ANIMA RISING

Reviewed by Steven H Silver

There are similarities between Christopher Moore's Anima Rising and his novel Sacre Bleu which could lead a reader to think they are part of a loose series, but to do so would be a mistake. The earlier novels is set during the rise of the Impressionist movement in Paris in the 1870s and Anima Rising features early twentieth century Vienna Secessionist artist Gustav Klimt as a major character. Both books also introduce a supernatural element to the worlds in which Moore's artists move, but the nature (supernature?) of that element is quite different. Both books are also less obviously humorous than most of Moore's novels. However, they are thematically different and are not intended to be read together.

The events of Anima Rising are set in motion with Klimt comes across a drowned, naked woman in Vienna. He pulls her from the Danube and discovers that she is still alive, but has no idea who she may be. The reader, however, is not in as much darkness as the woman, for Moore provides the reader with her identity in chapters which show that Klimt's mysterious woman was killed in the eighteenth century by Frankenstein's creation and subsequently brought back to life by Frankenstein, although who she was before her murder remains a mystery, as does most of her existence and how she came to be lying drowned in the Danube. These mysteries are the focus on Moore's novel.

While Klimt brings the woman, who he calls Judith, back to his studio, his work doesn't allow him to really help her, so he puts her in the care of one of his models, Wally (Walburga) Neuzil. Wally and Judith strike up a close friendship, at first based on Wally's need for money and the fact that Klimt is paying her for the time she spends watching after Judith, but eventually they develop mutual affection for each other with Judith providing Wally a person to take care of and Wally a person to help guide her through the streets of Vienna. In many ways, their pairing is the heart of the novel and Moore does an excellent job depicting their friendship, which also provides him with the majority of the opportunities for humor, as Wally tends her lunatic friend and Judith speaks freely of harming people, both outside societal norms in their own way.

The world Wally guides Judith through contains not only Klimt, but artists Egon Schiele and Anton Peschka, psychiatrists Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, Klimt's models and friends, and various fictional characters, as well as flashbacks to sequences containing characters from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. These characters do not merely provide cameos. Freud and Jung both work with Judith to help her try to discover her past, highlighting their different methodologies in the way they respond to the fantastic tales Judith tells about her life. Klimt's friend Emilie Floge, introduced to the story to provide a dress for Judith to model, helps Wally and Judith understand that they are independent women who have their own volition.

As with Sacre Bleu, Anima Rising shows that even when taking a gonzo premise, Moore is capable of writing a gripping narrative full of relatable and likeable characters. Even if Anima Rising doesn't has as many laugh-out-loud moments as many of Moore's novels, it is still written with a light touch, moments of humor, and characters, specifically Wally and Judith, who are clearly among the great characters that Moore has introduced his readers to. In some ways, the fact that Anima Rising doesn't feel like a typical Christopher Moore novel, it means it is the perfect introduction to his writing for readers who might need to be eased into Moore's offbeat worldview and writing.

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