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Set
in 1840's New Orleans, this historical novel traces the journey
of the community of free people of colour who were feared
and ignored by whites. Suspended between worlds of black and
white, finding stability only in 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 colour 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
others jeopardise 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.
Source:
annerice.com
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