The cynicism comes easily: the author's barely in his 20s, his mom
is vampire novelist Anne Rice, and it's not just a first novel, but
first writing of any sort. But there is an atmospheric hyper-campy
air to A Density of Souls by Christopher Rice, the coming-of-age
story of a slew of well-born but not all well-bred New Orleans teens,
each with his or her own dark secret, that renders it entertaining.
There is also a core of gritty truth to young Rice's tormented,
beautiful, slender, androgynous fagboy Stephen, sensitive to all the
pain in and around his life, and obsessively enamored of one of his two
best high school friends, football jocks both. Beyond the truth, there's
also the triumph -- the sissy turns out to be the real survivor of a plot
that includes (but is not limited to) lies, jealousy, betrayal, adultery,
dementia, bulimia, alcoholism, schizophrenia, incest, rape, suicide,
murder, abusive brutish sex, right-wing militia histrionics, and a
near-mythologically destructive Hurricane Brandy.
This is Gothic
novel–plus stuff, barely held together by its brash boldness.
The several lapses into over-the-top writing are leavened by characters
who are more than cliches and by an underlying sincerity and feverish
authenticity which are both endearing. It's a novel about a gay teen
growing up in New Orleans, after all, written by a gay teen who grew up
in New Orleans.
-- Richard Labonté
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