#95: The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova

Before there was Twilight, there were hundreds of vampire tales that caught the attention of readers.   Books like The Vampire Chronicles by Ann Rice, reminded us that vampires were evil creatures who preyed on humankind. Of course, the most famous of these tales in modern history is Dracula by Bram Stoker. Stoker told us how cruel and unscrupulous vampires were:  He told us they thrived on human blood, lived in the dark, crawled up walls over castles, and stole our beautiful women through slow, painful transformation to vampire forms themselves.

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova used Stoker's well-known description of vampire lore and created a modern story of a young woman and her father.  Kostova explains, "Dracula is a metaphor for the evil that is so hard to undo in history" (Jane Sullivan, "Dracula and the Human Factor", The Age (3 June 2006).   With this in mind, Kostova created this novel.   Told from multiple perspectives, that of a professor named Paul, his un-named daughter, and Paul's mentor, the story weaves together various lives intercepted by the history of Vlad the Impaler, Stoker's inspiration for his fictional Dracula (for those not familiar, here is a brief History Channel bio).

Most of the story takes the form of letters and oral histories, but the main narrator is a young, unnamed daughter of a college professor.   It is never completely clear if this narrator is unbiased, or reliable; she is sharing with us, the reader, stories told to her over time and to which she is emotionally invested.  Still, the tale is true to the grotesqueness of Stoker's story.  There is mystery and murder, it isn't clear who is helping Paul (spoiler!) learn more about the death of his mentor, Bartholomew Rossi
and who is trying to prevent him from solving this mystery.  While reading the details, it can be difficult to decipher what is really happening, and what is speculation of the character who is telling the story at the time.  It's an interesting mix of potentially unreliable narrators and hyperbolic storytelling.

I read this book a few years ago - I believe I found it while browsing in Borders Books - and thought of it recently when my sister, parents, and I were emailing about our Irish family history on St. Patrick's Day.  I loved how, in The Historian, the reader isn't really sure if what is being told to us has really happened - are vampires really real? - and I think a lot of that happens with family histories.  We know so little about what our great-great-great grandparents were like, and have to speculate and put the pieces together.  My family is really lucky because my father has a passion for ancestry and can find out all sorts of details.  It's tempting to write it all down, like the narrator in The Historian, and elaborate on all the little details until we have a historical account of family vampires.  What can you find Old Man?

Packing Things Away

While packing things to put in storage while we prepare to move to a larger home, the most difficult part is storing my books.  I remember the stories.  I remember bits and pieces of those other parts of my life - some recent, some so, so long ago.  Three times my husband reminded me to put them in the storage bins... I selected a few favorites and "hid" them on my dresser.  Then he reminded me to put those away, too.  I did... except the ten or so now hidden in the basket next to the bed that usually contains the books I am currently reading.

Why is to so hard to put these pieces of paper away?

#40: Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman

I always try to stay away from those things that are built up to mounds of hype.  It is always a great pleasure to find them later in life when everyone is no longer chattering about those things, so I can enjoy them on my own without exponentially built-up expectations.

That is what happened with the writing of Neil Gaiman. A few years ago, everyone on the train I was taking read American Gods.  I began it and, I suppose because of the hype, could not finish.  I was quite disappointed with the chronology; I was confused.  I kept having to go back and re-read pages because I couldn't believe what I had just read.  Fortunately, I re-began it in my quest to read the top 100 fantasy novels and was thrilled.  Because of my love for this novel, I have begun reading as many of his books as possible.  Here, we'll talk about Neverwhere, number 40 on my list.

Neverwhere reminded me a little of "The Wizard of Oz" (movie).  The main character, Richard, a boring ol' chap, finds himself caught in a world between the worlds after saving the life of a young woman named Door, who he finds bleeding in the street.  In this strange land, called Under London, he finds a floating market and an underground home of an angel.  Along with new acquaintances, he has to pass certain tests with the hope to save Under London and get back home.  The story is fraught with mysteries and puzzles to solve.  Oh, and I just love when authors use names as a way to tell the reader something about the character.  Here, the name Door is an obvious representation of that character's ability to open things.  Little secrets, even when so obvious, make me wonder what else I might miss and keep me quite engaged.

Gaiman's ability to take boring young male characters on adventures is spot-on.  All three of his novels I have read (Anansi Boys is the other, and I'll review that soon!) use the same premise (boring guy meets some crazy person, goes on an adventure, saves the world - you know, the usual) but not to the point of feeling formulaic.  The characters are different guys, with different interests.

This novel first began as a television show in London and was not highly regarded. There is a comic book, and soon a radio version of the work to be released as well.  It is especially interesting, while reading this novel, to imagine the book having not been written first.  As Gaiman wrote the story, he would have had to imagine the characters in a similar sense to the television portrayal.  It'd be interesting to know whether people who enjoy the television show enjoyed the book.

What a clever, modern author Gaiman is.  Incorporating his writing into television shows, radio shows, and comic books (Sandman is amazing, more on that later).  He must have no fear of being irrelevant too soon.  Reading his Tweets daily keeps him, as an author, in my mind, and makes me curious about reading more of his work.  I'm excited for his newest novel, The Ocean at the End of the Lane to be released here in the United States in 14 weeks, 1 day, 9 hours, 13 minutes from right now.

Here's an excerpt from the Neverwhere television show in case you're interested; this part takes place early in the novel so no surprises will be ruined if you decide to pick up this book.