Hilarity and horror as Vlad claims a stake in Mexico
By Jeff VanderMeer |
August 5, 2012, Sunday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
WHEN Carlos Fuentes died in May at age 83, he left behind an impressive legacy and an eclectic body of work. Novels like the sprawling, Joycean "Terra Nostra" placed him at the center of the Latin American Boom of the 1970s, alongside such greats as Cortazar and Garcia Marquez. But later books were often just as ambitious, returning to themes like the corruption of ideals.
The short novel "Vlad" (first published in Spanish as part of Fuentes's 2004 collection "Inquieta Compania") provides ample evidence of Fuentes's powerful abilities. The book documents the "awful adventure" of Yves Navarro after his wife helps a respected lawyer find a house in Mexico City for a mysterious European refugee, Vladimir Radu, later revealed to be the infamous historical figure turned vampire Vlad the Impaler.
Dark humor dominates the novel's early pages, with Navarro mystified by the client's requests for a house that is "remote ... easy to defend against intruders ... with a ravine out back." The client also wants blackened windows and an escape tunnel. During Navarro's initial visit, he notices that "a great number of drains ran along the walls of the ground floor, as though our client was expecting a flood any day now." Radu wears a ridiculous wig and glue-on mustache, and his manservant's demeanor owes no small debt to Marty Feldman in "Young Frankenstein."
From the disconnect between what the narrator knows (nothing) and what the reader understands (everything), Fuentes nurses both comedy and foreboding. "Tell your wife that I am breathing her scent," Radu says to Navarro, and the discombobulated husband replies: "Yes, I will. How very gallant."
Fuentes clearly knew that farce can become repetitious, and he layers in perfectly realized glimpses of the relationship between Navarro and his wife, Asuncion. He revels in the details of their boisterous love life and long breakfasts. He also adds emotional impact through an account of the drowning of the couple's son. "The sea never returned him," Navarro says.
This sense of sadness becomes infused with creepiness and fear when Radu surreptitiously enters the couple's sanctuary: "From then on, the bedroom was no longer mine. It became a strange room because someone had walked out."
The final act is ushered in with a sweeping litany of Vlad's evil history, followed by truly unexpected horrors - including the gratuitous use of squirrels in a sequence in which "campy" and "surreal" more or less French kiss. When rodents are being shoved down your pants, you know things aren't going to end well.
Will readers appreciate a novel that pivots between hilarity and fear, insightful characterization and flamboyant fountains of blood? Let's hope so, because "Vlad" displays the strengths of a great writer's late oeuvre to excellent effect.
The short novel "Vlad" (first published in Spanish as part of Fuentes's 2004 collection "Inquieta Compania") provides ample evidence of Fuentes's powerful abilities. The book documents the "awful adventure" of Yves Navarro after his wife helps a respected lawyer find a house in Mexico City for a mysterious European refugee, Vladimir Radu, later revealed to be the infamous historical figure turned vampire Vlad the Impaler.
Dark humor dominates the novel's early pages, with Navarro mystified by the client's requests for a house that is "remote ... easy to defend against intruders ... with a ravine out back." The client also wants blackened windows and an escape tunnel. During Navarro's initial visit, he notices that "a great number of drains ran along the walls of the ground floor, as though our client was expecting a flood any day now." Radu wears a ridiculous wig and glue-on mustache, and his manservant's demeanor owes no small debt to Marty Feldman in "Young Frankenstein."
From the disconnect between what the narrator knows (nothing) and what the reader understands (everything), Fuentes nurses both comedy and foreboding. "Tell your wife that I am breathing her scent," Radu says to Navarro, and the discombobulated husband replies: "Yes, I will. How very gallant."
Fuentes clearly knew that farce can become repetitious, and he layers in perfectly realized glimpses of the relationship between Navarro and his wife, Asuncion. He revels in the details of their boisterous love life and long breakfasts. He also adds emotional impact through an account of the drowning of the couple's son. "The sea never returned him," Navarro says.
This sense of sadness becomes infused with creepiness and fear when Radu surreptitiously enters the couple's sanctuary: "From then on, the bedroom was no longer mine. It became a strange room because someone had walked out."
The final act is ushered in with a sweeping litany of Vlad's evil history, followed by truly unexpected horrors - including the gratuitous use of squirrels in a sequence in which "campy" and "surreal" more or less French kiss. When rodents are being shoved down your pants, you know things aren't going to end well.
Will readers appreciate a novel that pivots between hilarity and fear, insightful characterization and flamboyant fountains of blood? Let's hope so, because "Vlad" displays the strengths of a great writer's late oeuvre to excellent effect.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
