belated halloween book review...

Apropos to the topic, I finished "The Historian" by Elizabeth Kostova on Halloween night. A few days earlier, when the wife noticed I was about 50 pages from the end, she said "Oh, are you finally almost finished with that?" to which I replied, "Yes, I'm getting close to the end and THERE BETTER BE A FUCKING PAYOFF AFTER ALL THIS!!!"

Well, there is a payoff, but I'm still not 100% sure it was worth the convoluted 500 page train ride through Eastern Europe to get there. I'm not sure I can recommend it unless you really, really like detailed descriptions of Byzantine churches and complicated nesting narrative structures.

I sat in the hotel room reading the letter that my father wrote. "My dear daughter. I can continue now with the story that my friend and mentor Professor Rossi related to me on that day. He took me aside in his office and told me - 'Once I was in Romania and I met a women who knew of this legend. I asked her to tell me everything she knew. She showed me a letter. The letter read. "I, Brother Bartholomew, have discovered a rare document from 11th century Hungary that makes reference to the pilgrimage of monks from Constantinople to Wallachia. The document begins... 'In the year...'"'"'"

I'm sorry? What year? Who is talking? What country are we in? What century is it?

Anyway. There are vampires. So, it's kinda like the DaVinci Code meets Anne Rice, but more realistic. And less gay.

(I should post that review to Amazon.)