Treat...and a Trick!





What better way to get in the Halloween mood than by reading Dracula by Bram Stoker? [I read it for free at www.Literature.org!]  I wondered if I would be really scared because since the age of 14 after reading Salem’s Lot by Stephen King and going to sleep for a month with a cross under my pillow, vampires tend to scare me.  But, I needn’t have worried - I really liked it, particularly the way the story was told by using different journal entries by different characters and compiling them to tell a story that was, at times, a little creepy.  It never got full-on scary, though.  I did fall just a little bit in love with the Dr. Van Helsing character in the book [I tend to gravitate towards the eccentric genius type].

The story moves along pretty briskly and the descriptions, dialogue and multiple points of view are expertly delivered.  I greatly enjoyed Mina’s journal entries, and felt that her side of the story was the soul of the book, while Dr. Jack Sewerd’s was the backbone.  [What else?  I mean, she’s a woman in love and he’s a psychiatrist].  Mina is clearly a smart, independent woman and it shows in her journal entries and her willingness to help the men hunt down the Count and kill him.  I was surprised at the depth of the two main female characters, Mina and Lucy, and their “modern-ness.”  I also found it ironic that the more the men played to the stereotype of men-as-protectors, the more harm came to the women.  Even more surprising [and endearing] was Dr. Van Helsing’s continuous praise of Mina as a strong, smart woman, who should be held as a standard of excellence among society.  The end of the book was rather abrupt, but satisfying.  Even though I didn’t think the book itself was scary, the more I thought about the characters and the story, the more frightened I felt.  I suppose the true test for a horror story is whether the reader’s imagination takes hold of the idea and takes it to the next level.  Count Dracula is a cultural icon and while vampires are all the rage now, there’s a certain simplicity to this book and Stoker’s Dracula character that makes it far more appealing and frightening than anything more recent.    

All through the book, I kept picturing Anthony Hopkins as Van Helsing because he was the only character I really remembered from the 1992 movie, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, directed by Francis Ford Coppola.  So, I felt a good bit of anticipation before settling back to watch the movie.  Now, some people [my son, my husband, my friends, my mother….okay – a lot of people] think I am too hard on movies adapted from books.  I admit I am a purist when it comes to adaptations, but I thought I had mellowed quite a bit [thanks Harry Potter], and was prepared to take some deviation as par for the course.  Well, if it had only been some deviation, I could have gotten over it, I think, but this was a travesty!  I say that, but then I recall the early nineties as being a wasteland when it came to most fashion, music and anything else requiring creative thought.  This movie is no exception.  I’m sure they thought they were being super artsy when Dracula’s shadow does strange things, but in the book, Count Dracula doesn’t even HAVE a shadow.  That’s just one example. 



One of the few scenes with Mina and Lucy fully clothed



Really, you could probably classify this movie as soft porn, what with the women kissing, bared breasts and moaning for no apparent reason, etc.  Ridiculous!  Needless to say, it didn’t follow the book closely at all.  It should have been called “A Vampire’s Kiss:  Mina And Lucy’s Erotic Adventure With An Ancient Vampire Turned Young”.  What’s worse is that I absolutely loathed Anthony Hopkins’s portrayal of Van Helsing!  He was pretentious, overbearing, snobbish and a complete ass – nothing like the book! 



           My advice is skip the movie unless you’re a huge fan of seeing Winona Ryder in revealing dresses and watching her breasts heave, or you want to see a young Keanu Reeves playing something besides a time-traveling buffoon [well, he’s still a buffoon, but he doesn’t get to meet Abe Lincoln in this flick].  If you want a good read that isn’t gory or in-your-face scary, then Dracula is for you.  If you like Dracula, here’s another fantastic read on vampires and Count Dracula - The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. 


Great Book - little scary, though



A Woman of Independent Means

     A fellow member of a writing group is the owner of an online bookstore, and he recently had a huge sale at his warehouse.  One of the books I purchased was A Woman of Independent Means, 2oth Anniversary Edition by Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey.  The title seemed vaguely familiar to me and the blurb on the back intrigued me, since I am fascinated by history and books – not necessarily in that order.   Also, the fact that the entire book was written in the format of letters really fascinated me.  The review on Amazon.com says this of the book and of Bess Steed Garner, the main character:

“From the early 1900s through the 1960s, we accompany Bess as she endures life's trials and triumphs with unfailing courage and indomitable spirit: the sacrifices love sometimes requires of the heart, the flaws and rewards of marriage, the often-tested bond between mother and child, and the will to defy a society that demands conformity.”



Money? Yes.  Likeable?  No.

 

     Needless to say, I had high hopes for this book.  I thought this character would be quite the radical – someone who defied the stereotype and was more than a wife and mother. 

     I was wrong.  So, so wrong!

     This woman, Bess Steed Garner, only aspired to be the “perfect” upper class wife and mother – one obsessed with money, status and only a part-time caretaker to her children.  Combine that with the woman’s narcissistic personality and you get a character that I immediately disliked.  I mean, this lady writes her husband’s obituary and then sends it to a paper in her former hometown with a cover letter that instructs the editor to print it in the society pages because he was such an influential person.   Bess asked her dying father’s nurse to leave his bedside and come back to help her instead!  She forced her aunt, who had taken in her father and raised him as her own, to go into a nursing home.  She sold the aunt’s home and made her aunt sign over all her antique furniture to Bess in payment for the nursing home care and then had the audacity to write her aunt and tell her that she was being petulant about living in a nursing home!  Bess asked her housekeeper to delay her vacation in order to decorate Bess’s house for the holidays not for Bess and the children, but for Bess’s friend who would be staying in the house alone, without them.  Bess alienated her children, especially her daughter, and forced them to do as she wanted instead of finding their own places in life.  She did nothing with her money except build houses, decorate them and go to Europe on vacations.  She didn’t do anything special or help others.  Bess absolutely expected to be catered to and resisted any effort made to try to let her know she wasn’t the center of the universe.  

