Synopses & Reviews
In the days before the Civil War, there lived a Louisiana people unique in Southern histroy. Though descended from African slaves, they were also descended from the French and Spanish who enslaved them. Called the Free People of Color, this dazzling historical novel chronicles the lives of four of them--men and women caught perilously between the worlds of master and slave, privilege and oppression, passion and pain.
Review
"Anne Rice's first novel, Interview With A Vampire, was an imaginative piece of contemporary fiction. Her second novel, however, fails to develop her promise. The Feast of All Saints depicts the fate of the gens de couleur libre of antebellum New Orleans. The strongest facet of this novel is Rice's characterization of the elite members of this subculture. Especially in her two young protagonists, Marcel and Marie Ste. Marie, Rice captures the tragic plight of well-educated and talented aristocrats doomed to an inferior status in a rigid caste system. Unfortunately, these characters exist in a plot that fails to maintain the reader's interest. In short, this novel is an overwritten version of Cable's The Grandissimes; the reader would do better by reading that century-old American novel. Simon &" Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)