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Lovely
... ?
If
you like the word lovely and the phrase Good God,
then this books for you!
Violin,
by Anne Rice, is the story of a borderline madwoman (former drunk)
called Triana, who has a fascination for misery and death.
She
blames herself for every bad thing that ever happened in her dysfunctional
family including the deaths of her mother, father and young daughter.
She
also takes responsibility for the infidelity of her first husband
with a younger sister!
Following
the death of her second husband, from AIDS, she is haunted by a
violin-playing ghost named Stephan, a Russian prince, who seems
determined to drive her completely mad.
Strangely,
the ghost of Stephan can not only be seen by Triana, but by a few
select others too including a whole roomful of people attending
a concert!
Triana,
a frustrated violinist herself is both fascinated and repelled by
Stephan, while wallowing interminably in her own articulate misery.
After
what seems never-ending rhetoric, she manages to grab the violin
from Stephan, (a Stradivarius by the way) and wont
let go!
The
enraged Stephan then drags her back in time with him to show her
his miserable life, and how he saved the violin from a fire, and
later shows her his death in Vienna, when trying to save the violin
once again, this time from being buried in his murdered fathers
coffin.
Beethoven
pops in and out of the saga occasionally; Im not quite sure
why ... except both Triana and Stephan (his former pupil) both adore
the "Maestro"!
Appraisal
This
book is very long and wordy.
The
author knows at least fifteen ways to describe eyebrows and eyelashes
and such like, and does so ad nauseum.
She
slows down whatever action there is with absolutely graphic descriptions
of dreams, rooms and other details you dont really want to
know about.
I think
her philosophy is "Hey, if one word will do, why not use 15
instead, especially if each one has five syllables each.!
Commendation
The
only reason I dragged myself to the end of!
this tome was to find out what happened to Trianas youngest
sister Faye (if anything).
I wont
tell you what happened but "Good God, It was lovely"!
Reviewer:
Val Ford
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