Book Review: The Historian [Elizabeth Kostova]

RATING: Now that's great storytelling :)

The book that saved my life :D

This was the book I was reading last year when I had my near-death experience with dengue (second time around!), further complicated by pneumonia and internal bleeding. The doctor proclaimed a 20% chance of survival. A friend of mine, knowing how much of a bookworm I am, later joked that I held on to dear life until I could finish this book. This novel is a long one, and by the time I finished it, I had already made a complete recovery.

The story begins with our heroine finding a bunch of old letters, all addressed, quite melodramatically, to “My Dear and Unfortunate Successor”. Shortly afterwards, her father goes missing and she uses the letters to try and track him down. Her quest takes her to monasteries and libraries all over Europe, and she finds herself being hunted down by a sinister figure – the same being that has haunted both her grandfather and father’s letters, and who may be the cause of her mother’s mysterious death. As she delves deeper, she finds out more about her family history and begins to understand just how truly powerful her adversary is.

The Historian is a lovely piece of work. It blends history and fiction flawlessly, while working with the theory that the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula is Prince Vlad Tepes. The result is a truly striking, most memorable character. It is bursting with details on 16th century history and brings alive the conquests of Prince Vlad, of the Ottoman Empire and Byzantine Constantinople. Saves you from cracking open that rather boring encyclopedia, in my opinion.

The characters, even the most minor ones, are multidimensional and wholly believable, each with his/her own distinct voice, and this contributes a lot to the beauty of the book. I cannot help but go "Awww" on the relationship husky Professor Bora shares with his tiny wife, and the evil librarian never fails to give me the creeps whenever he appears.

Elizabeth Kostova is a gifted writer. (Well, either that or she has a really, really good editor *grin*) The Historian takes you on a guided tour of Eastern Europe, and unlike Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code, The Historian does not read like a guide book written by an exceptionally descriptive but rather monotonous high-schooler. Instead, it feels like hearing a first-hand account from a talented storyteller who has actually been there, so vivid that you feel like you've been there yourself.

Paying tribute once again to Kostova’s writing skills (and/or her editor’s), the narrative weaves back and forth through three generations of different characters, but it doesn’t muddle up the story flow. I admire that, really I do. The book is over 600 pages long, and I never once had to flip back and check on previous chapters because I missed something or some point got me confused or something like that. The time-traveling narrative rather enhances the story, making it more interesting to read. The Historian is somewhat of a mystery, after all, and I imagine it would be very, very dull if it were told in a linear sequence.

However, the best part about reading The Historian is it made me feel as if I were listening to a grandmother telling her stories while stuck indoors on a rainy day. Yeah, it made me feel cozy, and all warm and fuzzy inside, and only a handful of books have been able to do that.

My only complaint would be I found the first half of the epilogue to be rather uncalled for. (I am a sucker for perfect happy endings.) However, I DID find the latter part of the epilogue (Prince Vlad gazing out, looking as if he has all the world before him) perfect in wrapping the story up.

Overall, I found The Historian to be a well-researched, delightful read. I give it a 4.5-star rating.

Book Review: Idlewild [Nick Sagan]

RATING: A smart read.

The Matrix meets Agatha Christie

Idlewild isn't something I'd normally read. Techie-sci-fi stuff don't really appeal to me, and I don't usually go for first-person narratives. However, I picked up a copy because the plot seemed interesting enough for me to include it to the year-long supply of books I was bringing to a country where English books were a rarity. And partly because I loved the artwork on the cover :D

Reading a bit like Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None", the story opens in a world that is obviously VR, where Lovecraftian monsters, hobgoblins and Smileys serve as foot soldiers for a group of warring teenagers. Our hero, Gabriel a.k.a. Halloween, has just awoken from an electric shock - he can't remember anything except that somebody is trying to kill him. He also thinks that his virtual teacher, Maestro, a computer program, is harboring a grudge towards him. Paranoia? Perhaps. The story slowly unfolds through his re-exploring this world, and his gradual recollection of memories. He eventually finds out that he is one of 10 students studying through VR, and that one of them, Lazarus, is missing. He also thinks that he may have killed Lazarus, whose girlfriend Simone is coincidentally the love of Hal's life.

In a world ruled by an omnipotent computer program, Hal uses this device called a jammer (which hacks the virtual world and returns him to reality) to conduct some private investigating on Lazarus' disappearance and the attempt on his life. One question leads to another until Hal begins to doubt his and everyone's existence, and reality itself.

I can find no fault with Idlewild, theme or prose, but there is something missing from it which keeps me from giving it full marks. Also, there are some parts in the story where it just gets so dragging - probably because it's so predictable - that you just want to skip the damn chapters and get on to the next plot.

Sagan creates a myriad of very interesting characters - delusional and schizophrenic Fantasia, morbid and paranoid Hal, wild and angry Mercutio - every character is bursting with personality. I absolutely love Fantasia - she's so much fun and her childlike insanity balances Hal's dark, morbid broodings. Another thing I thoroughly enjoyed was Hal's philosophical musings about life and death and his incredibly sarcastic remarks. For example: "Every idiot goes through life thinking that he's special. That whole solipsistic conceit where you suspect that everything revolves around you and only you. Are you born with it? Probably. When you discover empathy, you're supposed to grow out of it, but I doubt anyone ever really does. Zen monks spend their lives trying. But it's hard. There's always that possibility, remote as it might be, that nothing exists outside your head. That you're the star of the show. That everyone else is a supporting character. And after you die, it all ceases to exist."

Idlewild is a smart book, dripping with information ranging from biogenetics to history to philosophy and literature. Although not my usual cup of tea, it was interesting enough for me to keep on going until the very end.