LOVED. LOVED. LOVED, LOVED, LOVED!
More...yes, please, and thank you!
This was my first Anne Rice novel...shocking, I know. I loved every single page of this book. I was utterly drawn in and didn't want to put it down.
The book opens with a man describing himself, the Mission Inn, and the nearby San Juan Capistrano with its Serra Chapel. Rice gets a little wordy here but if you can make it through all of the elaborate descriptions of the buildings, it picks up speed. The stage is set for the narrator, a contract killer, to take the hit on a target given to him by 'The Right Man' as he calls his boss. The problem with the whole situation though, is the Mission Inn is the one place Lucky the Fox can be himself - without disguises, without fear. He stays in the honeymoon suite, the Amistad Suite, every time he stays at the Mission Inn where he reads for hours on end about angels, theology, the Renaissance, the Dark Ages; and he plays the lute. How cool is that? And how random is that? I've never read a book before about anyone who played the lute...for fun! I immediately liked Lucky the Fox as he is known when he's a hit man. Lucky has been battling with his own faith in God for years and asks the big questions of God. Why him? Why did He let certain events happen? And even goes so far as to tell God he doesn't believe He exists. I really found myself relating to him in that I feel I've been on my own spiritual journey for the past year and a half...trying to find my way back to God, regretting ever having walked away, finding peace and joy in the bad times, rejoicing in the good times. I just really found myself having a moment with this character that I've never had with any other. So for me, this really hit home and was probably one of the reasons I enjoyed this book so much.
Anyway, Lucky carries out the hit, silently with poison that looks like a heart attack, but he notices a man sitting on the terrace outside the room. The man can't see him, Lucky knows because he knows everything about this room. He's stayed in it so many times, himself. His sanctuary has now been defiled by murder. And in his head is the voice telling him to kill himself. End it all. Use the other syringe he brought (as a backup/just in case) and take his own life. Enter in that eternal darkness. It is when this voice is at its loudest, louder than it's ever been before, that the man on the terrace steps in and tells him not to listen to it. Of course, Lucky things he's hallucinating the man, especially when the man tells Lucky he is an angel and he has a special mission for Lucky. Lucky cleans up his stuff, leaves the room, leaves the hotel, and heads back to his own garage to rid himself of the accoutrement he required for the hit...all the while the angel, now identified for Lucky's purposes as Malchiah, walks along with him and gets in his van with him. Lucky things he's going crazy. It is not until Malchiah shows Lucky his life that things begin to change...
Lucky the Fox was born as Toby O'Dare in New Orleans. He didn't have it easy. His father was a power wielding cop who liked to proposition prostitutes and then beat them. He went to prison and was stabbed after only being in for 2 months. His mother was an alcoholic who really completely fell into the abyss after her husband was sent to prison. He had one brother, Jacob, and one sister, Emily; both younger. He worked hard playing his lute on the street for money and when he was a bit older he got a job at a restaurant playing the lute. On weekends he would work tirelessly on the street corners. He became the bread winner and care taker of his mother, brother, and sister. He also went to school, maintained good grades, and even regularly attended church. He met a girl, Liona, and immediately became enraptured with her. He lost his virginity to her and tried regularly to see her on top of everything else he already did. Sometimes, when he was on the street corners playing his lute, she would come join him and sing. They were to meet up and attend their high school graduation together; but on this particular day, his mother was being just extra. He left the apartment after his mother was passed out, skipped his high school graduation instead playing his lute for money, and when he had played until his hands could play no more, he went to the church to pray. When he returned home, he knew immediately something was wrong. He found his brother and sister drowned in the bath tub. His mother had slit her wrists in the bed. It was at this point that I almost open wept in public when I read this. My heart broke for Toby. I wanted nothing more than to hold him, comfort him, and pray for and with him.
Toby left New Orleans the next day and headed for New York. He got a job playing the lute in a restaurant owned by Alonso. The two became close but Toby never really let anyone close again. It wasn't until Alonso confessed to Toby that the Russians were going to take all of his businesses and kill his family that Lucky the Fox was born. Toby took it upon himself to exact revenge on what the Russians had done to Alonso so he sought them out, disguised himself, and killed them all. When he told Alonso what he had done, Alonso pulled some strings and Toby was taken to 'The Right Man'. And thus, a contract killer is born.
I loved the telling of Toby's life, as it was told from the perspective of Malchiah. He gives a different perspective because no only does he tell us about Toby's life, but he lets us know how Toby's guardian angel felt about things. He'll say sometimes that the angel wept, or felt sorrow, and smiled...that sort of thing which I thought was a nice touch. I've often wondered how my guardian angel feels...maybe I don't really want to know. The concept of angels and their relation to their human charges as portrayed in this book was utterly fascinating to me.
