reads #18: October 2013

I slacked on my reading between July and October and I think it's down to two things. First, I just wasn't in the mood, my mind felt very fidgety. And secondly, I had started London Fields by Martin Amis after going to London and it just wasn't happening. It is still not, to be fair, I'm still trying, but it is just a very confusing book and I think it makes me angry too. I don't like unfinished books so I'll power through and hopefully write up a review in the coming year... In the meantime, if you can handle the unbearable suspense, you can follow my slow progress on my very mount everest of a book on goodreads.

Dracula (Bram Stoker, 1897)

I had to whip my mind back into reading shape and put Martin Amis aside, at the start of October, as I needed to get ready for the Bram Stoker Festival here in Dublin. I wanted to cover it for my travel blog and I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to finally read the infamous vampire classic.
I was astonished how much of this book has seeped into the general conscience, to the point where when I was reading it, I felt like I had read it all before.
Something I didn't know was that Dracula was actually an anglophile and his dream was to colonise England. The story starts in Romania, where Jonathan Harker, an English solicitor travels to meet the Count in his isolated castle, to hand him the title of his property recently purchased in Essex.
Dracula proceeds to orchestrate his transit to England, where weird happenings ensue. Jonathan Harker and his friends realise the danger England is facing and they gather their forces to put a stop to his evil masterplan.
I hadn't read horror ever since my Stephen King phase as a teenager, and I had forgotten how wonderful it is sometimes to give oneself the heebie-jeebies, especially in the weeks running up to Halloween, when it's cold and windy outside and you're all bundled up in a duvet and a onesie, your book in one hand and a cup of hot beverage in the other. Pure shivering bliss.
One thing I'd like to add though, is I wasn't on board with the treatment of women in this particular read, and I strongly winced several times at their portrayals. It's the old good women versus bad women, the fragile hopeless species versus the evil sensual temptresses thing. Like they could be one thing or the other. Bram Stoker describes his women as something not quite on par with men, 'things' that should be kept away like delicate glass figures, very pretty but generally useless. And when a female protagonist display initiative and courage, they're perceived as extroardinary as if they're owning traits usually belonging to men. Heavy sigh.
I have to say I hadn't read pre-1920s literature in a long long time so my annoyance probably results from my lack of contact with Victorian culture. But if you can go past that, I think it's a fantastic read, if only for its iconic status as a foundation of the horror genre.

Favourite quote: These friends - and he [Dracula, ed.] laid his hand on some of the books - have been good friends to me, and for some years past, ever since I had the idea of going to London, have given me many, many hours of pleasure. Through them I have come to know your great England; and to know her is to love her. I long to go through the crowded streets of your mighty London, to be in the midst of the whirl and rush of humanity, to share its life, its change, its death, and all that makes it what it is.

Samsa in Love (Haruki Murakami, 2013)

I think I let a little squeal of excitement out when Katie tweeted about the new Murakami's short story published online in The New Yorker, last October. I dropped any responsibilities and proceeded to read these 8 pages of joy immediately.

I didn't read Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis but from what I can gather this short story is its plot in reverse. George Samsa, formerly a cockroach, wakes up one morning as a human. He is lying on his back, in a bedroom he doesn't recognise. We then follow him for the duration of day, discovering his own new body and his surroundings. It all happens inside a house, during Prague Spring. We know that thanks to a little hunchback lady who came to repair a door's lock in the house. Through this encounter, George will make the most important discovery about being human...

This is a wonderful little read that will put chirpy cheers inside your ticker. Go read it!

Favourite quote: He was glad to be human. For sure, it was a great inconvenience to have to walk on two legs and wear clothes. There were so many things he didn’t know. Yet had he been a fish or a sunflower, and not a human being, he might never have experienced this emotion.