The Letters of Mina Harker

by Dodie Bellamy, Christopher Emdin (Introduction)

First published in 1998, Dodie Bellamy's debut novel The Letters of Mina Harker sought to resuscitate this minor character from Bram Stoker's Dracula and reimagine her as an independent woman living in San Francisco during the 1980s—a woman not unlike Dodie Bellamy. Harker confesses the most intimate details of her relationships with four different men in a series of letters. Vampirizing Mina Harker, Bellamy turns the novel into a laboratory: a series of attempted transmutations between the two women in which the real story occurs in the gaps and the slippages. Lampooning the intellectual theory-speak of that era, Bellamy's narrator fights to inhabit her own sexuality despite feelings of vulnerability and destruction. Stylish but ruthlessly unpretentious, The Letters of

Genres: Fiction, Horror, Novels, Queer, Contemporary, Vampires, 20th Century

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Dodie Bellamy is an American novelist, nonfiction author, journalist and editor. Her work is frequently associated with that of Dennis Cooper, Kathy Acker, and Eileen Myles. She is one of the originators in the New Narrative literary movement, which attempts to use the tools of experimental fiction and critical theory and apply them to narrative storytelling.

She ist married to Kevin Killian.

Reviews

[Morgan M. Page · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like Kathy Acker but obsessed with horror movies instead of opaque French literary theory, Dodie Bellamy explodes languages and writes a series of letters on her relationships with men while possessed by the spirit of vampire Mina Harker. Bellamy is living a narrative, as Kevin Killian tells her several times throughout the book, and that narrative is bursting at the seams, threatening to spill out into all kinds of incoherent directions. I'd give this a four but I'm giving it an extra star for the butt-hurt dude who gave it a one star review because he hates women (be honest, if a man wrote this from a man's perspective, you'd be cumming your pants about it).

[Lars Meijer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rommelig en wild, zoals een goede roddel over de relatie van mensen die je niet kent.

*3,5

[Matias Viegener · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books ever. It virtually created a new genre: Writing Through. This book is a writing-through of Stoker's Dracula. The seamless splicing of Dodie and Mina has to be one of contemporary literatures great tropes. The narrative spin between the novel and Dodies I knew a few of the writers to whom Bellamy addressed the letters, and the overlap between Dracula character and addressee adds yet another layer to a delicious and erotic textual web.

[Liza]

in theory, i really love this book, but actually reading it didn't do that much for me. there was a kind of gooey 90s vibe i liked but something about reading tons about women's desire for men just really turns me off. a little like chris kraus that way? and even (secretest) kathy acker. i think there is probably a form of misogyny in this that i should work on. more recent dodie bellamy i like more with my feelings.

[D.W. Lichtenberg · Rating 2 out of 5]

This books is breathtaking in its use of language. Told in a faux epistolary, it details the fight for the body of Dodie Bellamy between the author and the vampire (spirit?) Mina Harker. Ultimately, it's hard for me to make a judgement call on a book like this. While I feel I might be able to get a lot out of the read if assisted in an academic setting, ultimately I found very few roads into this book. I was constantly stalled, the language is the language for the sake of being the language, and I am much more concerned with emotional content that I can access than simulation of emotions through beautiful craft.

[Olivia]

Where to even begin. Literally this book was so insane & I enjoyed reading it a lot more than I thought I would! I have so many thoughts

I LOVE the meta fiction in this, the way that especially towards the end the letters start to break into themselves - did Dodie expel Mina or did Mina take Dodie over - and we’re switching mid paragraph from a scene to KK reading the scene. Awesome. I really enjoyed her relationship with KK

I’m honestly glad I slogged through the snooze fest that was Dracula because this book was so interesting with how it incorporated characters from Dracula & who it left out. I’m really interested by why Dodie kind of perverted and flipped the nature of Lucy & Mina’s relationship. Also inclusion of Quincey as a main role instead of just an American rando? Much to think about there

I’m also just thinking a lot about writing & just the command of language Dodie has, like everything is so crafted but feels so vomited & splarfed up. Her analogies stood out to me as particularly awesome

Yeah this was a good read. I probdbly have never read the word cock more times in a book. But that’s ok

[Beyza Çalışkan · Rating 4 out of 5]

"even a gulp of pizza or warm cat flesh can be orgasmic if you are willing to surrender to the extra energy you've built up."

