"Baba Yaga Laid An Egg" by Dubravka Ugresic

Date: 04 January 2010 22:35:40

Whilst Auntie Doris has read another half-library in December, this is the one novel I've managed since (I think) mid-November, finally finishing it a few days ago while down south. Ugresic is an author from Croatia, and this is a translation of her latest novel, which takes the form of a diptych, followed by a detailed explanation of the Baba Yaga myth. In Slavic folklore and mythology Baba Yaga is a witch who lives in a hut on hen's legs, flies around in a mortar (with a pestle to steer it) and is both maleficent and benevolent (depending on who crosses her), with lots of associated imagery. The two stories that make up the diptych are set in the modern era and don't mention Baba Yaga directly, but the explanation at the end often detours into pointing out where Ugresic may or may not have drawn on the Baba Yaga myth. The first story is of the author and her relationship with her elderly mother, and her trip to her mother's Bulgarian home town to take pictures as her mother is herself no longer able to go. The second, longer story, tells the story of 3 women, Pupa, Beba and Kukla and the week they spend in a Czech health spa and all the various weird and wonderful characters they meet there. In both stories there isn't lots in the way of action, it's more observational writing, but I really liked it for that. I'd say the humour is quite wry, and at times a bit surreal, but not in a pseudy way. Recommended. And now I have a week to read "The Book Thief" before book group next week. Whilst also marking OU essays, rewriting another thesis chapter and generally sorting stuff out. Oh yes, and doing my full-time job (I'm still in denial about that, I'm not at all ready to go back!). Maybe I should run a sweepstake on how far into the book I get.