31. The Historian

The Historian (Elizabeth Kostova, 2005)

This is the book that really slowed my progress in this reading project. For months it's been sitting in my "to-read" pile and I've been avoiding it like the plague. Several people have recommended it enthusiastically, but it was hard to get in the mood to read something dense. I finally decided to tackle it, but it took me a week to get past the first couple of chapters and then a couple more weeks to finish it.

Basically, this book stressed me out. Once I was almost halfway through part one I was hooked, but it was slow going because the subject matter made me anxious. It's probably good I read this during the summer because it would have freaked me out more during the windy, bleak winter. Now I'm finished and still don't know how I feel or what I think about it.

Kostova is an excellent writer and her story is full of amazing detail. I enjoyed the heavy use of letters and exerpts from the documents the characters were studying, as well as the mystery central to the story. I must say that when Dracula finally appears, I was disappointed. He was kind of a dud, in fact. The other part that bothered me was the epilogue. I think I would have liked the book to just end after chapter 79, which was itself mostly exposition. That last chapter was different enough in tone to almost take me out of the story, but then to add the epilogue seemed like overkill. That's just my opinion. I guess I liked The Historian, but it thoroughly creeped me out for many nights and I'm glad to be done with it.