I've started Joyce Carol Oates'
The Accursed - I admit I was intrigued by a review that announced Oates had finally written a vampire novel. It's a very odd read - dealing with events that occurred at Princeton around 1905 - with "real life" characters, such as Woodrow Wilson and Upton Sinclair, and actual historical events -- with an added curse thrown in. The writing style is intentionally archaic -- much like her style in
Bellefleur and
The Mysteries of Winterthurn - and she can channel Henry James' elongated sentence syntax quite handily. The tale is related by an unreliable historian - and so far I've encountered lynchings, a spectral bride, a demon bridegroom, and numerous "vampiric" manisfestations of the dead. Not to mention Wilson's hypochondria and opiate addiction. Quite a fun & intriguing read!
