Well The Golem And The Jinni by Helene Wecker does not literally have vampires in it, however that would be a wonderfully interesting cast of characters-- it does have the kind of vampires described in How To Read Literature Like A Professor by Thomas C. Foster. To quote page 18 of this book, "But you don't need fangs and a cape to be a vampire. The essentials of the vampire story, as we discussed earlier: an older figure representing corrupt outworn values; a young, preferably virginal female... a continuance of the life force of the old male; the death or destruction of the young woman" (Foster 18).
Now our story has two vampires in fact, Yehudah Schaalman who takes on the role of the old man who is attempting to pass on his life force and will henceforth be referred to as Schaalman, and Ahmed, the jinni who takes on the role of stealing the virginity of young women leaving them destroyed. Schaalman is an extremely old Jewish mystic who is obsessed with the dark parts of magic. It turns out that his ancestors thousands of years ago captured our Ahmed and bound him in servitude for as long as the jinni lives. This creates a problem as the jinni was trapped and allowed to live for thousands of years. Every generation a new baby is born who becomes obsessed with the dark and evil parts of whatever culture they are a part of, and spends all their time being evil, unable to rest due to the unending life of the jinni. Our character Schaalman is obsessed with the idea of eternal life, and is lead from his home in Europe to New York seeking it out. He lives a double life, helping in a sheltering house by day and spending his nights looking for this secret, how to regain control of the jinni and continue his life force.
Despite being the prey for one vampire, Ahmed still finds his own time to prey as well. His target is Sophia Winston, one of the richest women in New York who's balcony the Jinni just finds himself on one night. This begins a series of hookups between the two, however she does not realize that he is a jinni. She is looking for ways to defy the strict societal norms and traditions around her marriage and courtship, and he offers the perfect, secret way to do it. However this comes with a cost, she becomes pregnant with the offspring of a jinni and a human, and the child dies in the womb. However having a being made of fire growing inside of her ruins her health, and leaves her with a permanent and uncontrollable shiver.
The traditional idea of a literature vampire is somewhat obscured by this splitting of roles, however through some clever writing and character development that is not revealed until remarkably late into the story, we are still able to have a good old fashion tale of fake bloodsuckers.
Now our story has two vampires in fact, Yehudah Schaalman who takes on the role of the old man who is attempting to pass on his life force and will henceforth be referred to as Schaalman, and Ahmed, the jinni who takes on the role of stealing the virginity of young women leaving them destroyed. Schaalman is an extremely old Jewish mystic who is obsessed with the dark parts of magic. It turns out that his ancestors thousands of years ago captured our Ahmed and bound him in servitude for as long as the jinni lives. This creates a problem as the jinni was trapped and allowed to live for thousands of years. Every generation a new baby is born who becomes obsessed with the dark and evil parts of whatever culture they are a part of, and spends all their time being evil, unable to rest due to the unending life of the jinni. Our character Schaalman is obsessed with the idea of eternal life, and is lead from his home in Europe to New York seeking it out. He lives a double life, helping in a sheltering house by day and spending his nights looking for this secret, how to regain control of the jinni and continue his life force.
Despite being the prey for one vampire, Ahmed still finds his own time to prey as well. His target is Sophia Winston, one of the richest women in New York who's balcony the Jinni just finds himself on one night. This begins a series of hookups between the two, however she does not realize that he is a jinni. She is looking for ways to defy the strict societal norms and traditions around her marriage and courtship, and he offers the perfect, secret way to do it. However this comes with a cost, she becomes pregnant with the offspring of a jinni and a human, and the child dies in the womb. However having a being made of fire growing inside of her ruins her health, and leaves her with a permanent and uncontrollable shiver.
The traditional idea of a literature vampire is somewhat obscured by this splitting of roles, however through some clever writing and character development that is not revealed until remarkably late into the story, we are still able to have a good old fashion tale of fake bloodsuckers.
I think Schaalman is a much more interesting to consider as a vampire than Ahmad. Maybe because I have a harder time seeing Ahmad as a villainous character while it is easy to dislike Schaalman.
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