Book Review: 'Conversations With Anne Rice' (1996)

In Conversations With Anne Rice, a series of lucid, bewitching interviews with the high priestess of modern gothic writing, Michael Riley — a close friend and obvious fan of both Rice's books and her crushed-velvet persona — lobs moon-ball questions, giving his subject ample space to breathily dissect violence, Tom Cruise, the American publishing machinery, and cultural politics. Rice clearly fancies herself a wide-eyed artiste, blissed out by her fecund New Orleans surroundings and the act of making literature and sweetly baffled by her success. But make no mistake: She's capable of canny and sometimes cruel observations, taking on snobs, radical feminists, Hollywood producers, and — yipes — book reviewers. A-