There's a lot of vampire dreck being produced in the world today, a great deal of which has taken its cue from certain very popular juvenile fiction products and films. It's hard to do vampires these days without attempting to redefine the parameters in either implausible non-traditional ways, or to simply produce something overly clichéd and hackneyed.
This book manages to stay within the pretty standard expectations of the vampire genre, and yet the most unique thing about it is not the treatment of vampires, nor even the story (despite its ingeniousness at many points), but instead the medium itself.
It might be a stretch to imagine that an early seventeenth century Pilgrim would be writing a journal in haiku (since wide Western familiarity with that poetic form wouldn't have been a reality until the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries), and yet the charm to this poetic form as a narrative vehicle is intrinsically appealing. Traditionally, individual haiku often have a sense of timelessness in their capturing of a single moment, transitory and yet eternal. What better medium, then, to narrate the life of a vampire, a being who lives through many ages and the changes they inevitably bring, and yet remains essentially beyond change himself? While the occasional haiku in the book is hypermetrical, this can be easily forgiven, particularly in one case, when onomatopoeia is involved.
The opportunities for humor in this book were endless, and yet tastefully exploited. Much fun is had at the expense of vampire fiction and film of the past, including using two syllables with the word "sparkle" in one particular jab at the recent Twilight franchise, and a masterful incorporation of Joss Whedon into the storyline. Wonderful stuff! Some of the other ways in which William Butten (the main character--based on an actual youth who died en route on the Mayflower) incorporates himself into American history are less subtle, and somewhat disturbing (particularly the fortunes of post-vampiric Davy Crockett; and a certain serial murderer in 1970s New York), but nonetheless intriguing.
If you'd like a fascinating, but short, read (truly, a rarity--substance and depth of nearly epic proportions in a form that can be read in the time it would take to read a short story), and a beautifully produced book, and if nothing else an enjoyable and funny diversion, I'd highly recommend picking this one up. I'd be interested to see Mecum's previous work, and to see what might be next--need I speculate aloud..."Werewolf Haiku"? ;)
