MADreads

Real vampires

November 18th, 2008 Barbara - Alicia Ashman

With the film version of the book Twilight opening this week, vampire fever seems to have descended on the nation.  “Vampy” fiction is in high demand and library hold lists are building.  While you wait, why not spend some time learning about real vampires?  They are very strange, interesting and often connected to your everyday life. 

Dark Banquet: Blood and the Curious Lives of Blood-Feeding Creatures is an entertaining introduction into the natural history of sanguivores (creatures that consume blood).   Author Bill Schutt, a biologist with joint positions at Long Island University and the American Museum of Natural History, seems to have had quite a bit of fun in the process of learning about his topic and he has a lot of knowledge to share.  His enthusiasm is contagious! 

Dr. Schutt starts out with a bang, beginning with a deliciously thrilling description of field research at it’s finest.  Schutt, his wife Janet, and a Trinidadian scientist explore the massive, abandoned ice house at Wallerfield, the former US military base.  Seeking vampire bats in the decaying building, Schutt’s evocation of the claustrophobic ruin (and an elevator shaft filled with water and bat guano) are vividly described.

Blood feeding is a hard way to survive and Schutt’s description of various evolutionary hypotheses on how assorted sanguivores may have developed is satisfyingly detailed.  Besides the infamous (but misunderstood and endangered) vampire bats, other well-known obligate sanguivorous creatures such as leeches, ticks, fleas are covered.  The addition of creatures new to me  (such as the  “vampire finch” of the Galapagos — primarily a seed-eater) and digressions into the history of medicine (did you know George Washington died after his well-meaning but misinformed team of physicians nearly exsanguinated him?) keep things rolling along.

The professor is a funny fellow, with a lot of amusing anecdotes, funny footnotes and some groaningly-bad puns.  His book is far-reaching, though a bit uneven, rambling from the folklore of vampires to the chemical composition of blood, touching on colony collapse disorder and mentioning his many aunts named Rose.  Gorgeous illustrations by Patricia J. Wynne accompany the book.  Ms. Wynne also provided art for Schutt’s handsome Dark Banquet website, which contains a not-to-be missed collection of Blood Recipes.

Entry Filed under: Nonfiction