Vlad [Hardcover]

Fuentes reinvents the Bram Stoker classic in Mexico City, when the count makes the journey from the old country to the new world with a specific goal in mind.

Before he joined the undead, through a ten-year-old girl vampire, he was the fourteen century Romanian ruler, Vlad the Impaler, also known as Dracula. If you don't know Vlad his unspeakable crimes are listed here. And they are not what terrifies you in this well-written short novel filled with graphic imagery.

It is the earnest attorney, Yves Navarro, who is tasked with Vlad's move to Mexico. Dark humor pervades the new tenant's many odd requests such as blackened windows, escape tunnel, and multiple drains.

Yves's domestic life appears tranquil, despite the loss of his eleven-year-old son, who disappeared in the ocean on a beach outing. He and his wife, Asunción, and his little girl live the middle class life. But it is the loss of their son that has opened the door for evil to enter the family.

This tale is more than a horror story; it also reveals the ignorance of ignoring or not noticing problems until it is too late. The reader always knows more than the clueless Yves. The vampire has his eyes on his wife and littler girl.

The book is comical at times with Vlad's fake toupee and mustache, but this novella is truly scary and horrible. Fuentes is an amazing stylist, and the story will creep you out and fill you with terror. This may not be Fuente's greatest work. but it has the fingerprints of a master all over it.

I think this may be one of my favorite re-imagined versions of Dracula since the original. The book is incredibly short, only about 100 pages as opposed to the Stoker version which is somewhere upwards of 500. But in that incredibly short space of time, Fuentes manages to create a story more chilling than the original. It's a must read for the Halloween season.

The story takes place in present day Mexico city, and though a lot of the story is cut out, the elements that remain are absolutely terrifying. It's the small things that Fuentes kept which helped retain the terror. The creepy aspects of the Count's appearance the main character couldn't explain or rationalize, the terrifying sidekick of the Count's, the oddly sexualized moments the stand in for Harker couldn't contend with, subtle things like the lack of mirrors.

However Fuentes takes it a step further, and in a modern day Dracula's house adds subtle touches that both make the Count seem more technilogically savy, as well as more terrifying. At one point something so gruesome happened I thought I would be sick, but in very much the same way Stoker handles it.

All together I love this book, which is published by the Dalkey Archive Press; An non-profit publisher that operates out the University of Illinois. Definitely go check them out, because they publish a lot of international books like this one that get overlooked by major publishers.

Vlad by Car­los Fuentes is a short novel tak­ing place in Mex­ico City, Mex­ico. The story was part of the 2004 col­lec­tion "Inqui­eta Com­pañía" and recently came out as its own book trans­lated by Ale­jan­dro Branger and Ethan Shaskan Bumas

Count Drac­ula, Vlad, has decided to immi­grate toMex­ico after the may­hem inEast­ern Europe and count­less wars have short­ened his blood sup­plies. Vlad has ves­sels inMex­ico who intro­duce him Yves Navarro, a lawyer, and his wife Asun­ción, a real estate agent.

Yves and Asun­ción have lost a son in sea and Vlad entices them with the promise of see­ing their daugh­ter live for­ever, and remain a child eternally.

Vlad by Car­ols Fuentes takes on an inter­est­ing premise, what if Drac­ula still lived and set­tled inMex­ico City. As one might expect, there is a lot of dark humor in this book, start­ing with the strange requests the client is mak­ing of the real estate agent ("remote", "easy to defend") to the client's look which con­sists of a silly wig and glued on mustache.

What I found to be dif­fer­ent in this book is that the reader knows a lot more than the nar­ra­tor. This style of sto­ry­telling invig­o­rates the dark com­edy and brings a sense of omi­nous fore­bod­ing to banal and mean­ing­less lines said by the famous Count.

In this ren­di­tion of the story, Fuentes mar­ries vam­pire and lawyers - both server as ves­sels for unprin­ci­pled lust with­out ethics. As many vam­pire sto­ries do, they let the fan­tasy and myth reflect on our own lives through anec­dotes and metaphors.

While I'm not much for hor­ror and fear, I think this novel is a gem which clearly illus­trates the essence of great writ­ing, char­ac­ter­i­za­tion and flam­boy­ancy which are dif­fi­cult to pull off. The bal­ance between hor­ror and com­edy, debauch­ery and per­son­i­fi­ca­tion are per­fect and the campy, yet sur­real atmos­phere is almost magical.