I finished this book, at long last. And I feel myself much closer to the Balkan and Ottoman history than I've ever been before, and in fact, this book has created in me a hunger to explore the geography and histories of these countries with their glorious and terrible histories, which I've flown over but never set foot on.
The book comes to me in many layers. The first layer is the story itself. In documenting the history of Vlad Tepes, or Vlad the Impaler (who is the real Dracula to the Dracula of popular imagination), as well as following the lives of the various scholars who were obsessed with finding out more about him and in tracing the mystery that shrouds this cruel man. If you read the book and check out on his history, you will realise that there is as much speculation as fact, and the author has give free reign to her imagination where facts are hazy, and from that, we get an intriguing story (even if it falters slightly towards the end). It all began with the finding of a little folio of a book, with empty pages save for the woodcut of a dragon in the middle. The leaving behind of an unknown book, of ancient but unknown provenance, is a litmus test, is the Dracula's way of satisfying his hunch that he had picked the person with the qualities he was looking for. So that he may bring them into his underworld and have them serve him. Yes, historical Dracula is made the vampire here, though in a way more real and refreshing than all the tired pop-culture renderings. In fact, there was a part in his speech that is chillingly true. About how evil is more easily perfected than good, in this world of ours. And that was further emphasised through the description of the various manuals on cruelties that a human can inflcit on another in the Impaler's library. And there is a strong, yet subtle tying in, to the atrocities and politics of modern times, and the atrocious manueverings of the Impaler would not have been out of place today.
Another layer is that this is definitely a bibliophile's book. Anyone who is a self-professed archivist, historian or lover of books would find much descriptions to delight the senses. In fact, it took me back to the days when I used to explore antiquarian bookstores in my travels in England and the Netherlands. It is the marking of a formerly colonised country that Malaysia does not have much of such collections, save for that brought over by the former colonials, and perhaps bought by some wealthy and cultured collector. I was once told that there are collectors of rare manuscripts in Malaysia, by a source close to these buyers, and I hope to be able to acquaint myself with one of them. Rare manuscripts lie in abundance in this tale, and it is as much a novel as it is a story of scholarship and books as it is of vampires and obscure folk tales. Dracula himself is a biblophile, which explains his interest in anyone who handles books of any sort. The chapter describing his library was astounding, and even tempted me to join the him, had I been a character in the novel, for the sake of thumbing through the volumes, many in languages I would never had understood. Despite the professed anti-intellectualism of Medieval Europe, monasteries remained centres of learnings and keepers of knowledge.
The next layer is a sort of political commentary of the times, and of the countries traversed by the characters. Ancient political history interspersed with current affairs of the twentieth century, and as many former countries of the Eastern bloc are opening up, one wonders what it might have been back then. Today, it would be a lot easier to enter these countries than to travel to what used to be free, democratic countries, due to the change in political climate and the rise of a different sort of terrorism. The irony of it all.
The fourth layer is the religious history that lie heavy in the pages. I just hope that some of the words used by the author, whom I am sure only use them to inject realism into the story, would cause this book to be banned by certain fundamentalist and close-minded factions in this and other countries. Especially since Karen Armstrong's History of God has been banned in Malaysia. In fact, I could only read it at the library of the university I used to attend here, though sadly, I never got around to it. It is definitely interesting to explore the mystical aspect of Christianity that were very much of the Eastern Orthodox tradition, and how Kostova has cleverly foregrounded Dracula into the struggle between the Christians and the Ottoman conquerors. I do not see anything biased or judgement of her account, for she is quick to give credit where it is due, for instance, by stating, not once but a few times, to her readers, via her characters, how the Ottoman conquerors could be as benevolent to their conquests, as they were violent during the act of conquering. There were particular mention of Sultan Mehmed II as he lived during the lifetime of Vlad Tepes, this prince of the Wallachian seat. A kind of inter-faith conference seem to take place in this book, via the roundabout route of history and politics, and through the medium of the central character, none other than Dracula himself. The word 'infidel' flows on both sides to refer to the other in ancient epistles. Kostova now and then will have her characters making statements, sometimes political in nature, and at other times an affirmation of a particular person or culture's religious faith. Or maybe of the person's agnosticism. But it is through the figure of the Dracula that has united people of different political, religious and even geographical inclination into a pursuit against evil.
Running through all these heavy layers are individual love stories, which are rather tragic, as the characters in love are star-crossed, and circumstances act to separate them. For the hopeless romantic, there is a story in which one of the main characters in the story, who having met the love of his life while on his trip to Romania to follow the trails of the undead Impaler, swallowed a drink in Greece that made him forget his research and the fact that he had ever set foot in that country, thus leaving the poor young girl (who as you will read further, is pivotal in this tale, because of her ties one of the two main protagonist of the tale)alone and pregnant. It is opened to speculation as to whether his being given this drink had been intentional, since the author never explored this option further. Or that the married life of the two protagonists, having fallen in love during their pursuit together after the trail of Dracula's tomb, because of the contamination of one of them, and Dracula's relentless pursuit of them through their lives, were separated, and even after being reunited, never lived long together in happiness. In fact, despite the rather bland ending, the reader is left guessing as to whether Dracula is well and truly gone. That despite the fact we see him disappearing into dust. However, the drama of the previos pages more or less make up for the anti-climax, as the reader will still find it throbbing in his or her head, and that more than anything make-up for the disappointment.
There are many more minor layers in this book, but I hope that the mention of these existing layers would have convinced a person with a love for history and books to begin reading. Perhaps I might have given some of the plot away, but that is no help to that since I am not really reviewing this book here, but talking about areas of it which intrigues me. The artificial divide of the oriental versus the occidental seems to dissolve under the narration, even if the description occasionally bring them back.
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