‘The strength of the vampire is that no one will believe in him…’
If you are someone who has devoted your life to horror as I have, you’re bound to encounter vampires on the regular. Even though I’m not particularly enamoured with the vampire myth, it seems that I’m running into one every other week. Not literally, obviously but in the form of films, TV shows and books. Having seen the Will Smith iteration of Richard Matheson’s seminal novel, I Am Legend, and found it to be entertaining but ultimately fairly forgettable, I wasn’t in a rush to read the book. Over the years, however, I have repeatedly had it recommended to me and, sure enough, it’s incredible…
I Am Legend is the story of Robert Neville – a man immune to the vampirism that seems to have consumed the rest of the world. He spends his days seeking out vampires and murdering them in their sleep, reinforcing his house and hunting for supplies. At night, he drinks, weeps and tries to ignore the insidious cries of the undead outside, some of whom were his friends and neighbours at one time. Occasionally, Robert Neville (always referred to by his full name in the novel), is struck by a motivating flash of inspiration and attempts to understand the nature of the vampires around them through a scientific lens. Matheson does a great job in making the subsequent explanation for the vampire apocalypse both convincing and accessible for the layperson.
What struck me most about I Am Legend, and perhaps what I most enjoyed about it, is just how bleak it is. The book is a howl of anguish that portrays isolation, depression and alcoholism with an unflinching frankness which is often uncomfortable. One particularly repugnant detail is the fact that the female vampires try to seduce Robert Neville as a way to tempt him out of his house. Their wanton lasciviousness is genuinely unsettling.
I Am Legend is a book that is almost devoid of hope. But it’s not emotionally flat. Matheson imbues his protagonist with a futile longing for something better and a cruel nostalgia (we are given just enough backstory in flashback form) to ensure that the book isn’t just a harbinger of doom. Although, having said that, it is, of course, the hope that kills you.