Book Review: Sundays with Vlad

by The Horror Czar
(Athens, TN)

Sundays with Vlad is the chronicle of one man’s quest to find the origins of the modern vampire. From Pennsylvania to Transylvania the answers will be found with humor and determination.

Written by The Horror Czar (BHM Editor Don Sumner)
November 23, 2007

Author: Paul Bibeau
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Three Rivers Press (October 2, 2007)
Language: English


Paul Bibeau, the author of Sundays with Vlad, is certainly obsessive. Beginning with a childhood fascination with monsters and horror and progressing to a honeymoon wrought with treks across the countryside of Romania in search of the “real” Dracula castle, Bibeau will seemingly stop at nothing to find the truth about everybody’s favorite Count.

Sundays with Vlad is a wonderful account of the culmination of a lifelong obsession. Written in humorous tongue-in-cheek style this book begins with the real life honeymoon of Bibeau, and yes – he indeed drags his new wife into the most underdeveloped sections of the Romanian countryside. The “real” castle of Dracula, you see, is not even actually in Transylvania but in Wallachia, and apparently only consists of “partially restored ruins” that include a staircase and a pile of rocks. Ah, love…

Bibeau reveals that Vlad Tepes, or “Vlad the Impaler” is a Romanian hero of sorts, and his father’s name (Vlad Dracul) was used by the Hungarians in a vicious plot to turn a Romanian icon into a vicious bloodsucker (Bela Lugosi, the star of Universal’s Dracula of 1931, was Hungarian). This is one of the (several) reasons why Romania has not capitalized on being the place of origin of the world’s most famous creature of the night – it would just be rude.

Bibeau does not stop there, but continues on a journey into the so-called “real vampires”, Goth kids and other folks that help the vampire legend live on.

Sundays with Vlad is an excellent read in terms of investigative journalism and sarcastic dry humor. Bibeau is best known as a freelance writer for Maxim magazine and is skilled in a writing style where facts, personal anecdotes and humor are intertwined to keep the attention of those whose span may be short. After reading through all 290 pages of this book, many sections more than once, my own interest in Dracula has been revitalized. As it turns out I may indeed have my chance to dive in to the Dracula-obsessed world of Paul Bibeau…

The inscription inside the copy of Sundays with Vlad that Bibeau sent me reads:

Don,

Consider this an invite to help me hunt for
Dracula’s skull…if I ever get funding”

Paul
Bibeau

Hmmm. Where does one find money for such a thing? If we can find the cash I’m there.