Rating: 
Summary: what a pity...
Review: This book has an author of obvious talent, interesting characters and fascinating little-known history, and yet it fails. I believe that reason for this is that it reads as if it was written far far too fast. It is a story about a vanished world, that of the Gens de Coleur Libre in Pre-bellum New Orleans. The main character is a talented, blond black boy, who develops a relationship with a man, a successful author who has returned from Europe to open a school in his native city. The boy is desperate to escape from the provincial town to Paris, which his plantation-gentleman father promised to him and his concubine mother. Is it arrogance or sloppiness that allowed Anne Rice to write this so quickly and carelessly? Was the editor scared to get her to edit it and re-write it, as she obviously did so brilliantly in her first two Vampire novels? We may never know. It is another example of what I regard as a squandered talent. I will probably not try to read anymore of her books. Of course, if you don't care how well a novel is written, and perhaps my standards are too high, this is a fairly good read.
Rating:
Summary: Stick with supernatural characters....
Review: This book is a waste of time. The vampires, the witches, and Ramses were better. I didnt like this. There were too many french terms used in this story not to mention too many characters. The life of Jean Jaques was too short. I recommend not to even start this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Incredible
Review: This book is less of a departure from her best known works than one assumes at first glance. Anne Rice is a master at illuminating the nature of her characters relative to his or her physical and emotional setting. The Feast of All Saints is no different. Here, Rice brilliantly describes a time period of American history that is nearly excluded from standard issue texts. Describing the life of the Gens de Couleur libre during a most transitional period by parellelling the story of the entire culture with that of an individual who is undergoing a personal paradigm shift was a most brilliant way to make this story come alive. Only a New Orleans native could have treated the subject with such sensitivity and still manage to show us both the most humiliating and triumphant times in lives of these oft-forgotten people. Thank you, Anne Rice
Rating:
Summary: An old favorite of mine (and Rice's best, IMHO)
Review: This book, along with the Baroque Italian novel _Cry to Heaven_, are curiosities among Anne Rice's oeuvre-- straight-up historical novels without any supernatural elements. And despite the lack of vampires, despite the fact that the only "witch" in the book is a madam pretending to practice magic, I firmly believe that _Feast of All Saints_ is Rice's best work. I first read it six years ago, pulling an all-nighter because I couldn't bear to put it down, and I reread it every year or so. _Feast of All Saints_ is set in antebellum New Orleans, among a subculture known as the Gens de Couleur Libre (Free People of Color). They were people of mixed race, descended from white planters and their black mistresses. While their lives are circumscribed by myriad rules, and they are forever considered second-class citizens, they have also grown complacent about the ways in which they are fortunate. Perhaps the most shocking thing I learned from this book was that the Free People, conveniently forgetting their own heritage, often kept slaves. Sometimes the slaves were even blood relatives of their owners. One of the best themes in the novel is the character Marcel's realization that he is luckier than he believes. It was an accident of birth that he was not born the legitimate heir to his rich white father. But it was also an accident that he was not born into the unsung ranks of the field hands. Rice paints a vivid portrait of this society, with its complex rules, strange bigotries, and dreams--a society where looking a little more black or a little more white than your peers might make all the difference in the world. But lest you believe this is just a Stuffy Novel about Deep Social Issues, it's also a darn good story. Rice illuminates the society through the eyes of four young people growing up and coming to terms with it. Marcel, intellectual and arrogant, dreams of the artsy life in Paris--but must learn to come to terms with himself in New Orleans. Richard's parents have built an elegant, polite bourgeois dynasty--but Richard will have to give up his true love if he wants to inherit it. Anna Bella, pitied for her African features, is sold into a liaison with a white man who loves her but can never acknowledge her publicly. And quietly intense Marie, considered beautiful because she looks white, is pushed toward a career at the quadroon balls, where she can make her family's fortune--but lose her self-respect. These four engrossing characters, plus many more, struggle to find self-respect and love in the face of all the rules. Reviewer "odilon" is right--the line "You are coming with me. Now." is the finest moment of this book, the words thundering through the characters' world. You'll be pumping your fist in the air and cheering, or crying, or maybe both. (I seem to remember I accidentally woke my roommate up the first time I read that scene.) Another reviewer complains of Anne Rice's misogyny. I'm tired of it too, but it isn't really evident in this book. The female characters, even the contemptible ones, are as well fleshed-out as the males. I don't really mind if some of the women are unsympathetic, as long as they're not cardboard. Some of the most fascinating characters in _Feast_ are women.
