In this contemporary retelling of Bram Stoker's Dracula, Estonian writer Mati Unt offers a playful yet unsettling mixture of fact and fiction, combining pieces of Estonian political history—in particular the figure of Lydia Koidula (1843-1886), widely regarded as the first Estonian woman to express an Estonian longing for independence—with portraits of life in contemporary Estonia, all set against a backdrop of vampirism and the Gothic novel.
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From Publishers Weekly
Estonian novelist Unt (1944–2005) gets a bang out of remixing Dracula as a postmodern fable and a metaphor for postcommunist life. A writer receives a summons to meet a stranger in Leningrad, and, after much internal strife, he decides to go. Once the writer is in the city, the novel is thrust into an underworld of vampires, blood suckers and superstition. Unt fills the novel with amusing asides and comments, indicating his awareness of the thinness of his plot. He clearly prefers narrative playfulness to straightforward storytelling here, and though the novel is a bit of a chore to get through, hints of vampirism as a powerful metaphor for communism and postcommunist upheaval are sprinkled throughout like allegorical Easter eggs. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
"Mati Unt was one of Estonia's most influential writers. . . . [He] had a splendid detachment and a rampant imagination." --Kate Saunders, The Times
"[Unt was] one of the most influential modernist, and latterly postmodernist, authors in Estonia." --Eric Dickens, CONTEXT
"There are people . . . whose role in their domestic culture is nothing less than unique, which makes it difficult to draw any parallels when trying to introduce them. In Estonia, Mati Unt belongs among such people. He is simultaneously a first-class writer, theatre director, critic and columnist, scenographer and ideologue. . . . Unt's unique role in Estonia has been that of the 'conveyer of ideas.'" --Mihkel Mutt
"[Unt was] one of the most influential modernist, and latterly postmodernist, authors in Estonia." --Eric Dickens, CONTEXT
"There are people . . . whose role in their domestic culture is nothing less than unique, which makes it difficult to draw any parallels when trying to introduce them. In Estonia, Mati Unt belongs among such people. He is simultaneously a first-class writer, theatre director, critic and columnist, scenographer and ideologue. . . . Unt's unique role in Estonia has been that of the 'conveyer of ideas.'" --Mihkel Mutt
"[Unt was] one of the most influential modernist, and latterly postmodernist, authors in Estonia." --Eric Dickens, CONTEXT
"There are people . . . whose role in their domestic culture is nothing less than unique, which makes it difficult to draw any parallels when trying to introduce them. In Estonia, Mati Unt belongs among such people. He is simultaneously a first-class writer, theatre director, critic and columnist, scenographer and ideologue. . . . Unt's unique role in Estonia has been that of the 'conveyer of ideas.'" --Mihkel Mutt
"[Unt was] one of the most influential modernist, and latterly postmodernist, authors in Estonia." --Eric Dickens, CONTEXT
"There are people . . . whose role in their domestic culture is nothing less than unique, which makes it difficult to draw any parallels when trying to introduce them. In Estonia, Mati Unt belongs among such people. He is simultaneously a first-class writer, theatre director, critic and columnist, scenographer and ideologue. . . . Unt's unique role in Estonia has been that of the 'conveyer of ideas.'" --Mihkel Mutt
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Lydia Koidula, Herr Renner, Idi Amin, New York, Soviet Union Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Surprise Me!
Lydia Koidula, Herr Renner, Idi Amin, New York, Soviet Union Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Surprise Me!
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