Synopses & Reviews
In Dodie Bellamy's imagined "sequel" to Bram Stoker's fin de siècle masterpiece
Dracula, Van Helsing's plain Jane secretarial adjunct, Mina Harker, is recast as a sexual, independent woman living in San Francisco in the 1980s. The vampire Mina Harker, who possesses the body of author Dodie Bellamy, confesses the most intimate details of her relationships with four vastly different men through past letters. Simultaneously, a plague is let loose in San Francisco-the plague of AIDS.
Bigger-than-life, half goddess, half Bette Davis, Mina sends letter after letter to friends and co-conspirators, holding her reader captive through a display of illusion and longing. Juggling quivering vulnerability on one hand and gossip on the other, Mina spoofs and consumes and spews back up demented reembodiments of trash media and high theory alike. It's all fodder for her ravenous libido and "a messy ambiguous place where pathology meets pleasure." Sensuous and captivating, The Letters of Mina Harker describes one woman's struggles finding the right words to explain her desires and fears without confining herself to one identity.
Review
"The Letters of Mina Harker unfurls like a red velvet carpet wilkomming you to a house of horrors. And the more you succumb, the more that red carpet begins to resemble a thick wet tongue, slicking you up for the ride down the hot narrow throat of postmodern narrative."—Traci Vogel, San Francisco Bay Guardian
Review
"Dodie Bellamy writes a brilliant gossip and if theres anything better than literature this is it. Writing thats pageless, so insinuating, above and below board, luscious deeply fucked up extravagant work. It looks good from here."—Eileen Myles
Review
"Dodie Bellamys The Letters of Mina Harker gets rid of the question of fact versus fiction, while also being ravishing, not to mention totally aloof and needy at the same time."—The Village Voice
Synopsis
In Dodie Bellamy's imagined sequel to Bram Stoker's fin de si cle masterpiece Dracula, Van Helsing's plain Jane secretarial adjunct, Mina Harker, is recast as a sexual, independent woman living in San Francisco in the 1980s. The vampire Mina Harker, who possesses the body of author Dodie Bellamy, confesses the most intimate details of her relationships with four vastly different men through past letters. Simultaneously, a plague is let loose in San Francisco-the plague of AIDS.
Bigger-than-life, half goddess, half Bette Davis, Mina sends letter after letter to friends and co-conspirators, holding her reader captive through a display of illusion and longing. Juggling quivering vulnerability on one hand and gossip on the other, Mina spoofs and consumes and spews back up demented reembodiments of trash media and high theory alike. It's all fodder for her ravenous libido and a messy ambiguous place where pathology meets pleasure. Sensuous and captivating, The Letters of Mina Harker describes one woman's struggles finding the right words to explain her desires and fears without confining herself to one identity.
About the Author
Dodie Bellamy is the author of many books, including her latest, Pink Steam. She lives in San Francisco.