Kostova

The book referred to as my current reading is The Historian, the premiere novel by Elizabeth Kostova, who first came to my attention when I picked up her second one The Swan Thieves at CostCo Wholesale. I read Thieves, a first edition, by the way, immediately, while Barnes & Noble ordered her earlier novel for me. While I enjoyed Thieves, the over-abundance of italics (in letters of correspondence) bothered me. Such print looks smaller and is paler ink, possibly slowing down other readers too and not just me. This 561-page volume contains much about art, possibly because the author holds a Master of Fine Arts degree. That alone is worth the reading but there is more to it than art.

Much praise surrounds The Historian (another first edition for me), which sold at auction for two million and to the movies for another million and a half. The Internet shows some people worry that Hollywood will mess it up (their word).

What is absolutely great about the 642 pages of The Historian is the actual wording, the artistry of language, which Kostova’s ten years of research ought to guarantee and does. How can that happen? Possibly in Kostova’s own reading, which she says is for form as much as for story. A well-written work of prose deserves reading for form, with a good dictionary within one’s reach. Writers’ critique groups would do well to study a sizable paragraph from Part 1 of this book. I’m about to begin Part 2.

This first volume, so far, has several references to Dracula and company, with the expectation of more about vampires in Part 2, but that’s not the whole story. You don’t have to believe in vampires, or even like to imagine them, to enjoy this book.

Kostova is married to Georgi Kostov, a Bulgarian. (I love the tradition of adding the “a” to shape the feminine name.) She has traveled at length in Eastern Europe where we go in Part 2. Be prepared to enjoy traveling with her as you read about London, New York, South Carolina, Washington, Amsterdam, Paris, Istanbul and perhaps other points, in these excellent novels.