Cry to Heaven
by Anne Rice
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Book Summary Information
Author: Anne RiceEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1995-04-01
ISBN: 0345396936
Number of pages: 576
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Book Reviews of Cry to Heaven
Book Review: "You Will Be the Man You Want to Be..."
Summary: 3 Stars
Anne Rice is best known for her "The Vampire Chronicles" and "The Lives of the Mayfair Witches" series, but she has written several stand-alone novels in which supernatural components are completely absent. "Cry to Heaven" is one of these, which explores the fascinating sub-world of the Castrati, though it keeps many of Rice's other trademark features; her attention to opulent detail, her rather graphic sex scenes and her dark themes of revenge, lust, ambition and dark human relations.
Marc Antonio Treschi ("Tonio" for short) is the heir of the ancient Treschi house, the son of the elderly Andrea and the youthful, beautiful, drunken Marianne. As the last surviving son of Andrea, his safety and well-being are paramount to the continuation of the family, and though he has every available luxury at his fingertips he feels constrained and trapped by his limitations. As his mother's only companion, Tonio spends his days caring for her - trying to ignore the permeating feeling of an unspoken threat that fills the household.
Finally the truth emerges; Tonio has another brother who was exiled to Istanbul before he was born. Despised by his father Andrea, Carlos Treschi has been wiped from the household and the records, and Tonio is made the sole heir of the estate. But on his father's death, Carlos returns from exile to reveal the terrible truth of Tonio's existence, and to reclaim what he believes is rightfully his. Concocting a plan that will rid himself of Tonio, Carlos has him kidnapped and castrated, and taken to Naples to resume training as a castrati. Robbed of any chance of having children of his own, and feeling himself less that what he once was, Tonio rebels against any training even when put into the care of Guido Maffeo. Guido was castrated at a young age but nonetheless experienced a voice-change during puberty, which caused him to attempt suicide. Now he acts as teacher to those new recruits and sees enormous potential in young Tonio.
Although Tonio is surrounded by fellow eunuchs (who he regards as freaks), and carries the heavy burden of his hate toward Carlos, he gradually comes to embrace the life of the castrati and the gift of his soprano voice. Finding love, fame, skill and friendship in his new life, he finds himself balancing his happiness with his desire for revenge. As his success grows, he faces the choice of his lifetime as he chases fame and success; on whether or not he should return to Venice and take vengeance.
The story itself is a little predictable; especially in the case of some of the family dynamics that Tonio is faced with (I guessed Carlos's connection to Tonio long before it was made explicit). However, this hardly matters as the strength of the novel is in characters and their relationships, particularly in the conceit of Tonio's inner conflict. Rice describes his pain as twins that exist within Tonio; one which adores life and happiness, and the other which is bent on revenge, both of whom are warring for supremacy of Tonio's mind. Throughout the novel he is a likeable, engaging, interesting character, though Guido is a little less appealing and much more enigmatic, and a third character - Christina - comes into play a little too late to make any real impact. However, Tonio is enough to sustain the book, and his scenario an interesting one: as he builds up a family of friends and lovers, the cost of vengeance becomes greater and greater, till he's nearly split in two.
An amazing amount of research must have gone into recreating the world of the castrati, as Rice spends pages on the way in which members of the castrati live out their lives; including physical abnormalities, learning techniques and the pressures of the opera and social life. Historical events and figures are mentioned, and the cities of Venice, Florence, Naples and Rome are vividly described to create a backdrop that is quintessential Anne Rice; elegant, opulent and decadent. At the centre of all this is the paradox of the castrati: adored and idolised for their soprano voices, and yet shunned and mocked for their loss of manhood.
The concept of a eunuch is a taboo subject, but which as such holds a somewhat grotesque fascination. Rice takes the idea of the "half-man" and explores the consequences of castration, the realisation of knowing you'll never have children, and what it means to be a man; (perhaps a rather odd subject for a female, but one she handles surprisingly well). All in all though "Cry to Heaven" is certainly not Rice's most famous novel, but it is an intriguing, poignant and ultimately satisfying exploration into a little known sub-culture.
It reminded me a little of Arthur Golden's "Memoirs of a Geisha", so if you are not usually a fan of Rice's vampires or other supernatural creations, you may enjoy this as an historical novel.
Summary of Cry to Heaven
In this mesmerizing novel, the acclaimed author of THE VAMPIRE CHRONICLES and the LIVES OF THE MAYFAIR WITCHES makes real for us the exquisite and otherworldly society of the eighteenth-century castrati, the delicate and alluring male sopranos whose graceful bodies and glorious voices brought them the adulation of the royal courts and grand opera houses of Europe, men who lived as idols, concealing their pain as they were adored as angels, yet shunned as half-men.As we are drawn into their dark and luminous story, as the crowds of Venetians, Neopolitans, and Romans, noblemen and peasants, musicians, prelates, princes, saints, and intriguers swirl around them, Anne Rice brings us into the sweep of eighteenth-century Italian life, into the decadence beneath the shimmering surface of Venice, the wild frivolity of Naples, and the magnetic terror of its shadow, Vesuvius. It is a novel that only Anne Rice could have written, taking us into a heartbreaking and enchanting moment in history, a time of great ambition and great suffering--a tale that challenges our deepest images of the masculine and the feminine.
"To read Anne Rice is to become giddy as if spinning through the mind of time."
--San Francisco Chronicle
"Dazzling in its darkness...Spellbinding."
--The New York Times
The acclaimed author of Servant of the Bones makes real for us the exquisite and otherworldly society of the eighteenth-century castrati, the delicate and alluring male sopranos whose graceful bodies and glorious voices brought them the adulation of the royal courts and grand opera houses of Europe, men who lived as idols, concealing their pain as they were adored as angels, yet shunned as half men.
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