Simplicity

Rating:
Summary: Seductively sinister
Review: Trip along with me for a moment and imagine a vampire with a poet's soul who will unequivocally disprove the myth that men don't feel love as deeply as women. Intrigued? Meet Patrick, the undead hero of Simplicity, who sentences himself to Hell for the woman he loves. Patrick knows more about selflessness, unconditional love, charisma, and seduction than do most romantic leading men.

When he meets Lori, Patrick is a filthy vagrant whose daily beggings are spent on food only if there's enough left after he buys his beloved bottle, and Lori is a damaged beauty who keeps trying to kill herself but never quite succeeds. They spend what is supposed to be Lori's last night alive talking together under the bridge where Patrick lives and from which Lori jumps--right into the arms of Van Pierre, a recruiter for Hell's army. When she returns to Patrick the next night and bids him drink from the dark man's chalice, he obeys without question because he loves her already, and they are plunged into the world of nightly bloodlust.

As horrified as they are by what they've become, they can't deny the thrill of their new powers. Patrick is more than willing to suffer every day while he sleeps and his soul returns to Hell to be tortured unmercifully by Pink, his personal demon, as long as he gets to be with Lori every night when he awakens. But Lori is still haunted by her life and continues to plan her own demise even though it means she will remain in Hell forever and will be leaving Patrick--the only man who has ever really loved her--alone for eternity.

Simplicity is like a 435-page paradox: one minute it's a gruesome peepshow of demonic torture sessions that revolted me more than Stephen King at his goriest, and the next it's a sensitive commentary on man's inhumanity to man and our deep-seated desire to be valued and loved for ourselves. I was just as moved by Patrick's quest for Lori's love as I was repulsed by the descriptions of his visits to Hell. I can't tell you how odd it feels to be inspired by the insights of a vampire, but Patrick's musings read like an essay on enlightenment. The thinking person's horror story, if you will.

And since vampires exist for eternity, I sure hope there's another journey into Patrick's world in our literary future.

Rating:
Summary: Seductively sinister
Review: Trip along with me for a moment and imagine a vampire with a poet's soul who will unequivocally disprove the myth that men don't feel love as deeply as women. Intrigued? Meet Patrick, the undead hero of Simplicity, who sentences himself to Hell for the woman he loves. Patrick knows more about selflessness, unconditional love, charisma, and seduction than do most romantic leading men.

When he meets Lori, Patrick is a filthy vagrant whose daily beggings are spent on food only if there's enough left after he buys his beloved bottle, and Lori is a damaged beauty who keeps trying to kill herself but never quite succeeds. They spend what is supposed to be Lori's last night alive talking together under the bridge where Patrick lives and from which Lori jumps--right into the arms of Van Pierre, a recruiter for Hell's army. When she returns to Patrick the next night and bids him drink from the dark man's chalice, he obeys without question because he loves her already, and they are plunged into the world of nightly bloodlust.

As horrified as they are by what they've become, they can't deny the thrill of their new powers. Patrick is more than willing to suffer every day while he sleeps and his soul returns to Hell to be tortured unmercifully by Pink, his personal demon, as long as he gets to be with Lori every night when he awakens. But Lori is still haunted by her life and continues to plan her own demise even though it means she will remain in Hell forever and will be leaving Patrick--the only man who has ever really loved her--alone for eternity.

Simplicity is like a 435-page paradox: one minute it's a gruesome peepshow of demonic torture sessions that revolted me more than Stephen King at his goriest, and the next it's a sensitive commentary on man's inhumanity to man and our deep-seated desire to be valued and loved for ourselves. I was just as moved by Patrick's quest for Lori's love as I was repulsed by the descriptions of his visits to Hell. I can't tell you how odd it feels to be inspired by the insights of a vampire, but Patrick's musings read like an essay on enlightenment. The thinking person's horror story, if you will.

And since vampires exist for eternity, I sure hope there's another journey into Patrick's world in our literary future.