Violin

What a haunting and beautiful novel! I feel it's also a courageous one that deals with themes that cut close to the bone such as trauma, mourning and karmic responsibility. It also deals centrally with artistic inspiration, a theme that is deeply personal for many authors. This is one of Anne Rice's best books.

Wow, I am one of a few here who really liked this book by Rice. I found that it had depth-- you could almost taste the main characters greif in this story and also the passion that the ghost in the story has for the violin and music. I did not have a problem maintaining interest in this book from start to finish. It may be my second favorite Rice book. :)

Just as the title suggests, this book really was a wonderful read. I have read nearly everything by Mrs. Rice and this is in my top 5 of her works. The character of Stefan was just so decadently tragic. His tale was something I wanted to desperately to relate to yet I found myself closer to Triana because of the swooning madness and her neverending love for her husband, his work on St. Sebastion, and the music of Beethoven. I have a strong love for the violin; it's voice, it's passion screams out like no other instrument in mortal hands or lips. And this story did such justice to the violin. The story reads like a beautifully worded poem that you cannot help but pray it won't end. It is indeed a tragic tale. Sometimes, I feel like Triana when she stole away the violin from Stefan, and I want to play the way she did purely from the heart. You can hear every note when she plays upon the stage. Anyone who gives this book fewer stars has not read deeply enough (or even finished it for that matter) to critique it to its complete worthiness. If you have a passion for the violin, love a good yet tragic and always beautiful story about mysterious circumstances, daydreaming, undying love, and the pain of ascent and descension, then this is the book for you. I would also recommend "Cry to Heaven" by Mrs. Rice. Please please pick up these two books. And finish them. I promise you will learn something more than what you read on the printed pages. Thank you, Mrs. Rice, for sharing your gift with the world.

In my own never-to-be humble opion I beleive this to be Anne Rice's most authobiographical work thus far. It's apparent to me that Triana is in so many ways similar to Anne Rice. She describes herself for all practical purposes, right down to the bangs she has worn for as long as I've seen pictures of her. Even the way Triana dresses is Anne Rice right down to the long skirts of velvet. Of coarse the most poignant detail of the similarities is the daughter, dying of cancer with her angelic face puffy from chemotherapy and already having lost her beautiful blond curls gone before she was six years old. I think Triana was Anne's own voice regarding the horrible and unthinkable nature of burying your own baby. I really enjoyed this book obviously given the 'five stars'. I think Triana is a wonderful, human character which of coarse I was unaccustom to with Rice's work. It was lovely being able to aspire to her courage as she was 'just' a human, beautiful, scared, frail and strong all at the same time. She had her late husbands money to sheild her from the horrors of life whilst she suffered the fallout of having loved him and lost him. I didn't find it disturbing really at all her 'keeping' her Karl to herself for a few days after he passed on. In days of old, the family always prepared the corpse for burial, who else would be so loving and careful? It was disturbing, yes, but life's beautiful moments would be so much less so should we not have dark ones to balance them. The end of the book left me crying, as she helped yet another soul cross over, but this soul left her also with a beautiful gift. (I shall try not to give the end away, but suppose I already have, haven't I?) I don't envy her gifts as we are all blessed with our own and she certainly earned them all with her beloved service and devotion, this Triana... I loved her and will think of her as an 'old friend' along with Jane Eyre, Lastat, and so many others... Thanks Anne Rice for allowing us this peek into your mind and heart... I was reading this novel during the time of the horrible attack on the United States and it was a welcome reprieve when I simply couldn't take any more of the real horror coming out of my computer screen.

When I started getting through the pages of "Violin", my first impression was that of being a dull and somewhat flat book. I first said to myself who was this woman complaining and whining all of the time?. Mourning and letting fly her thoughts and memories away. But then during my reading I began understanding Triana and her grief, and sorrow, and living death. She was supported only by her music, the music she so much loved. That same music that helped her to get through the day.And then Stefan came, the fiddler. No demon, no saint, but only a grievous soul as lonely as Triana was. Stefan, the ghost violinist, along with Triana shares a passion for music streaming out of the fiddle. Triana is not crazy, she's just someone who expresses her pain the way she knows best: grieving. Anne Rice tells Triana's story in such a very particular way. "Violin" is one of those books that has everything in it, romance, drama, horror,etc. Because of being such a different book regarding Rice's previous releases, this story is not recommended to those who are in love with Lestat or the witches Anne once created. Now, after reading it, I can deeply say that this is a great book, despite whatever lousy (and certainly mistaken) remarks have been made. To those who are fond of prose this is definitely your book. Look no further