Erica Manfred’s novel Interview with a Jewish Vampire is not quite as weighty. She describes her book as “what would happen if Anne Rice and Mel Brooks had gotten drunk one night at Grossingers.” Filled with knowing winks to readers of vampire fiction, from Dracula to Lestat, Interview with a Jewish Vampire is unexpectedly credible, even while pumping Catskill-flavored jokes through its basically silly premise.
Interview is told in a fast, punchy style: “I was a Jewish divorcee of 41 who claimed to be 35. He had been dead for a long time, but I didn’t know that right away.” You know exactly where it’s going, but the road there is a lot of fun.
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