Vittorio the Vampire by Anne Rice

It's traditional for writers to live unorthodox lives, and Anne Rice's has by all accounts been even more unorthodox than usual. I mean, how many other married women have dressed as gay men to pick up gay men?After the initial shock of learning that she'd become a prominent Christian writer, I realized that in a deeper sense she's always been a deeply religious writer.She says that she chose to write about vampirism as a metaphor for alienation. Yet many of her novels reflect the theme of spirit in matter. This certainly underlies the vampire question, for vampires survive as the living dead by sucking the life out of the living.Yet, what was INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE about except the unlikely loves that formed between these creatures? As Lestat points out, the threesome formed by himself, Louis and Claudia lasted for sixty years, quite a long time, especially since it was two gay men and a six year old girl.It's more directly addressed in the witch novels and SERVANT OF THE B
ONES.With VITTORIO THE VAMPIRE she returns to the theme of love conquering vampirism -- or does it?Vittorio grows up as a wild Italian noble's son, enjoying both hunting in the woods surrounding his country home and the art and culture of nearby Florence in the Age of Gold.The details of his boyhood and education among the greats vividly recreate the period and seem quite realistic. Rice has lost none of her enthusiasm for history, for past culture, for the efforts of all who have been driven by the demands of their art to express beauty.He sees his family mercilessly slaughtered by vampires from the Court of the Ruby Grail -- and vows to defeat them. A revenge that seems quite unlikely, but he follows their trail. Aided by angels, he is able to permanently kill them all... but one.It's unfair to reveal all the details of the ending here. But it asks the question -- if you do evil for the sake of love, is it still evil?Will Vittorio and Ursula someday, despite their evil exi
stence, be redeemed to God through their mutual love?I don't know what answers Ms. Rice would have given when she wrote this jewel of a book. And that may not be the answer she'd give now that she is explicitly a Christian.And neither answer may fit Ms. Rice the writer/artist who expresses the world as it is.

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