Rating:
Summary: An old favorite of mine (and Rice's best, IMHO)
Review: This book, along with the Baroque Italian novel _Cry to Heaven_, are curiosities among Anne Rice's oeuvre-- straight-up historical novels without any supernatural elements. And despite the lack of vampires, despite the fact that the only "witch" in the book is a madam pretending to practice magic, I firmly believe that _Feast of All Saints_ is Rice's best work. I first read it six years ago, pulling an all-nighter because I couldn't bear to put it down, and I reread it every year or so. _Feast of All Saints_ is set in antebellum New Orleans, among a subculture known as the Gens de Couleur Libre (Free People of Color). They were people of mixed race, descended from white planters and their black mistresses. While their lives are circumscribed by myriad rules, and they are forever considered second-class citizens, they have also grown complacent about the ways in which they are fortunate. Perhaps the most shocking thing I learned from this book was that the Free People, conveniently forgetting their own heritage, often kept slaves. Sometimes the slaves were even blood relatives of their owners. One of the best themes in the novel is the character Marcel's realization that he is luckier than he believes. It was an accident of birth that he was not born the legitimate heir to his rich white father. But it was also an accident that he was not born into the unsung ranks of the field hands. Rice paints a vivid portrait of this society, with its complex rules, strange bigotries, and dreams--a society where looking a little more black or a little more white than your peers might make all the difference in the world. But lest you believe this is just a Stuffy Novel about Deep Social Issues, it's also a darn good story. Rice illuminates the society through the eyes of four young people growing up and coming to terms with it. Marcel, intellectual and arrogant, dreams of the artsy life in Paris--but must learn to come to terms with himself in New Orleans. Richard's parents have built an elegant, polite bourgeois dynasty--but Richard will have to give up his true love if he wants to inherit it. Anna Bella, pitied for her African features, is sold into a liaison with a white man who loves her but can never acknowledge her publicly. And quietly intense Marie, considered beautiful because she looks white, is pushed toward a career at the quadroon balls, where she can make her family's fortune--but lose her self-respect. These four engrossing characters, plus many more, struggle to find self-respect and love in the face of all the rules. Reviewer "odilon" is right--the line "You are coming with me. Now." is the finest moment of this book, the words thundering through the characters' world. You'll be pumping your fist in the air and cheering, or crying, or maybe both. (I seem to remember I accidentally woke my roommate up the first time I read that scene.) Another reviewer complains of Anne Rice's misogyny. I'm tired of it too, but it isn't really evident in this book. The female characters, even the contemptible ones, are as well fleshed-out as the males. I don't really mind if some of the women are unsympathetic, as long as they're not cardboard. Some of the most fascinating characters in _Feast_ are women.
Rating:
Summary: Passionate and deeply human story
Review: This has to be the most beautifully written book I have ever read. Anne Rice vibrantly brings to life the community and lives of the Gens de Couleurs in New Orleans, a part of American history I have never heard of prior to reading the novel. All characters are well portrayed; you really get to know them, their passions, their dreams, their flaws, their opinions, their personalities.. all main characters are given a voice and a window through which the reader can look into their soul. The descriptions of New Orleans and its culture throughout the novel are breathtaking and mesmerising as if the reader has been transported there physically. This book will make you laugh, cry, become angry, excited, nervous, and extremely happy as it takes you through the journey of the story. The Feast of All Saints has become my favourite book and I would recommend it to anyone who likes a deep, moving story with plenty of substance. If you are expecting the supernatural just like in Anne Rice's other novels - forget it. This story is human to the core.
Rating:
Summary: 600 pages long, but worth every word.
Review: This is a remarkable book. Not exactly an evenful novel, but still facinating to read. I like it because, unlike other Anne Rice books - full of adventure yet often disorganized and unfulfilling - this book recreates a world and simply follows the characters through a segment of the most important part in life - adolescence. Really, just a great great great book!
Rating:
Summary: My Favorite Anne Rice
Review: This is Anne Rice's best work. I used to read anything she wrote but book 4 of the Vampire series ended it for me. Her gift of description has turned into pontification (she must be getting paid by the word!). "Feast of All Saints" is her best work and, unlike the other reviewers, I hope she DOESN'T write a sequel!
Rating:
Summary: This may be Rice's finest work!
Review: Unlike most of Anne Rice's other works, this one deals with a period and region in American history that has been little explored in popular fiction. The setting, in just post-Louisiana Purchase New Orleans, is perfect. The period and historical facts have been meticulously well researched and should be an eye-opener for most Americans, who tend to be woefully ignorant about their country's past. Her development of the characters, their attitudes, hopes and fears, is skillfully done. Altogether, this book is a great read that also imparts knowledge at the same time
Rating: 
Summary: No vampires. A tale of New Orleans Creoles
Review: When I visited New Orleans for the first time a few years ago, I took a walking tour of the Garden District that included Ann Rice's house (complete with black limo outside). I also noticed small outbuildings that were referred to as 'garconierres.' When I questioned their purpose, I was told that boys were housed away from the main house in order to sow their wild oats in private. They were encouraged to eat, drink, be merry, take mistresses, and generally get the devilment out of their systems before adulthood and the need to marry, begin a family, and take over their fathers' businesses became expected of them.
The Creoles played a large part in this aspect of New Orleans society, and our tour guide said the best novel detailing all the permutations of Creole life was this one, Ann Rice's The Feast of all Saints. So I bought it.
Like all of Rice's books, it's overly long and wordy: I understand it's part of her contract with her publishing house that they will not edit out or change one single word of her manuscript as submitted. That's a shame, because I feel this would have been a better book if it had been a shorter book. I found myself skimming whole pages in places.
Nonetheless, it's a terrific 19th Century story of the gens de couleur libre, or the Free People of Color who were destined to be a distinct race caught between two worlds: slaves and owners. It was the Creole women who frequently became the mistresses of the white men. Descended from a mixture of races including African, French, and Spanish, they played (and continue to play) a unique role in the history of New Orleans.
At its heart, The Feast of All Saints is a coming-of-age story of Marcel, the child of a Creole woman and a wealthy, white plantation owner who has promised to send him to Paris to complete his education when he comes of age. It's also the story of Marcel's younger sister, who could pass for white; his mentor Christophe, another free person of color, and a few others of his friends. It's a story of struggle against alienation and of complex, intertwined relationships.
It deserves slow and careful reading, for it's rich with detail and passion - but man, it sure is loooong and repetitive in many places.
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