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Ben Stiller was recently quoted as having said, "You can't fail anonymously if you are the child of celebrities."* Lucky for Christopher Rice --- son of poet Stan Rice and horror maven Anne Rice --- he's no failure. Rice's second book, THE SNOW GARDEN, proves that Christopher Rice is in his own right an excellent author, with more than a passing flare for the mysterious.
THE SNOW GARDEN is the story of unraveling parallel murders occurring 20 years apart at fictitious Atherton College in the suburbs of Boston. Behind the ivy-covered walls of the institution's world exists a cadre of secretive co-eds and educators who prove the adage "you can't judge a book by its cover."
First there's Kathryn, who on the surface appears prudish and corseted, when, in fact, she harbors a recent past involving dangerous promiscuity and drug abuse. She is fiercely protective of her dorm mate Randall. Gay and guarded, Randall hides scarred legs that hint at a horrible devastation that doesn't match the invented history he shares with his inner circle of friends. His roommate Jesse --- perhaps one of the most despicable characters ever encountered --- has GQ good looks (which cause boys and girls alike to swoon) coupled with a sadistic, domineering personality that seeks out the weaknesses of others and then tortures them with their own frailties. At the center of the murder mysteries is Eric Eberman, romantically involved with both victims --- the first when he was an undergraduate, the second during his tenure in Atherton's Art Department. The author excels not only at designing complicated, closeted characters but also at drawing them out slowly, teasingly, in all their complexities. They are as much a mystery as the twin murders.
THE SNOW GARDEN has maze-momentum. The populace of Rice's novel is like so many mice dropped into a maze at several entry points --- they scramble, cross paths, double back, near the exit, make false turns and cross paths again, while you, the reader, stand above, watching it all unfold at ever increasing speeds. Often in literature, revelation equals release; with Rice, the more the characters learn about each other at every turn in the maze, the more they become entangled and ensnared. The minor (but pivotal) characters in particular move in and out of the pages, encountering Kathryn, Randall, Jesse, and Eric in ways one couldn't have foreseen. Nothing about THE SNOW GARDEN is predictable. Much is shocking, happily shocking.
When Bookreporter.com's reviewer Sofrina Hinton wrote about Rice's debut novel A DENSITY OF SOULS, she offered, "Christopher Rice's evolution as a writer will be something to see." Take a look at THE SNOW GARDEN if you want something to see.
*On "Primetime with Jiminy Glick."
--- Reviewed by Roberta O'Hara
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