Let the Right One In – John Ajvide Lindqvist

Let Me In

Let the Right One In is a vampire book quite unlike any other. If you are into the vampire world of Twilight this is not the book for you. Although the subtitle of the book is ‘AVampire Love Story’, this is not the teen ‘heart aflutter’ romance that seems quite prevalent in contemporary vampire literature. It is a unique and very bleak story of friendship forged between a bullied pre-adolescent boy, Oskar, and the enigmatic Eli, a strange and mysterious newcomer who moves into the housing estate where Oskar lives.

The book also intertwines a number of sub-plots with other equally sad figures whose relevance to the story emerges slowly. This book has no happiness, no joy and makes for compelling but tragic reading.

The story itself is not just a story of vampires but of how life can be terribly unfair and is quite a commentary of social life and structure. From Oskar’s relentless and cruel bullying at the hands of his school peers to the despair of alcoholism and poverty. One of the hardest parts of reading this book is the inclusion of paedophilia. It is an essential part of the story line but one that is sickening to read. Although, at one point, I found the book pushed the boundaries of this part of the story into the nonsensical which was the only let down of this well woven story. I found it disgusting and totally unnecessary.

The entire paedophilia angle was dropped from the movie as it would have made it difficult for classification and, at times, would have been far too graphic for film. In fact the movie differs quite dramatically from the book.

Set in a poor housing district in Stockholm in the 1980s, the main story is that of Oskar, a small frail boy who is incessantly bullied and has no friends. He lives with his mother in a run-down housing estate and collects clippings of murder in a scrap book to feed his revenge fantasies. Meanwhile, the community is rocked by a brutal killing of a teenager in a nearby town in what seems like a ritualistic slaying – the boy was hung upside down and drained of blood. Because of this, Oskar’s mother will not let him go further than the estate’s playground where Oskar spends cold dark evenings with a large knife stabbing trees whilst pretending they are his tormentors. It is in the playground that he sees a young girl and her father move in to the apartment next door after dark. The next day he notices that all of the windows are papered over.

Eli, the strange new girl, approaches Oskar in the playground and he is both fascinated and repulsed by her. She does not seem to feel the cold, she only comes out at night, she is dirty and smells bad but they slowly forge a friendship as Oskar tries to learn more about Eli. He is also desperate for a friend and Eli is so very alone.

A sub-story surrounds a group of alcoholics who regularly meet and drink to lament their lives. Their existence is pitiful and their bond seems to be more based on their mutual alcoholism than that of true friendship although there is a love story of sorts with two of these characters. When one of the group disappears in mysterious circumstances it sets off a chain of events that is the catalyst to the lives of all of the characters colliding.

Let the right one in takes the vampire genre back into the dark and disturbing. Many vampire stories of recent years have over-sexualised vampires making them creatures of desire and their  undead lifestyles desirable. That is certainly not the case with this book. The vampire of this story, although does keep with much of vampire mythology, steps away from some of the more the clichéd characterisation. Although Eli cannot be in sunlight, cannot enter a home uninvited and feeds on blood, there are striking differences in her vampirism to many current stories including the unfolding story of how Eli came to be.

At times the story is shockingly gory and the constant bleakness of the surrounds and the characters does not make for a light read but it is a very well written and gripping story. The story unfolds like petals dropping off a dying flower rather than ripping from one action piece to another which allows you to see and feel the misery of the story.

That said, the friendship between Oskar and Eli is as beautiful as it is sad. They are both quite tragic figures in very different ways. They are outcasts and they are lonely and develop a mesmerising bond. Eli is not what she seems nor what you expect and it makes the story so much more interesting by veering away from what would be considered the norm for a vampire story.

Let the Right One In is not a book for the faint-hearted nor the impatient but the story will stay with you long after you finish reading it.

The US version of the book is also known as Let Me In.

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The Lover by Marguerite Duras

the lover duras

In The Lover (L’Amant), Marguerite Duras reflects on her youth in 1930s Indochina.  This memoir focuses mainly on her affair with the man who would become her first lover, the adult son of a Chinese millionaire at least 12 yrs her senior.   The short book (only about 100 pages) weaves in and out of the author’s memories in a dreamy manner that is not unappealing.  I had the impression that Duras was literally writing down her recollections as they occurred to her, and this helped to ease the way through the somewhat disjointed structure.

Often explained as an “erotic novel”, The Lover is actually more of an exploration of a young girl’s sexual awakening in Saigon, and her discovery of the power that comes with her budding sexual prowess.  She does not seem to be in love with the man that she is sleeping with, but she becomes obsessed with the effect that she has on the man, and he in turn is obsessed with her.  As he nervously and carefully teaches her how to make love, she becomes an eager student.  Their daily meetings teach her more and more about the control that a woman can have over a man.  This is not to say that she derives no pleasure from the encounters, but simply that she initially treats them very much as a pupil learning a new skill.  With time, however, her passion grows, as does her confusion.  Because she is white, the man’s father refuses to allow him to marry her, so they both know that their affair will never be allowed to continue.

With all of that, what I found to be the most compelling and heart wrenching aspect of The Lover was the sad story of the young girl’s life away from her lover.  As the daughter of a French school administrator, she is very much neglected and left to her own defenses, as her widowed mother struggles to make ends meet.  She is sent to a boarding school that has a shocking lack of supervision over the comings and goings of the young girls, and this, of course, is how Marguerite manages to get away with her lurid encounters with a much older man.

All in all, it was a well written, interestingly paced book that I would recommend. Think of it as a sort of Lolita story, but from Lolita’s point of view.  It will disturb some readers, as it is a fairly sexually charged tale of an underage girl with a much older man, but I don’t believe that the novel was meant to titillate.  Rather unlike the beautiful movie inspired by Duras’ memoirs.

Jean Jacque Annaud’s film is brilliant.  Beautiful.  Haunting.  Seductive.  Emotionally confusing and passionate.  And, contrary to several of the comments on Netflix, I would not consider it to be soft porn.  It is quite graphic for a mainstream film, and yet it is so lovingly portrayed that it comes off as breathtakingly sensual, rather than simple erotica.  The older lover is played by Tony Leung. His striking good looks, combined with his ability to capture the trembling nervousness with which he first approaches the object of his desire is extremely captivating. (I’ve included the trailer at the end of this review)

In the end, I would say that both the film and the novel are good, but for different reasons.  While the film stays true to the book, it lacks the musicality and artistic magic of the prose.  But the film captures passion that does not come through in the book.  They each stand on their own.

xoxo

Natalina

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