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The journal of Professor Abraham Van Helsing
Kupfer, Allen C.
Adult Fiction KUPFER
From Publishers' Weekly:
Spoof, send-up or wannabe spook tale, this addition to the "vampire culture" that Kupfer claims is all too real today attempts to go for the throat but misses any vital artery. This slim novel purportedly contains an 1886 diary by the famous vampire hunter Van Helsing of Dracula fame, annotated by Kupfer's long-lost grandpa and unearthed in Kupfer's grandmother's attic. Clearly smitten by Keats's "Lamia" and "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" (Swinburne's overheated Lady of Pain), as well as by Lord Byron's darker proclivities, Kupfer struggles to give Van Helsing's jumpy journal entries a credible 19th-century flavor, though occasional flare-ups of Americanisms dilute the Transylvanian atmospherics. Kupfer's narrative professorial persona also updates his various subnarrators' tales with pseudo-scholarly footnotes that include an evidently irresistible whack or two at stingy academic administrators. Van Helsing's diary includes entries both before and after his London adventure that resulted in the gory destruction of Dracula, recounted far more satisfactorily by Bram Stoker. Embellished with befanged drawings signed "V.H.," Kupfer's little tale has all the depth of a comic book-without any of its whiz-bang pop art fascination. (Apr. 27) Forecast: The publisher has shrewdly timed this book's release with that of the film Van Helsing, which promises to be one of the summer's blockbusters. Expect a lift from film-goers who don't realize the two are unrelated. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
From Library Journal:
Kupfer (film & literature studies, Nassau Community Coll., Garden City, NY) draws on fragments of a journal he inherited from his grandfather to cobble together this semiautobiographical novel. In it, English professor Allen Kupfer finds an old diary hidden in his late grandmother's attic. When he spies the name of Abraham Van Helsing, he immediately recognizes it as that of the vampire hunter from Bram Stoker's classic novel, Dracula. As he reads the journal, with its intriguing pen and ink drawings and margin notations by Daniel Kupfer (the author Allen's real-life grandfather), he becomes convinced that it is not a hoax but truly Dr. Van Helsing's disturbing account of his battle to eradicate the undead from this world. Although most of the events take place before and after Stoker's novel, the author deftly weaves the two stories together. This eerie, well-crafted tale of a vampire underworld and, with few exceptions, a blithely unbelieving human populace allows readers to suspend disbelief easily. It is worth noting that May will see the release of a major film titled Van Helsing starring Hugh Jackman, thus possibly translating into high demand for this book.-Patricia Altner, Information Seekers, Columbia, MD (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kupfer, Allen C.
Adult Fiction KUPFER
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From Publishers' Weekly:
Spoof, send-up or wannabe spook tale, this addition to the "vampire culture" that Kupfer claims is all too real today attempts to go for the throat but misses any vital artery. This slim novel purportedly contains an 1886 diary by the famous vampire hunter Van Helsing of Dracula fame, annotated by Kupfer's long-lost grandpa and unearthed in Kupfer's grandmother's attic. Clearly smitten by Keats's "Lamia" and "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" (Swinburne's overheated Lady of Pain), as well as by Lord Byron's darker proclivities, Kupfer struggles to give Van Helsing's jumpy journal entries a credible 19th-century flavor, though occasional flare-ups of Americanisms dilute the Transylvanian atmospherics. Kupfer's narrative professorial persona also updates his various subnarrators' tales with pseudo-scholarly footnotes that include an evidently irresistible whack or two at stingy academic administrators. Van Helsing's diary includes entries both before and after his London adventure that resulted in the gory destruction of Dracula, recounted far more satisfactorily by Bram Stoker. Embellished with befanged drawings signed "V.H.," Kupfer's little tale has all the depth of a comic book-without any of its whiz-bang pop art fascination. (Apr. 27) Forecast: The publisher has shrewdly timed this book's release with that of the film Van Helsing, which promises to be one of the summer's blockbusters. Expect a lift from film-goers who don't realize the two are unrelated. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
From Library Journal:
Kupfer (film & literature studies, Nassau Community Coll., Garden City, NY) draws on fragments of a journal he inherited from his grandfather to cobble together this semiautobiographical novel. In it, English professor Allen Kupfer finds an old diary hidden in his late grandmother's attic. When he spies the name of Abraham Van Helsing, he immediately recognizes it as that of the vampire hunter from Bram Stoker's classic novel, Dracula. As he reads the journal, with its intriguing pen and ink drawings and margin notations by Daniel Kupfer (the author Allen's real-life grandfather), he becomes convinced that it is not a hoax but truly Dr. Van Helsing's disturbing account of his battle to eradicate the undead from this world. Although most of the events take place before and after Stoker's novel, the author deftly weaves the two stories together. This eerie, well-crafted tale of a vampire underworld and, with few exceptions, a blithely unbelieving human populace allows readers to suspend disbelief easily. It is worth noting that May will see the release of a major film titled Van Helsing starring Hugh Jackman, thus possibly translating into high demand for this book.-Patricia Altner, Information Seekers, Columbia, MD (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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