Brooding and angsty. This book was a fresh take on vampires at the time. Too bad the concept mushroomed into inanity in latter works. ( )

It has been decades since I first read Interview with the Vampire and my responses to reading it were quite different the second time. For one thing, I was simply reading more carefully, looking for things beyond the storyline. Certainly I missed the overwhelming presence of Catholic symbolism during my first read. How, I cannot fathom, since it is omnipresent and heavy handed. Probably a function of my own cultural context at the time: Religiousity was less public sphere then than it is now and I was therefore less sensitive to it. Another aspect I missed the first time through is the extent to which the book is a peon to New Orleans. Katrina has happened and I have actually been to the city since.

Interview is another vampire "classic" (relatively speaking) where I found that the vampirism as depicted both permitted and represented the destructive selfishness of the character. There were some interesting concepts included: the degree to which the sexuality of blood drinking was more explicit in comparison with earlier "classics", the differing nature of the various needinesses of the characters, the maturing into womanhood of a girl vampire trapped in a child's body, the implied homosexual seductions (brave for the time first published), and the depiction of love as a variety of consumption of the other. That said, this book would not make my list of 1001 books to be read before I die, except in its function as a precursor of the river of mostly lesser vamp lit that has followed it.

I gave it 3.5 stars and donated it to charity. ( )

The book purports to be about vampires and vampirism, but actually addresses age and ageism utilizing the bite of the vampire as a symbol for sex. It's a fun read and far better than the movie. ( )

I have read this book at least 3 times. When I pick it up I can not put it down till the end, then I always follow it up with the movie. ( )

I picked it up just because I could find nothing better to read, and at first it was really boring, but it turned out to be one the best books I've ever read.