What a great book for Halloween month!
I LOVED this book and very highly recommend you read it. Run, don’t walk to your library or local bookstore and pick up a copy. Right now. It’s okay, I’ll wait.
(Jeapardy theme)
Back? Okay, without too many spoilers, here’s why you should read it and will love it as much as I did:
It’s effin’ awesome, man!!!
No, seriously.
From the very first sentence on the very first page I was gripped by the story and it didn’t shake me loose until the final word on the final page, and I am left gasping for more. The book is written from the viewpoint of an unnamed female narrator, a young woman of 18 who finds a book in her historian father’s library and is told a remarkable and at times unbelievable story. At first, while traveling throughout Europe with her father, the young girl listens to her father’s tale about his university days where he is mysteriously given a rare book, a book whose blank parchment pages encase a disturbing woodcut at its very centre, an image of a dragon with looped tail that has evil ramifications. Upon showing this book to his advisor (Prof. Rossi), he learns his is not the only book in existence. Paul (the father) sits enthralled while his advisor tells him a strange and at times wildly unbelievable tale of finding a similar book and beginning to research the history of the Dracula myth and the man who started it all, Vlad III, or Vlad Tepes, or Vlad Dracula or Vlad the Impaler, whichever title you prefer to know him by. At the end of the tale, Paul is given a packet of letters and maps detailing his advisor’s research. Saying goodnight, Paul leaves and while walking along the sidewalk outside his advisor’s office, he senses some oddity in the atmosphere, but dismisses it. The next morning, his advisor has disappeared, leaving behind a pool of blood, a missing dragon book, and many, many unanswered questions.
On the hunt for those answers, Paul follows in Prof. Rossi’s footsteps, continuing his research in the hopes of locating his beloved friend. He soon meets fellow grad student Helen, who turns out to be Rossi’s daughter from a brief affair in Romania and the two work in tandem to unravel this mystery, traveling to wonderfully remote locales in Cold War Europe, places like Budapest, Istanbul, Romania, and Bulgaria, all on the trail of a man who lived in the 15th century and who they fear may still be alive these many centuries later for all of their research leads to the belief that vampires still exist today and the greatest one of them all, Vlad himself, is somewhere in Europe.
It is a remarkable story for this young girl to hear, and more remarkable yet when the tale barely begun, her father disappears himself, leaving behind a packet of letters for his daughter, further explaining his past and her parentage and laying the groundwork for her own research into the legend of Vlad Dracula in the hopes of finding her beloved father.
A beautifully written book in near complete epistolary form, the tale unfolds before you, the reader, as if you were that unnamed 18 year old girl, listening to this most amazing story. The historical and geographic descriptions are breathtaking and you can imagine yourself walking beside Paul, experiencing his discoveries and travels first-hand. And throughout it all is the mystery: what happened to Prof. Rossi? What has happened to Paul? And the young girl, who upon first reading about her father’s encounter with Helen Rossi gasps “Helen, that was my mother’s name….” And so the mystery thickens: is Helen her mother? What has happened to her? For she has been raised by only her father and a housekeeper most of her life. Dun dun da.
This brief synopsis barely does justice to the intricacies and plot twists contained in this powerhouse of a novel, all of which is handled by a master of the written word. Elizabeth Kostova truly has an amazing talent as both a writer and more importantly a storyteller. She captures the nuance of the oral tradition of storytelling perfectly in her use of letters to tell her tale for you, the reader, are given the impression Paul is speaking directly to you, and not that you are merely reading a bunch of dusty old letters. Truly remarkable! (I know I’ve used that word a lot, but I can’t help gushing, I loved this book so much!) Quite frankly I am enamored of Ms Kostova and can’t wait to read her second book, The Swan Thieves as I trust it will be just as captivating as The Historian was.
Read it. Do.
Now, turning to what my fellow book clubbers had to say: Reviews were mixed on this book. Some loved it as I did, others hated it and didn’t bother to finish reading it. Reasons for the dislike? There was simply no character development in the novel and readers could not get into or like any of the characters. Lacking an emotional connection made for some pretty dry reading. Others disliked the vampirism and occult subject matter, either for religious reasons or that such tales just were not their cup of tea. Many readers did enjoy the historical detail of the novel, and the references to actual persons (like Vlad), places (like Saint Matthieu’s Monastery in France) and events (like the clashes between Christians and Muslims during the days of the Ottoman Empire). Kostova clearly did her homework and enriched her tale accordingly.
Till next time, happy reading!
L J
| TBR = 22 | WPL = 28 |
No comments:
Post a Comment