     The author wrote in the preface to this edition that the book was based on her grandmother.  After reading it, I thought “Wow. This was not a tribute to that woman.  How could she have thought she was writing it as one?”

     Not long after I finished the book, I was on the phone with my mother and asked her if she had read it and she said that she had and liked it.  I laughed and said, “Well, it must be a generational thing because I absolutely loathed that woman and was grateful I didn’t have her as a mother!  You may not have had any money to speak of, but you sure did more for your kids than Bess ever did!”     

     I was so relieved to finish that book.      

Preston & Child

I’m trying to stick to my schedule of one review avery two weeks, but I get stidetracked and start reading ahead! I had planned to write a review of The Dukan Diet, but my dearest husband finished Cold Vengeance [finally!] and I knew I had to read it before I did anything else. Luckily I was almost finished with Still Life for Crows and could jump right in.

I have read every single Preston & Child book, [wow, that sounds kinda stalker-creepy, doesn’t it?] and Still Life for Crows was the first book I have wanted to not finish reading. The only saving graces in this book were [of course] Special Agent Pendergast, whom I adore, and Corrie, a new character who steals the whole she-bang.   

I try not to put any kind of spoilers in these reviews, so I’m going to keep my critique general.  First, contrary to many horror movies, books and tv shows, scary can exist without gore, and when grisly, gory parts are necessary, it is best when largely left to the imagination. Suffice to say, I did not read about 6 pages to quiet the heavings of my stomach.  Some things I just can’t bear to have in my consciousness.  Second, it was never explained exactly why Pendergast was in that god-forsaken Kansas town to begin with! Third, and most importantly, the ending stunk! I was left with the feeling of what the hell did I just waste my time on? And that’s NO way to feel after reading a Pendergast novel.   

So, to recap…Still Life with Crows is a book to read if you are a die-hard Pendergast fan, but pretty much a waste of trees in my opinion [aside from Corrie, who they could have introduced some other way].



"Before you emark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves" ~ Confucious



Now to the good stuff…Cold Vengeance! I read this book in just a few hours.  It’s short – just 356 pages, but it is chock-full of revelations.  After Fever Dream, Pendergast is in a state of shock and rage and is determined to find the truth about Helen’s murder.  I was impressed at how deftly the story threads were woven and delighted at the inclusion of both Constance and Corrie in the storyline.  D’Agosta could have been featured more, I think, but I believe that Preston & Child did not want to prolong that part of the story, which I thought was the only mistake in the whole book. Yes, we have been waiting years to know about Helen, but we also deserved to have Pendergast’s emotional state more thoroughly described.  He is a complex character and his thought process in some ways, IS the story. 

Other than that, I was pleased with the book and the continuing mystery.  I believe that the story will only get better!  If you haven’t read any of Preston/Child books, let me recommed Relic as your introduction to the Pendergast world. 

City of Thieves

               I have a confession to make.  I am a coward.  And I don’t mean that I’m afraid of bedbugs or the dark [even though I am, a little].  I mean cowardice in a big way.  As in I would not be the person standing in front of a tank or staging a sit-in or charging into a burning building.  It’s one thing to survive an event, it’s quite another to willingly step into what you know is dangerous. 

As the 10^th anniversary of 9/11 nears, I find myself thinking of that day.  I remember my

feeling of horror as I watched the carnage.  It was not just for the people in harm’s way, but also, a little, for myself.  Because even though I sat with my family, safe in my own home, I was terrified.  What kind of  mentality must people have that they commit such acts?  What kind of anger, fear, courage or adrenaline made the victims jump out of burning buildings or rush a hijacker? I mourn for all those touched by 9/11, even small people like myself – those of us who learned that day the truth of their inner hearts.  And that is one reason why, after I turned the last page of City of Thieves, tears slid slowly down my cheeks.  

                During World War II, the Nazis invaded Russia and surrounded the city of Leningrad.  The city’s population in June 1941 was 2.5 million people.  For 900 days, the Nazis kept the city under siege (from September 1941 to 1944).  The official death toll for the entire siege is 632,000, but some believe that a truer estimate of loss from death, disease and flight is closer to 1.5 million people – approximately 60% of the population. (http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/siege_of_leningrad.htm)

“In June of 1941, before the Germans came, we thought we were poor.  But June seemed like paradise by winter.”  This is the setting of City of Thieves.  It is a story of a war, of nations, of a people.  And of youth, survival, desperation, friendship and love.  Of courage.

            At first, it seems a memoir about the struggle for survival under supremely harsh circumstances, but like a light flurry turning to a heavy snowfall, you slowly come to realize the impressive and vivid weight of truth in this story.  What I mean is that it’s not just the beauty of the narrative, the unceasing flow of the perfect words, the dialogue, the bareness of emotions; it’s the feeling of absolute genuineness that accompanies each and every sentence. 

In some novels, it’s the historical background that lends legitimacy to the words, but in this, it is the people [I hesitate to even call them characters, they are so much more].   The most powerful stories, I think, are the ones that brush the truth we hold closest inside of us.  When you read City of Thieves, be prepared for Lev’s and Kolya’s journey also becoming your journey; one that will reveal as much about your own fears, hates, lusts and confusion as theirs.  When it ends you may feel, as I did, a little lost, a little stunned and a tiny bit envious.