by Anne Rice
Memnoch the Devil, book five in Rice's Vampire Chronicles, is the most powerful novel of hers I have read so far.
The novel gives the tale of Memnoch, who is more commonly known as Satan, as he gives it to Lestat, the star of the Vampire Chronicles. This version of the story of the fallen angel is quite...nontraditional. Between the story of Memnoch, Lestat is given a short tour, so to speak, of both Heaven and Hell by Memnoch himself. The reader learns rather early in the story that Memnoch wants Lestat to become a lieutenant of his in order to help Memnoch's battle with God.
Through the story the reader learns that Memnoch's major problem with God is suffering. He feels a great pity for mankind. This pity for man and anger towards God developed as he watched the evolutionary progress of the Earth. Once Memnoch learns that humans have developed souls, a series of events take place resulting in his explusion from Heaven and in his crowning as ruler of Hell.
There are a great deal of theological issues present in this novel. Suffering and salvation are the two most present, however, and seem to be the major focus of Memnoch's tale. While reading this, I couldn't help but respond rather negatively to the theology being presented. According to Memnoch, there is no Hell, only a Purgatory that God calls Hell. Memnoch tells how God did not allow humans into Heaven until Memnoch intervened on our behalf. Memnoch explains how God only allowed those who died with a pure soul into Heaven until Memnoch convinced God to let him lead the other souls in Hell until they were ready to enter Heaven. Memnoch portrays God as basically not knowing what He is doing. All things considered, this is all remarkably different from what I believe.
And then I had the revelation that should have been present from the beginning. This is the story of Memnoch as told by Memnoch. Satan himself telling his version of his story. Of course it is going to be quite a perverted version of the truth. Did the author believe any of what she wrote? By the end, I think the answer is no. Lestat himself is not convinced everything he saw was the truth.
All in all, I'm sure most of you already know whether or not you will read this book. If you have liked Rice's work, I would say read this novel. If you hate Rice, this story probably won't change your mind about her work. If you have never read Anne Rice before, I would not recommend starting with book five in the Vampire Chronicles unless the story sounds interesting to you.
(An observant reader may have noticed that I skipped a review of book four, The Tale of the Body Thief. Rest assured, I have read it. I simply felt it was not worthy of my time to review it. It wasn't a horrible story. I don't regret that I read it. I just simply didn't enjoy it the way I had Rice's other tales.)
Posted by Randy at April 10, 2004 10:11 PM | TrackBack