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

These pages of feverish, unrelenting filth make me so, so jealous.

[Alexandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I'm not a person - I am I I am she I am Mina Harker a sexy construct a trope a simulated force of nature Dodies embarrassment a vortex of surges swirling around a void: another female incompetent at being female in a culture where the feminine... is muted... What I need from you is permission to behave excessively, will you grant me that much?"

It's been awhile since a book has grabbed me by the throat like this one did. Gut wrenching and romantic and erotic. SO erotic, but the horror and poetry of all the sex kept it from being the dull in the way 'post-feminism alt-lit' can be. Dodie flayed me and strung up the pieces for Mina to devour. An instant favorite.
So many passages I know I'll return to again and again. Also the format and style has been so eye-opening. I love a book that makes me want to write because I feel like I have been granted a secret key.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

i remember reading this book under the covers with a flashlight in my little apartment on 21st street. i had just quit a job as a stocker at the esprit outlet. my boyfriend was away on tour and i was lonely though i had houseguests. i checked the book out from the san francisco public library.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

mina harker, passive girl reporter no more! bellamy gives good sentence and even better sex.

[Masha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the lines in this book have stayed with me forever.

[Blair Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've struggled with reading this text. I started this in college for a class and never finished it. I've actually attempted to read this novel twice prior to finishing it today. It's not an easy read. I liked it because it was different, but I also didn't like it because it was so outside my realm of understanding the post-modern genre. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the majority of the story. I think it will be awhile before I attempt a post-modern novel again.

[Esonja · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn’t like this/not for me. This is a fragmented, carnal, surrealist interpretation, chock-a-block full of sex - mostly a libidinous trafficking of Mina Harker's (Dodie) husbands and boyfriends and their wives in the 1980s and 1990s.

[Sara]

This was sooo difficult to get through. Maybe I’m dumb and just didn’t get it but yeesh. Maybe if I read this 20 years ago I would have found it groundbreaking but I just don’t care for 260 pages of erections idk

[Kyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Writing versus life—is the one flight, the other hot pursuit? I don't remember."

[Zach Werbalowsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a wild vibe, quite good, can't say I know exactly what happened though. But thats the point, I love Dodie.

[Lulu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Super weird as expected but some moments of lovely writing and overall I very much enjoyed!

[Lis]

rlly good. worth reading dracula just for context for this book. dodie bellamy and porpentine heartscape r the two people who i can think of as successors to bataille

[Calley]

What a decadent read! Even the lack of form is naughty.

[Ana Hein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Do I know what I read? Not really. Was it fun and did it percolate my brain, even if I think it's overly long? Yes

[Blake Nemec · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you love the epistolary form and New Narrative fiction, this will take you. Dirty love letters between Bellamy and Sam D'Allesandro comprise half the book. He is dieing on the way. In the center is his funeral which is followed by Bellamy's excavation into texts and writing and death. I read sections here and there before sitting down and reading it in its entirety, I recommend either.

I'm not sure about the effort to write as Mina Harker, but I've never read Dracula so am probably missing alot on that level.

[Mitch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing epistolary novel. Mixes "real" diaristic writings with imagined diaries, blurs all literary boundaries and entertains, too. Sexy, funny, claustrophobic and alarming. I first read this work in fragments, which were being published in various magazines and newsletters, seemingly frantically trying to reach a readership, which breathlessly awaited every installment. Takes all the air out of the room. Place carefully on the bookshelf. Plays well, but with finality, with others.

[Susanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Letters of Mina Harker is a dishy fictionalized memoir from SF literary illuminary Dodie Bellamy. As with other stuff I've seen from Dodie, a mix of beauty and vulgarity and sometimes a surprising combo of both at once. Vulgarity maybe isn't quite the right word. Explicit information. TMI (but you want to keep reading anyway). By turns touching and repugnant. Etc. You get the idea. You should read it.

[Louie · Rating 1 out of 5]

What can I say? Dodie Bellamy is a shock-jock poet whose adolescent writing can only be characterized as drawing dicks on a restroom stall.

She purposely, I think its purposely, destroys any hopes of flow with her experimental treaties for shit on paper.

People like this garbage because they feel like they have to like it.

[Oren Whightsel · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book isn't for everyone...but bellamy is truly an amazing writer.