DRACULA THE UN-DEAD – DACRE STOKER

It's still October and I have not fulfilled my quest for a great noir book for the month. The PR for this book sounded so good! Well, it wasn't. I didn't hate the whole thing and there were some great suspenseful scenes but as a whole I object to so much of it. It was billed as a sequel to Bram Stokers Dracula by his great grand nephew and therefore I thought the research and follow up would be awesome. The part I didn't seem to catch is that Dacre Stoker is a track and field coach which should have thrown up a red flag for me but...

It's twenty-five years after the death of Dracula at the hands of Jonathan Harker and Quincey Morris and the whole band if the first book is in shambles. The Harkers have a grown son, Quincey. Quincey has been pressured to go to law school, but longs to be in the theater. Jonathan is in a poor state of alcoholism, in a deep depression, and turning to prostitutes because Mina does not age as a result of her contamination by Dracula. And still, she continues to occasionally pine for Dracula. Enter Elizabeth Bathory a vampire stalking the streets of Paris and becoming a threat to the younger Harker. Drug-addicted old Seward appears to track her down. Aging Van Helsing also appears.

To make a long blog short, Dracula is not really dead and reappears (I hate that) and the younger Harker of course meets him while Dracula is performing as Richard the Third in Paris Theater posing as the famous Russion actor Basarab. Quincey becomes spellbound by him. Dracula/Basarab is also in this book not evil, but Bathory is, so Dracula/Basarab, in the book works to stop her and tries to destroy her and her minions. The bumbling, drug addicted Seward, and then Van Helsing are also trying to track her down. There is a lot of blood and guts death, sad romance, and the totally incredibly stupid concept of making Dracula the hero.

The part I liked was that during the story Quincey comes upon a writer named Bram Stoker who is trying to peddle his book about a vampire and then he finds out his parents are in the book. Nice twist to the tale and worked in pretty well. It just didn't go where I wanted it to go, and I expected too much.

But I don't want to say it was completely horrible and that one shouldn't read it because I know full-well what is not my cup-of-tea may be yours.

STARDUST – NEIL GAIMAN

Oh! I saw on Netflix that I could watch Stardust, the BBC production by Gaiman. Therefore, I went searching for my special and most beautiful copy and sat right down and read it. It was every bit as good as the first time... let's see is this only the second, or third time I have read it?

The mythical town of Wall gets its name from the wall that separates the town from the faerie realm. Every nine years the humans from Wall are allowed to visit the faerie market. Dunstan Thorne does so where he meets a princess named Una who is imprisoned by a horrible gypsy/witch. Dunstan purchases a glass snowdrop flower from Una but also meets her in the woods where they make love. Dunstan returns to Wall where he weds his love Daisy and starts a family. However, nine months later a baby is delivered in a basket to Dunstan and Daisy who have a daughter of their own. Daisy and Dunstan love the boy, Tristran and he is raised along with his sister.

Eighteen years later in the faerie kingdom of Stormhold the king is dying. He has several sons and the one who holds the Power of Stormhold, which is an amber amulet is to be the new ruler. The dying king throws his amulet into the sky causing a star to fall from the sky into the land of Faerie. Immediately the sons embark on a quest to find it, and also to kill each other in order to be the one remaining heir. I know that sounds vulgar but the scenes are funny, and once they are dead the brothers continue to follow their surviving brothers around making hysterical comments.

Back in Wall Tristran is courting the most beautiful girl in the town, Victoria, and they see the falling star. Victoria agrees to marry Tristran if he brings her the star, so with his father's blessing and the gift of the glass snowdrop, Tristran evades the Wall guards and slips into Stormhold to search for the star. Also looking for the star are three witches who need to find it to regain their youth (by eating her still-beating heart). However, on earth (or in Faerie Land) a falling star becomes a young woman Yvaine, with a definite agenda of her own. Being taken captive by a young man, having her heart eaten by three hags, or being slain for her amulet do not fit into her plans. A very young Claire Dane is a very nice Yvaine in the movie.

