JUL - Interview with the Vampire

July review for Book Riot's Read Harder 2017: Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice, 1976. [debut novel category]

Interview with the Vampire is a weird book. Conceptually, I like it, as I like frame stories and I like vampires and I like surprise queerness, and this book represents a sort of paradigm shift in terms of vampire representation in literature, but it was a little hard to read. Overall, I am glad to have read it (as I am with most books, let's be real). 

The frame story in Interview With The Vampire is an excellent one; the vampire Louis is recounting the tale of his life to a reporter in a hotel room in modern-day California, I believe. (Modern-day being contemporary of when the book was written, the 1970s). We are limited in our learning in two ways. We only learn about the vampire's life through him telling the reporter, and we only learn about vampires in general as Louis does in his story, being a new vampire. By not giving us too much information and letting all the knowledge come organically, Rice is simulating Louis experience and his quest for knowledge in our quest of reading about it. 

Anne Rice is quoted as dealing with themes of "death, immortality, existentialism, and the human condition," which I think is an accurate assessment of what she was trying to do with Interview. I mentioned before that this book has been heralded as a paradigm shift in vampire lit, but it was also a shift in vampire mythos itself, establishing new rules for vampire creation and life. The vampires in Rice's novel are not pure cardboard cutouts of evil, scary monsters that go bump in the night. Centering this story around the creation and experience of one particular vampire lends a relatability to the vampires, an empathizing that was previously not seen. She paved the way for vampires to be characters and not simply vehicles of terror. It is perhaps the first time we are privy to the misunderstood vampire, the outcast and outlier nature, cut off from a sense of community, aspects that can be quite easily drawn in connection with current queer struggles. Of course, most queers don't need the blood of humans for sustenance, though. 

And that is one thing I want to make sure I touch on, the queerness of it all. I saw the film version of Interview a very long time ago, and I don't really remember all of the movie, but I appreciate the fact that this reviewer said that it was NOT "de-gayed."  Louis spends most of his time searching for a community, for someone or something to make him whole and to help him understand what he is. There are strong echoes of the queer experience in that search, and he seems to find a semblance of answers in another (male) vampire named Armand. There is a sensual almost-kiss in the film between Armand (Antonio Banderas) and Louis (Brad Pitt), and I think that is very important. 

JUL - Murder on the Orient Express

July review for Book Riot's Read Harder 2017: Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie, 1934. [published between 1900 and 1950 category]

Murder on the Orient Express is soon to be made into a movie, so what better incentive for me to finally pick it up and climb aboard? ~~Be forewarned that I WILL mention the solution to the murder, so if you don't want to be spoiled, I suggest you leave now!~~

Murder on the Orient Express was written in 1934 by Agatha Christie, originally published as "Murder in the Calais Coach." It is one of the infamous Hercule Poirot mysteries, an indefatigable detective with an equally indefatigable mustache that Christie relied heavily on for many of her mysteries. The premise is this: Poirot finds himself on a train where there has been a murder. The train is snowed in on the tracks, creating a sort of locked-room scenario that Poirot is tapped to solve, given his apparently widespread reputation. I found a helpful link that gave me some little annotations to help immerse myself in the story more. Being written and set in the 1930s, there were some accouterments I was less than familiar with, such as a slip coach, as well as some untranslated French.

I like Agatha Christie's writing style, and I think she sort of gets a bad rap for being a terrible writer, which I do not believe to be the case. She is one of the few mystery writers that I can content myself with just reading and absorbing as I go, not trying to figure out the answer to the mystery before it happens. She lets me wait, and my overactive brain appreciates that. This story has been called "one of the most ingenious stories ever devised," and it has had many a cultural reference spinoff in its time. The fact that (SPOILER) all 13 passengers were involved in planning and committing the murder, leaving Poirot again and again to the same impossible conclusion with contradictory stories and evidence, is a highly clever one. I think the movie Hot Fuzz took that approach into consideration when writing, and I really enjoyed it. It turns the idea of a singular solve, a singular villain, on its head and forces the reader to go back and rethink the story.

In terms of the upcoming film, I have some feelings. First and foremost that I object to the casting ofJudi Dench as Princess Natalia Dragomiroff, not because of Judi Dench (because she is a goddess), but because there is constant references to the Princess as "one of the ugliest old ladies [Poirot] had ever seen. [...] an ugliness of distinction--it fascinated rather than repelled" (p25). She is also referred to as having a yellow, toad-like face and I resent this connection to Dame Judi! That being said, I do look forward to seeing Kenneth Branagh and his ridiculous mustache solve this crime on the silver screen this November.