Aside from Bram Stoker’s Dracula, I’ve never been particularly interested in vampire stories, and even Dracula I think intrigued me mostly because of the historical context and the period detail. I cringed through the first Twilight movie and failed to understand my then tween son’s fascination with what’s been often denounced as the sparkly vampire series. Though I can’t say I’ve ever read a Stephen King book I hated, I wouldn’t count Salem’s Lot among my top ten favorite books of his. Aside from the subject matter, I’ve only recently been introduced to Matheson’s work, and I wasn’t a huge fan of the first book of his I read, Hell House.
I am Legend redeemed Matheson for me. In addition to being beautifully written, it is brilliantly plotted. For me, I very much enjoyed how Matheson conveyed the isolated nature of the Robert Neville’s existence. In spite of the fact that the guy’s confronted on a nightly basis by hordes of the undead, his reaction to the solitude of the daylight hours was more striking, and really helped me get into his head and become fully invested in his character. I was so moved by his loneliness that I cheered when he found a canine companion. When we find out the dog has died in that single, stirring sentence, “In a week the dog was dead,” (Matheson, 110), I had to choke back tears. (This is remarkable only in that I don’t especially like dogs.) I was equally intrigued by the introduction of Ruth near the close of the book, and by his reaction to her. At that point, Neville had been alone so long it seemed most of his animalistic impulses (sex drive, etc.) had practically dissipated, which I thought was a fairly realistic detail.
In addition to Matheson’s depiction of Neville’s hermit like lifestyle, I was also very impressed by how well he interjected scientific detail into the story. Oftentimes, books with scientific terminology and concepts I feel run the risk of being bogged down by the detail. However, Matheson (through Neville’s character) explains the germ theory in laymen’s terms and then seamlessly makes the connection to the “plague” that turned the rest of the world into vampires. I felt this was a very effective demonstration of how to blend genres in the interest of the story.
I definitely saw, in this work, the style that later influenced Stephen King. As I was reading I am Legend, I thought several times that this book was indisputably the forerunner of books like King’s The Shining, from the isolated quality of the work down to the protagonists’ struggles with alcohol.
My only real gripe with this work was that I felt it was too short. I made the stupid mistake of thinking it was a 317 page book as opposed to a 170 page one, and I kept thinking even as I neared the end of the work that we still had plenty of time for Neville to save the world from the threat of vampires/vampire germs and restore order to society. While I recognize that in many cases books in the horror genre don’t have “happy endings” I found the ending of I am Legend to be abrupt. In fact, I kept on reading and finished all of “Buried Talents” before I realized it wasn’t a continuation of the novel. (It would have made for an odd juxtaposition of plots, true, but at that point I was convinced of Matheson’s ability to pull it off.)
On the whole, I felt this to be a thoroughly enjoyable story and I’m glad I had the opportunity to read it.
I'm glad this story redeemed Matheson (and perhaps vampires?) for you, because I'm a fan of both -- though not so much the sparkly kind yet. Still waiting for those to win me over. ;)
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting suggestion that the next story in the book could be looked at as a continuation of the first. I'm going to have to go back and read it that way now! :)
For me, I was glad that I Am Legend ended the way it did. Neville came to terms with what he was: the thing that goes bump in the night (day), and that he was no longer right simply because he was the norm. It's part of the reason I love The Dark Crystal, too; the classic definitions of good and evil are tested and changed.
After I read the book the first time I also thought the ending was abrupt. Reading it a second time, though, when I wasn't reading to know what happened next, it seemed much more elegant.
ReplyDeleteI like vampires better when they're dehumanized, like in 30 Days of Night. This book, though, did both--to Neville they were just murderous animals, but to Ruth, they were humanity. Interesting stuff, I love this book.
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Kristin
I agree about how Matheson's crafting of the story worked to show two sides of a coin. Where I move away from opinion here is the ending. I thought it ended in the right place, if not a little further than necessary. The whole idea of him becoming the next legend (Vlad)is good, but the interactions with Ruth at the very end seem unnecessary, which is probably what is making people read on to the next story. The whole idea of the new society seems to lead to more story. I wonder if there is more somewhere.
ReplyDeleteCraig
I agree with you, vampires never really interested me either. They can be a bit overdone in the literary world so much that I wonder if it is a requirement to be in the Horror Writers of America.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I felt the same way you did about this story. It was fantastically plotted and written. The emotions were real and I felt for Robert Neville in all the ups and downs of his life.
Before I started reading this, I knew the ending had something to do with the title and that really prepared me. My friend told me that it all made sense. I agree with the other poster stating that it was elegant ending. Yes, it was abrupt, but it meant something that the terrible movie of the same name could not.
To me, the ending was perfect in the sense that there was no other logical way it could end. One man couldn't save the world, and for him to become the boogie-man was beautiful.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I loved the ending. I felt that it brought the story full circle. At the beginning, he speaks of vampires as legends. What makes a legend? Something that is rare and hard to prove it exists. In the end, he is the rare one, making him the legend.
ReplyDeleteI do agree about the science not bogging the story down. I think it helps that Neville himself didn't know much about science, so he had to process it and put it in layman's terms to understand it as well.
-Lori
It seems that my last post didn't keep. Oops!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I think Matheson gave himself quite a task in trying to make vampires real. How do you scientifically explain something that is essentially mythology? A great deal of care went into his scientific descriptions and explanations, but the delivery was impeccable, and I agree with you, it did not hold the story down at all.