The story is part fairy tale, part fable, a bit Tolkien-ish, and even some Monty Python. I laughed and couldn't stop to eat, or go out, but did have to stop to feed my cats. Loved it. Then.... I watched the movie. I would have to say, had I not just finished the book I would probably have liked it fine. There was no mention of the nine-year allowance of people visits to Faerie Land! That is objectionable to me. There was also a real changing of the end with added encounters of characters who never met and certainly never had knock-down drag out fights, but I guess that is what people like so why not? But, there is a lot of magic which I do like; magic chains, silly elves, hairy men, candles that help you travel as they burn, and a unicorn. Oh also, a love story, a very sweet one. I need a child to watch it with me again, but I need one old enough to which I can read the book first. Volunteers?

THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE – NEIL GAIMAN

Is anyone else out there “virtually” in love with Neil Gaiman and his voice? I have been for years, actually since 1998 when I read Neverwhere, which I read again the fall of 2000 when one of my book groups read it. Actually I am dying to read it again! He also frequently reads something for October that is online and I could listen to him read all day.

I revisit his work every October because he does those fantastic “All Hollows Read” posters which I am compelled to post on my facebook and often print out for my home because they are so creative. The Ocean at the End of the Lane was our public library in October and once again I was not disappointed. What a lovely mystical modern fairy tale!

In the Sussex English countryside, the nameless narrator recounts his trip back to his childhood home for a funeral. The person whose eulogy he delivers is also not named, but I surmise it is his father's. There is to be a dinner later at his sister's house and as he wanders through the town of his childhood he finds himself drawn to follow the lane down which he had lived as a child to the farm of the mysterious Hempstocks. The year he was seven the mysterious Lettie Hempstock and he had embarked upon a fantastical adventure connected to the pond on their farm, which Hettie claimed was an ocean. The children had encountered an evil being who entered their world and nearly destroyed the boy's family. The story was totally eerie, a bit of “Twilight Zone” where a mysterious nanny ingratiates herself to the adults, particularly to the father, while the children see her evilness and the boy uncovers her diabolical plot. The Hempstocks must come to his rescue.

The memories of the time living down the lane and the creature from the dark are elusive and the boy, as he becomes a man, cannot hold onto them. It is only when he returns to his boyhood home do the wisps of memory return and the urge comes upon him to seek out Hettie. Each time he finds out that he has, on occasion, returned before, but he never remembers once he leaves. It is a short book so I don't want to say too much but I would encourage anyone who likes a good fantasy scare to share this one. It did not escape me that the name Hempstock repeats in Gaiman's works. Last October the same book group read The Graveyard Book and there was a Hempstock in that, and I'm pretty sure there was one in Stardust. I'm in the mood for a bit of stardust, I may go looking for that on my bookshelf again – hope I didn't loan it out!

BOOKSHELVES AND BLOGGING

Once again I have neglected my book blogging. I work on them, but I just never seem to take the time to proofread and post! So today I dedicated the whole day to looking at them, making corrections and additions and trying to get them posted.

However, I want to also share with you another reason I may be derelict at my blogging duties. We have been changing our formal living room into a library with custom shelves. This involved, furniture moving, taking out a window, cutting holes in drywall, and hours upon hours of rounding up books from rooms, under beds, in boxes etc. and alphabetizing, then rearranging. We are not done I'm sure but here we are!

Writing

Just in case any of you are interested, I have been using an online tool to help me with my writing. Alas, I am hopelessly Midwestern and many of my childhood language picadillos are creeping back into my speech patterns since my retirement from teaching. I have found a great deal of comfort in being gently prodded by Grammarly which gives me hints as I write. If you would like to try this tool it may be found at the link below:  http://www.grammarly.com/grammarcheck

FRANKENSTEIN – MARY SHELLEY

The book club title for November at the library where I work was Frankenstein! Having always wanted to reread this classic I was excited. Over the almost 40 years since my first read, and several bad movies later, a residual positive feeling about the book remained but no clear memory of the plot and characters. The book is in reality nothing like any movie ever produced, that I have seen. This is a free novel on many sites so one can read it digitally if need be, which is how I started, knocking off a few pages on my phone in appointment waiting rooms and in traffic jams. Once into the story though, it was necessary to switch to my hardcopy because I like to flip back to scenes as I read and that is easier with a real book.

