Reviews for Dracula's Guest

The average rating for Dracula's Guest based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-02-25 00:00:00 James Cruz After reading four of the stories, I found the translations to be too clumsy and lifeless to continue reading. For example, the first story's translation reveals a poor understanding of verb tenses in Arabic (the imperfect case is jarringly rendered as present tense English verb, despite the story taking place in the past). Other translation choices are awkwardly literal. While an editor is listed for this work, I find it hard to believe that the editor was proficient Arabic or editing. Secondly, the four stories I read involved protagonists pondering mundane details of daily life in a way that didn't catch my interest. However, I will withhold judgment regarding this collection until I get a hold of a copy of it in its original Arabic. I suspect that Al-Amir's succinct style and emphasis on internal monologue may hold a greater appeal when they are not suffocated by deeply flawed translation.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-05-08 00:00:00 Todd Marion Poetic short stories. Feeling of lost, forlorn, and yes, waiting. I could not tell if the stories were all about the same character.