Ever since he was a kid, Paul Bibeau has been fascinated by vampires, which is probably why he was cool with his wife’s idea of honeymooning in Romania. The trip may have been an utter misadventure, but at least it gave him the idea to explore the world’s fascination with Dracula in SUNDAYS WITH VLAD: FROM PENNSYLVANIA TO TRANSYLVANIA, ONE MAN’S QUEST TO LIVE IN THE WORLD OF THE UNDEAD.
For the book, Bibeau – a former editor of Maxim, but we won’t hold that against him – immersed himself in vampire culture, resulting in a globetrotting romp that wrings as many laughs out of the subject as it does the willies.
The doomed honeymoon – in an economically depressed country that could stand to profit from exploiting Dracula but can’t quite do so – is just the tip of the wooden stake. He and a friend search the grounds of a Jersey seaside carnival for the remains of the Castle Dracula haunted ride, supposedly a victim of arson. From the comfort of home, he conducts a 48-hour vampire movie marathon, watching mostly wretched flicks like the space-set, Coolio-starring DRACULA 3000. He hangs with Goth kids. He attends a weekend convention in Kentucky for fans of vampire role-playing games.
“They talk about their actions and their plans — they draw maps and charts and roll dice,” Bibeau writes, “but they don’t leave the room until it really begins to smell like feet.”
As SUNDAYS goes on, it grows more serious, as the author profiles a seemingly crazy man who ran who governor of Minnesota last year on the “Vampyres, Witches and Pagans Party” ticket, as well as a couple of murderers who considered themselves vampire and drank their victims’ blood. But he also profiles more normal, less scary people, like a fervent memorabilia collector and the woman who created Count Chocula.
Halloween may be over, but this book is a nice surprise for lovers of vampire horror, bizarro travelogues and the science of kitsch. Bibeau has an easily readable journalism style that gets to the meat of the subject while also cracking great jokes – more books could stand to drop phrases like “possibly a lair for C.H.U.D.s.”
It’s almost always interesting when authors devote an entire book to an offbeat topic and see it through with personal interaction – whether it be chess, pigeons or encyclopedias – and SUNDAYS WITH VLAD is another one of those. Bibeau pays equal attention to the historical and the literary vampires, making his trip one well worth taking. –Rod Lott
Related posts:
- Finding Atlantis: A True Story of Genius, Madness, and an Extraordinary Quest for a Lost World
- 30 Days of Night: Rumors of the Undead
- Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story
- Live Girls
- Gasping for Airtime: Two Years in the Trenches of Saturday Night Live
