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Tuesday, 14 November 2006 14:25 |
 | | David Forbes |
Vampires are not exactly a new theme in literature.
Ever since Bram Stokerës "Dracula" debuted in 1897, the blood-drinking nocturnal predators have inspired countless variations. Weëve seen everything from Anne Riceës angsty, sophisticated vampires to Brian Lumleyës scientifically explained parasites and countless other less-skilled variations on this theme.
Now, in David Sosnowskiës "Vamped" (Downtown Press, 387 pages, $13.00) we have a vampire as father, raising a human child ÇƒÓ only this time, itës in a world where vampires have largely replaced humans.
Sosnowski
is a Detroit-born author who won the Thomas Wolfe Prize for his first
novel, "Rapture," which described a world where people suddenly woke up
as angels. Throwing a wrench into or reversing modern life with the
sudden introduction of the supernatural seems to be a theme.
Despite a
well-drawn relationship at the core of the book and a vividly fleshed
out world, Sosnowski is hampered by mostly one-dimensional characters
and an overly-self-aware and confessional writing style that saps a lot
of strength from what could have been a powerful work of dark humor and
relationship.
Marty Kowalski,
son of a Polish immigrant family in Detroit, went off to World War II
and came back undead. Later, he and a secret society of his fellows
decide to start turning as many people as possible into vampires, in an
attempt to "flip" around the ratio and make humans the minority.
Long story
short, they succeed (conveniently, someone found a way to artificially
mass-produce blood). Now, many years later, Marty is feeling restless.
He heads out to the wilderness, searching for something he canët quite
identify ÇƒÓ and finds a small girl, a human girl, covered in blood and
mad with fear.
Her name is
Isuzu, and she and her mom are escapees from one of the "farms" where
the few remaining humans are raised as food for the wealthy elite. They
had been living in said wilderness, until some of the aforementioned
nocturnal predators caught up with them one night. Marty decides, after
some struggling (and getting stabbed), to raise her as his own, which
is not exactly an easy task, considering the world he lives in.
"Vamped" is at
its strongest in about the first quarter of the novel, where Sosnowski
begins with what seems a semi-distorted mirror of human life (the
vampires go to strip clubs and still have to work jobs) and then
shatters it with the brutal circumstances under which Marty finds his
would-be daughter. As he writes out the two slowly beginning to trust
each other and having to find ways in which to insure that Isuzu
doesnët befall the same fate as her mother, he slyly juggles a wry
sense of wit with some truly poignant moments. He does this while still
keeping the archetypal dread of the predator that made vampires a
powerful theme in the first place and even mixing in some guilt. After
all, Marty helped to create the world that put Isuzu and her mother in
such dire straits.
Sadly, it doesnët last.
 Sosnowski does
manage to bring an interestingly real-world approach to what would
happen in a world run by vampires in addressing the challenges that the
characters face (grocery stores donët sell human food, for example and
there are no toilets). At its best, this adds a nice sense of reality
to his fictional world.
However, in
doing so he dwells so much on the mundane that he loses a lot of the
energy that the novel began with. Aside for some of the aforementioned
twists, it seems that vampires have just set up a slightly different,
crueler mirror version of what their mortal lives were. In the hands of
a better writer, there could be a tragic point made there, but
Sosnowski fails to bring it home. As it is, it simply takes away much
of the narrative power from the creatures the novel is focused on.
The writing
style doesnët help, as the author seems to be from the "use seven words
when one would have done just fine" school of thought. Narrated from
Martyës view, the prose can become far too full of ironic observations,
pop culture references and long-winded anecdotes that donët serve to
move the plot along. More than once, I found myself wanting to smack
the main character and yell: "Shut up and do something already!"
After the first
quarter, "Vamped" loses its sense of overarching plot, meandering
around in various vignettes, some of which are even touching, but which
fail to mesh together into a coherent whole.
Other characters
are introduced (a priest with a dog named Judas, a surly vampire stuck
forever at eight-years old, a stripper named Tombstone), but they feel
flat, and end up amounting to little more than the author grasping at
straws.
Threats and
dilemmas come along as Isuzu grows up, but arenët given the gravitas to
make the reader really care about them. This is a shame, as some of
them, such as Isuzu recognizing some of her motherës killers in the
newspaper and wanting revenge, could have really had some heft if the
author had ditched the blaise tone and put more effort forward.
Despite its
early potential, "Vamped" never really follows through on the
imaginative world it begins to create and the fascinating relationship
it begins to explore. If youëre a fan of this particular species of
monster, you might enjoy this book. Otherwise, youëre probably better
off to wait for a better writer to truly put some new blood into this
genre.
ï
My sincere
thanks to Luna F. of Montford for recommending this novel for
review. ÇƒÓ D.F.
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