and
entrancing as her first novel, Interview
with the Vampire, and as skillful, meticulous and alive as Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana. With
this return to the realm of Nideck Point, the story feels like a genuine
interval of life; several major plotlines gracefully interweave, and we
encounter no less than two new species of immortals. (You could count three
species, if you include a certain tormented ghost.)
Something I especially love about
this tale is the fact that through most of the novel it is raining! The
rainfall becomes intensely atmospheric and holds the entire book together somehow.
The northern California coast and redwood forest setting, plus the magnificent
old house of Nideck Point, and the nearby village are wonderful to experience
and inhabit during the interim. I love the places as much as I love the people.
More than ever before, Anne employs
a vivid economy of means to bring this journey alive in the mind’s eye, and in the
heart of the reader.
Of particular fascination are the
two entirely new species of immortals, the “Beloved Minions” and the Forest
Gentry, both central to the story. The
Wolves of Midwinter also offers significant developments in the story of
Reuben Golding’s tormented brother, Jim, and their father, Phil, a man
under-appreciated by his family. At one point, Phil asks a question important
to everyone: “Why don’t people do what they really want to do, Reuben?”
Anne also delivers the kind of
truly astonishing moments she is capable of rendering in the last brief chapter
of the book, including a wonderful revelation that concerns Phil and one of the
“Minions”—so anyone wishing to be totally surprised, don’t peek!
Bravo, Anne, and encore!
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