After seeing his life looking in from the outside, Toby is utterly overwhelmed and repents for all he has done. He begs the Lord for forgiveness for ever having separated himself from Him which is a prayer that I am all too familiar with. He believes Malchiah is who he says he is and it now that we all learn why Malchiah has come to Toby. He wants Toby to use his skills as being cunning, eloquent, and slightly deceitful, at least as far as disguises go, to go back through periods of time to prevent bad things from happening.
His first assignment is to go back to 13th century England to prevent a woman and her husband from being potentially killed for the supposed murder of their daughter. It is when he goes back to this time that we learn the story of Fluria, a young Jewess, who fell for a worldly man and became pregnant. She being Jewish, and him forced by his family to pick up the cloth of the Christian faith, they could not be together. His name was Godwin and he begrudgingly traveled to Paris to become a priest but upon arrival he had an epiphany in which he realized his worldly ways were not the way he wanted to live. He became a very devout man but still continued to write to Fluria and she to him, despite the wishes of either of their families. She never told him about her pregnancy, or that she had twin girls, Lea and Rosa. Her father helped her raise them and even arranged for her to marry an old Jewish man to make the story fit with Godwin NOT being the father. When her husband passed, they returned to Oxford where she, along with her father Eli, raised the girls. She met one of her father's students, Meir, and he asked for her hand in marriage. Fluria felt she could not enter into a marriage with someone else without him knowing the true story of her girls' father so she wrote a letter to Godwin admitting the truth to him and asking guidance. Well...Godwin shows up and his plan is to take one of his daughters with him, to which Eli is outraged. However, Rosa, always sensing Godwin, the man from her mother's letters, was their father, agrees to go with him. So, Eli disowns all of them. Fluria and Lea go with Meir to Norwich because he has just inherited property from a relative while Rosa returns with Godwin to Paris to take up the Christian faith. Time passes and Lea becomes sick with what we now know as an appendicitis and the child passes away. The community is outraged at her disappearance because just days before her passing, she went to see the Christian Christmas pageants with some of her friends, and now the whole community things her Jewish parents have killed her. Who the hell thinks like that? I guess it's possible though considering people are lunatics. Anyway, Toby has shown up to prevent Fluria and Meir for being persecuted for what was a natural death of Lea. He travels to Paris to talk to Godwin and get Rosa to return to Norwich to pretend to be her sister Lea so that Meir and Fluria may leave Norwich unscathed. Luckily, the plan works! Toby is successful is his mission and no harm befalls any of the Jewry of Norwich! Woot Woot! Way to go Toby! However, Toby is attacked by an outraged crowd of villagers and even some of the Dominican Friars who say he is a liar and may very well have just let murderers escape. The last thing Toby sees as his head is banged in the ground, the blood running down his scalp, are all of the people he has killed over the past 10 years.
He awakens back in the Amistad suite, his laptop open, his normal clothes on. He wonders if it was all a dream. He sobs for what feels like hours because he has lost everyone he has ever felt close to. His family, Liona, Fluria, Meir, Godwin...everyone. He feels utterly alone and even Malchiah is not showing up even when he calls his name. He calls 'The Right Man' and tells him he's done. Tells him he'll never kill again. And surprisingly, in very unMafialike fashion, he lets him go. Toby stays at the Mission Inn for 2 weeks and writes a book about his entire experience in the 13th century. It isn't until he sits outside, having finished his book, that he prays once again. When he looks up, he sees Malchiah sitting across the table from him. Finally, he is at peace again knowing it wasn't all just a dream. Malchiah says they have another mission though and no time to waste. He also says though before they begin, there is one more thing Toby must do. Toby must find his first love in New Orleans because there is a 10 year old son there who needs to hear from his father.
DUN DUN DUNNNN....AHHHHHHH HE'S A DAD!
Now, of course Rice goes into a lot of detail. She is able to provide such great depth of character that I really feel like I know these people. She is a bit wordy in the first little bit, as I said before, but if you can get past that...just hold on because it gets SO MUCH BETTER. I have so many feelers for Toby and who he was, what he became, how he changed once again, and the man he is now. Such fantastic writing and just...ahhh...I. LOVED. THIS. BOOK.
God bless you, Anne Rice! I stinkin LOVED THIS BOOK!!! And...I'm fairly certain I'm totally in love with Toby O'Dare. I seriously just can't say enough good things about this book. I can't wait to read the next one!
