The Biblio Blogazine

Dracula Is Deadby Sheilah Kast and Jim Rosapepe
ISBN 978-1890862657
Non-fiction, 400 pages
Bancroft Press

FTC Disclosure: Book provided by publisher

This book is not what you think. In fact, it really should be pointed out what the full title is:

Dracula Is Dead: How Romanians Survived Communism, Ended It, and Emerged since 1989 as the New Italy.

Damn, that’s a mouthful. But a more accurate description as to what this book is all about.

There are many things Romania is known for, yet the most enduring is Vlad Tepes, otherwise knows as Vlad III – the man who inspired Romania’s most famous character: Dracula. (If you are wondering about other notable Romanians let’s not forget Olympic gymnast Nadia Comaneci, tennis player Ilie Nastase, or Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel)

But this amazing country has so much more to its history and culture. And this book describes the struggles to overcome this association while on its way to becoming the modern and culturally rich country it is today.

It’s unlikely Romania’s past issues and connection to Dracula will ever be forgotten. In many ways, it shouldn’t. As it is said, “Those that forget history are doomed to repeat it.” Considering what Romania has been through, this is a sentiment I hope is not only taken to heart, but never comes to pass.

Sheilah Kast and her husband Jim Rosapepe have a unique and knowledgeable perspective of the country. Jim was an ambassador to for three years. As they note, “We traveled all over Romania. Jim visited all forty counties, most of them more than once, and Sheilah went to some spots that Jim did not. We saw more of Romania and of Romanians – from the mines to the software labs, from the monasteries to the hospitals – than most foreigners and even many Romanians have.”

This book is more than a travel diary. It gives the reader a clearer perspective of a country that has many assumptions made of it, and how few of these are accurate.

In terms of detractions, there aren’t many.

The most irksome was the point-of-view technique used by the authors – as in plural, there are two. This is most evident when seeing “us” and “we” in the text. But whenever one party is relating something about the other or about something the other did, they use their names, as if talking about themselves in the third person.

If it’d been me, I would’ve changed the “we” and “us” into the third person plural to smooth out the transitions. Since they didn’t, I was initially confused about who was recounting their experiences. Afterward, I simply had to make a mental adjustment and not let it bother me.

However, one reader’s nitpicking may mean nothing to another. So take this observation accordingly. For me, it was something that wasn’t so detrimental that I couldn’t finish the book. It was  just an annoyance that popped up from time to time.

In terms of recommending Dracula Is Dead? 

If you are not much of a non-fiction reader, or a history buff, this may not be the book for you. But to those who are intrigued by modern history, political turmoil and change, the birth of a new democracy, and in increasing one’s knowledge of the world around them, I do recommend it.

I didn’t know much about Romania and am glad I was introduced to it through these two authors. I am intrigued and would consider traveling there if I ever had the means. I would love to see first hand this remarkable country.

There are some who don’t care for Virginia Woolf’s books. Especially her stream-of-conscious narratives such as The Waves.

However, besides writing novels, she was a prolific critic and essay writer. One of her most famous is A Room of One’s Own.

It is this essay, and many others, that make me wonder why they aren’t more highly regarded outside of academia.

Yet I know I am not the only one discovering and discussing the joys of essays. Thank goodness!

To give you a glimpse into the beauty of Woolf’s writing, let me share a passage:

That collar I have spoken of, women and fiction, the need of coming to some conclusion on a subject that raises all sorts of prejudices and passions, bowed my head to the ground. To the right and left bushes of some sort, golden and crimson, glowed with the color, even it seemed burnt with the heat, of fire. On the further bank the willows wept in perpetual lamentation, their hair about their shoulders. The river reflected whatever it chose of the sky and bridge an burning tree, and when the undergraduate had oared his boat through the reflections they closed again, completely, as if he had never been. There one might have sat the clock round lost in thought. Thought – to call it by a prouder name than it deserved – had let its line down into the stream. It swayed, minute after minute, hither and thither among the reflections and the weeds, letting the water lift it and sink it, until – you know the little tug – the sudden conglomeration of an idea at the end of one’s line: and then the cautions hauling of it in, and the careful laying of it out? Alas, laid on the grass how small, how insignificant this thought of mine looked; the sort of fish that a good fisherman puts back into the water so that it may grow fatter and be one day worth cooking and eating.

As one who reads, and occasionally tries to write, this passage spoke volumes. And there are many others in this amazing essay. At a little over one hundred pages, it isn’t too hard of a read, and well worth a purchase or checking out from your library.