With this wryly horrific riff on self-help programs, Nasaw (Shakedown Street, 1993) joins the burgeoning ranks of writers who pick up echoes of vampirism in the rhythms of everyday relationships. His bloodsuckers are respectable citizens of El Cerrito, Calif., who treat their thirst as an addiction they can kick through weekly meetings of Vampires Anonymous (V.A.), which recovering vampire Nick Santos conducts like any other 12-step program. Complications arise when Jamey Whistler, a member of V.A. who sees its approach as cultlike, secretly begins to undermine the organization. V.A. is by no means a new concept (Jeffrey McMahan made it the focus of his 1991 satire, Vampires Anonymous), but Nasaw uses it to address the bigger issue of the consequences of a permissive society. With great dexterity, he choreographs scenes of Nick and Jamey's vamp. vs. vamp tango around chapters from Nick's gestating book, The World on Blood, an account of gay vampire life in San Francisco's Castro district in the 1970s. V.A. is portrayed as Nick's sobering wake-up call from his promiscuous lifestyle, and America's rush toward self-help movements as the inevitable response to decades of hedonistic self-indulgence. Vivid characters who veer between the comic and the tragic keep the preachiness at bay, gleefully underscoring the irony of a society seemingly addicted to anti-addiction therapies. Literary Guild selection.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.



The events in this novel take place after those in Nasaw's The World on Blood (Dutton, 1996). Although the same irreverent tone is evident in both, this new work is grittier and darker and lacks the rollicking humor found in its predecessor. The focus here is on psychopathic hit man Aldo's attempt to destroy Jamey Whistler along with everything and everyone who ever meant anything to him. Jamey and Aldo are both vampires, which here means human beings capable of getting high on human blood. When drinking blood, these vampires are also slower to age, are immune to disease, and experience the greatest sex imaginable. Aldo, a former member of the Romanian secret police, almost succeeds in his task, but Jamey finds a savior in Selene, his lover and a High Priestess of Wicca. Nasaw tells a mesmerizing tale with credible, three-dimensional characters. For public libraries where Anne Rice is popular.?Patricia Altner, Information Seekers, Bowie, Md.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.