Here at the frontier, the leaves fall like rain. Although my neighbors are all barbarians, and you, you are a thousand miles away, there are still two cups at my table.


Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn, a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter. If your mind isn't clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life.

~ Wu-men ~


Wednesday, October 17, 2007

The Historian


I just finished reading "The Historian" by Elizabeth Kostova.

All in all, it was a very good book, and I'm glad I took the time to read the 600+ pages. The plot is a modern day extension of "Dracula." It is very well written, and provides a lot of insight into the legends of vampirism, as well as the history of SE Europe in the late middle ages, when the Ottoman Turks invaded.

Having said that, I thought the author's sprinkling "young girl coming of age" bits throughout the story was gratuitous and didn't advance the story at all.

I was disappointed with the last 100 pages or so. It was as though the author ran out of ideas in providing an explanation for the behavior of one of the major characters. The ending was not satisfactory. It was like she just got tired of writing and wanted to end it.

The elipogue was the one bright spot at the end of the book.

As I said above, I'm glad I read it, but I probably won't read it again.

If you click on the title of this post, you'll be directed to the Amazon page for The Historian.
Posted by at 7:56 AM
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