ANNE RICE’S THE WOLF GIFT: IT’S A BIRD, IT’S A PLANE, IT’S … A WEREWOLF?

RATING GUIDE:

 

5 – A keeper!   

4 – Very good

3 –  Passable

2 –  I’d rather read a telephone book

1 – An absolute bomb.  Read at your own risk!

Anne Rice returns to her gothic roots, in a way, in The Wolf Gift, one of the two books in The Wolf Chronicles series.  It is the story of Reuben, who seems to lead the perfect life.  He seems to have it all:  good looks, a promising career as a journalist, a pretty, successful girlfriend, a wealthy, privileged, educated, successful family.  And yet, Reuben seems to be a square peg in a round hole that is his life.  He loves his family and his girlfriend, and yet, he seems to be separate and alienated from most of them.

A writing assignment leads him to a beautiful and mysterious older woman named Marchent Nideck.  He’s supposed to write about the house Marchent wishes to sell, a house that is as beautiful and mysterious as she is.  Upon meeting Marchent and seeing the house, Reuben is smitten, so to speak, with Marchent, the house and its contents.  Come nighttime, Reuben decides he wants to buy the house.  He also ends up sleeping with Marchent.

This is just the first in one of the many surprises in Reuben’s life.  Shortly after having sex with Marchent, Marchent dies a violent death.  Reuben almost loses his life, as well.  But instead of dying, Reuben actually recovers … except that he’s not human anymore.  He becomes a werewolf, with super-heightened senses and the ability to spot malice and evil.  He develops a primal urge to literally kill evil.  As a result, Reuben ultimately finds himself leading a double life, just like Superman.  He’s a journalist by day (just like Superman’s Clark Kent).  But when his beastly instincts take over, he becomes The Man-Wolf, who saves people from evil (again, just like Superman). 

Reuben is exhilarated with his new life, and yet, he finds himself even more alienated from his family.  It’s a very lonely existence.  The only people who give him comfort are the only two people who know his secret: his older brother, a priest named Jim, and Laura, a widow who has lived a life of isolation following the death of her family.  

As Reuben struggles to cope with the new changes in his life, which includes keeping his werewolf identity a secret and juggling two jobs (journalist and superhero of sorts), he faces a new danger, that of being caught and turned into a medical experiment. 

Sounds pretty much like a comic book story, doesn’t it? 

As in Angel Time, Anne’s quality of writing is very visual and fluid.  It reads just like postcard, very beautiful, or a song, very easy, melodic and lyrical.  And that’s despite the violence that takes place in the story (there’s a lot of blood and guts and torn limbs here).  The pace is quick, except for the small hiccup towards the end.  There’s a chapter that seems a little strange because it reads more like a poem than a narrative.  Whether or not Rice intended it to be so, I don’t know.  In any case, it stands out, like a speed bump.  Sadly, the ending is a little frustrating, for it seems a little anti-climactic.  After a particularly action-packed climax, it slows down considerably to its ending, with a lot of dialogue and philosophical discussion.  And when I say a lot, I mean A LOT. 

Despite these imperfections, The Wolf Gift is a very good book.  It is essentially the story of many people, of those who seem to have it all, and yet are actually lost in their own world.  It is the story of a man who finds his true self and realizes his own strengths and potential in the midst of chaos.  It is about the irony of finding one’s true family, not in people who share the same blood and DNA but in people who share the same principles and values.  It is a mirror of Everyman’s desire to eliminate the evil in the world (and these days, the evil comes in so many forms and is all around us).  It is a story of faith, of struggling to keep what is good in one’s heart, when one is in a very “gray” area.

RATING:  4