It was hard to start and it got put aside several times before I got serious and finally sat down one day to make myself pay attention. As soon as I got the idea of the introductory letters from a ship captain who had rescued Victor Frankenstein who was in pursuit of his monster into the frozen north, admittedly I skipped to Frankenstein's narrative and then went back and reread those letters at the end. That worked better for me.

Many people must be disappointed when they read Shelley's piece to find out there is no description of the actual creation of the monster, no body parts sewn together, no Igor, no electrical machine, and no castle. So very little survives of the novel in movies that I am actually shocked! It's like two different stories altogether. The book is actually more of a psychological character analysis. Victor Frankenstein is an eccentric character obsessed with chemistry and biology in his youth. In his laboratory, he creates and animates a humanoid being. However, the reader is not privy to exactly how he has done so. While resembling a man, it is huge with a yellowish cast to its eyes, and something very wrong about the skin. Immediately Victor is frightened and appalled at what he has done and flees leaving the creature to fend for itself. Wracked with horror and grief Frankenstein becomes mentally and physically ill for a while turning to his best friend Henry Clerval. Victor goes home only to find his younger brother has been murdered and the nanny executed for the crime, of which Victor knows she is innocent. It is apparent that the monster has turned on Victor and his family.

The narration of the creature is fascinating, and actually much more interesting than that of Victor. Even though he never seems to have a name he does refer to himself when talking with Victor as “your Adam,” and Frankenstein refers to him as, “the creature,” “the monster,” and by the end as, “the daemon.” The creature begins his life almost as an innocent, searching for nurturing, survival, and love. Instinctively he knows he is different and he keeps himself hidden while learning how to survive. He also learns about the ways of men and acquires language from a family he observes while hiding in the woods. Once he feels brave enough he exposes himself to people with drastic consequences. Experiencing violence, he learns to be violent, and to crave vengeance on humanity, particularly upon his creator.

In the ensuing years while the monster is hiding and learning to survive. Victor has gone on to try to live a normal life. Of course, he is eventually prey to his creature. I encourage all to reread this classic. If you put yourself in the proper frame of mind you will love it once again. Our discussion group was lively and I believe everyone there had come to appreciate the novel once again. 

MADDADDAM – MARGARET ATWOOD

I read as fast as I could to finish this creepy dystopian trilogy. Freakish, horrifying, disgusting, and so great! Actually, it all seemed somewhat plausible also, in a not-too-distant future. I'm a little sorry to be finished. I did have a “walking dead” type of feeling with this one. Although, not with zombies. The first two books covered corporate greed taking over the world, total rape of the environment, degradation of all religion and culture, and science run amok, all combining to culminate in the almost complete devastation of the human race.

Shall we move on? A core group of survivors made up of God's Gardeners and Maddaddamites band together, lead by Toby and Zeb from The Year of the Flood, in survival mode. How they try to survive is what gave me the fighting zombies feeling. While being reunited with Jimmy and his band of Crakers, they also must contend with strange weather, food scarcity, aggressive genetically altered animals, and avoid evil “painballers” who were corporate prisoners completely hardened into roving evil thugs.

As with the first two books there is plenty of backstory. I was both shocked and enthralled to find out that Zeb and Adam One from The Year of the Flood had been half brothers. Their father, before the flood, had been a clergyman whose sermons supported the corporations, revered the petroleum industry, and reviled the ecologists. The boys had hacked into their fathers accounts and emptied them. Knowing he was politically connected they had to separate and go into hiding. Zeb became Mad Adam and his brother Adam One. When it was safer they had reunited and founded God's Gardeners.

The survivors create a compound, but it is exceedingly hard to find and grow enough food and to stave off animals. Search parties need to look for other people, Jimmy, who keeps the Crakers in line is sick and may not live. So many problems! It occurs to Toby that their hope for survival may lie with the Crakers and she takes over their teaching. They have limited abilities to understand and so she begins her lessons through fables and myths. They must learn language, writing, and some form of history. Is humanity as we know it dead? Can a new society emerge, or will humans be replaced by artificial people? Even bigger than that is will the planet support life at all?

I have thought about watching the HBO movies based on these books, but I am afraid.