Greetings,
I recently wrote on this blog about how people have taken public domain stories and characters and reworked them or used them in some way to, hopefully, bring forth a new perspective on them. I admitted my apprehension, but also my willingness to give these things a chance. And I had that mindset when I picked up The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.
The Historian is a 2005 novel by Elizabeth Kostova, and it has quite a - for lack of a better term - history. First of all, it took her ten years to write, which isn't totally unheard of with some writers. But what is unheard of is the fact that, months after she wrote it, she sold it for two million bucks. That's a lot. And that is a WHOLE lot for a first time, unknown author. But this was in the wake of the success of The Da Vinci Code, so, many publishers were looking for the next big successful novel which may have some things in common with it. And this novel certainly has that. So, the story.
The plot has to do with a professor named Paul and his 16-year-old daughter, who is not given a name, looking for the tomb of Vlad Tepes, the person most commonly associated with Dracula. Now, why is this daughter not given a name? Is she not that important to the story? On the contrary, most of the narrative comes from her, so I have no idea. Perhaps, the author was doing something in the vein of Rebecca by not giving a protagonist a name. Anyway, the book carries three separate narratives during three different times, the 30's, the 50's and the present day of the book, the 70's, by way of letters and firsthand accounts. And though, there is bit of a mysterious adventure through history thing happening here, it is also the young woman's quest to find the secrets that are lurking in her family's past.
And that's really all I can say about the plot, because if I go any further, it's a rabbit hole. Yes, this book is very heavy in narrative and in detail, and trying to sum it all up is a bit of a challenge. Not that that's a bad thing. In fact, I'm quite impressed by how much research obviously went into the writing here. As a person who tries to avoid writing anything that would require tons of research, yes, I'm very impressed, indeed. Ms. Kostova was not messing around. There is so much detail in this, which can lead to positives and negatives.
Negatively speaking, it can cause some parts of the book to be slow, especially if you're not much of a history buff or you're not interested in too many of those details. Every so often, that's the kind of person I can be, as I mentioned, so there were some pacing issues that I had with this. And from what I've read with other reviews, the pacing and the detail seemed to be the main complaint from a lot of people. So, in my opinion, if this had gone through just one more round with an editor, it probably wouldn't have hurt. But what do I know? I edit my own books, and I'm not exactly Max Perkins.
However, when it was good, it was very good. And I found most of it good. So, on a positive note, those details, especially in descriptions, can lead to masterfully enabling the reader see these places about which the author is writing. That was definitely a success, as I was very clearly visualizing everything just as I should have. The descriptions really did help to set a nice, creepy mood for this story. And since this book has been labeled as everything from historical to thriller to travelogue to Gothic to so many other things, it's good that the author was able to pick a mood and stick to it.
Whilst the book has its flaws, there is one thing that can't be denied. Elizabeth Kostova has a gift. She writes beautifully. Regardless of the detail, she knows how to put words together and make them sound wonderful. Yes, I know that is something which all writers are supposed to do, but they don't. Trust. And whatever the story, if a good writer is not behind it, what is the point? And all that research she did for this, which is evident on every page, shows that she really loved and respected the story she was trying to tell.
Now, I heard that, several years ago, one of the movie studios bought the rights to this book, but nothing ever happened. That's a disappointment, because I think this could lend itself to being a pretty good film. If and only if the right people are in charge. And the right people are often difficult to find, but I have faith, because I'd like to see it.
So, in closing, I'd say that I'm giving The Historian a recommendation. As I mentioned, if you're REALLY not into historical stuff or historical research, this might not appeal to you. But if you don't confine yourself to any genre, I'd say it's worth a look just to check out that beautiful writing about which I spoke. If you see it in the library or a bookstore, give it a chance. The writing may be able to hook you in enough that you'll want to continue and follow the story to the end.
Love and full moons,
Becky the Writer
