this dazzling historical novel chronicles the lives of four of them--men and women caught perilously between the worlds of master and slave, privilege and oppression, passion and pain.
Originally Published December, 1979
Ballantine
March 1981
640 pages ISBN: 0345334531 Paperback (reprint) Add to Wish List
Set in 1840's New Orleans, this historical novel traces the
journey of the community of free people of color who were
feared and ignored by whites. Suspended between worlds of
blacka nd white, finding stability only int their own
community, they live in tension and ambiguity that form
their greatest strength and their greatest weakness. The
protagonist is a 14 year old boy named Marcel with one
white
and one free black parent. Together with his sister and two
close friends they deal with the transition of adolescence
and its mirror in the ambiguity of their social position.
Marcel awakens when his idol, a famous novelist and free
man
of color comes to New Orleans to open a school. Marcel has
been promised an education by his rich white father and
Marcel intends to make it at Christophe's school.
Meanwhile,
his sister Marie is being courted by a prosperous and
respected friend of Marcel's, but her vulnerability and the
plans of other jeopardize her happiness. Marcel is making
his own journey to adulthood through relationships with
Christophe and his family. When it is announced that Marcel
is to learn a trade to support himself instead of finish
academic study, Marcel rebels, is removed from school, and
wanders seeking the truth about who he is and what he was
meant to do.
A painfully historically rich and accurate novel that
delicately and clearly draws patterns of irony and
injustice
together through complex family relationships and social
structures, The Feast of All Saints was Anne Rice's second
novel.
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