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Summary
Summary
According to Russian myth, Baba Yaga is a witch who lives in a house built on chicken legs and who kidnaps small children. In Baba Yaga Laid an Egg , internationally acclaimed writer Dubravka Ugresic takes the timeless legend and spins it into a fresh and distinctly modern tale of femininity, aging, identity, and love. With barbed wisdom and razor-sharp wit, Ugresic weaves together the stories of four women in contemporary Eastern Europe: a writer who grants her dying mother's final wish by traveling to her hometown in Bulgaria, an elderly woman who wakes up every day hoping to die, a buxom blonde hospital worker who's given up on love, and a serial widow who harbors a secret talent for writing. Through the women's fears and desires, and their struggles against invisibility, Ugresic presents a brilliantly postmodern retelling of an ancient myth that is infused with "a human warmth . . . [and] the sweet magic of storytelling"( Times Saturday Review ).
Author Notes
Dubravka Ugresic was born in 1949 in Yugoslavia. Her novels and essays have been translated into more than twenty languages and she has received several major European literary awards.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Ugresic's postmodern take on myth, femininity, and aging provides a beautifully written window into Slavic literature, but eventually becomes bogged down in competing narrative threads. The tangentially related sections of the narrative triptych, while uneven as a whole, provide lovely moments in each. In the first, more melancholy section, the narrator recounts her mother's encroaching Alzheimer's while fulfilling her last wishes and remembering the tenets she lived by (old age is a terrible calamity; beans are best in salad). In the second, most humorous, and oblique section, three old friends let their hair down at a high-end resort, replete with a charming, young faux-Turkish masseur; and in the third, a scholar provides background on Baba Yaga myths (Baba Yaga is the witch of Slavic fairy tales). Ugresic's meditations on the attempts of aging women to avoid becoming either short-haired desexualized hags or dotty creatures surrounded by cats are worth the overly esoteric tone that keeps the characters from becoming entirely engrossing. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Expatriate Croatian novelist and essayist Ugresic (Nobody's Home, 2008, etc.) spins contemporary fiction from a popular figure in Slavic folklore. Baba Yaga is a witch who flies through the air in a mortar and lives in a house supported by chicken legs and surrounded by heads on pikes. She is a source of occult knowledge; Day, Sun and Night are her servants. She is, it goes without saying, hideouswithered and skeletal. Although she is usually depicted as a villain, Baba Yaga can also be a benefactor. The author plays with this ambivalence as she weaves the witch into interconnected stories of women living in present-day Eastern Europe. In the first section, a writer describes her relationship with her dying mother. The second portion describes three elderly friends increasingly disturbed by their ancient bodies as they try various spa treatments at a Czech resort. Both stories abound with symbols associated with Baba Yaga, and in the final section a fictional folklorist named Dr. Aba Bagay explicates the preceding narratives in an essay called "Baba Yaga for Beginners." This last bit may sound like trite postmodernism, but Ugresic is far too confident a practitioner to engage in mere posturing. (She's a contender for the 2009 Man Booker International Prize.) Her instincts as a storyteller are surethe first two sections work just fine on their ownand her scholarly postscript is both interesting and entertaining. This volume makes a nice addition to Grove's The Myths series, which also includes Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad (2005) and Alexander McCall Smith's Dream Angus (2006). A playful, inventive and humane look at women and aging. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Acclaimed Croatian writer Ugresic crafts three modern variations on the Baba Yaga legend, the witchlike character found in Slavic folklore. In the first tale, a Croatian writer makes a pilgrimage to Varna behalf of her elderly mother, hoping to act as a surrogate to renew her mother's declining memory. The outcome, however, does not provide the emotional relief that she or her mother expected. In the second version, three elderly women visit a Czech Republic resort turned wellness center. Kukla and Beba often look after the oldest in the group, the perpetually cranky Pupa, as they try out the center's varied offerings. What seems to be an uneventful trip soon evolves into a series of unexpected turns and revelations. The final story is told in essay form by the anagrammatic Dr. Aba Bagay, a folklorist who not only offers her detailed explanation of the Baba Yaga myth but also analyzes the previous tales and allusions. Ugresic's multilayered narratives come together as an exploration of femininity, identity, mortality, and folklore's wondrous powers.--Strauss, Leah Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
"What about us? We carry on while the meaning of life may slip from our hold, the purpose of a tale is to be told." In this entry of Grove's "The Myths" series (which contemporizes classical myths), Croatian novelist, essayist, and literary scholar Ugresic tells tales of Baba Yaga, a witch living in a house astride gigantic chicken legs. Baba's story is made up of three parts: a writer dealing with an ailing, removed mother, a group of women at a longevity and health spa, and an academic folklorist's interpretation of the previous stories. This is no dull academic exercise-Ugresic's style is eminently readable, and the novel is as ambitious as it is rewarding. Her strong feminist outlook transforms the otherwise over-the-top scenarios of priapic masseuses, American health gurus, and suicidal retirees engaged in malapropism. "We carry on. While life like a seal wallows in glee, the tale sails off to the open sea." Verdict Readers unafraid of the fantastic will find many surprising riches in Ugresic's work.-Travis Fristoe, Alachua Cty. Lib. Dist., Gainesville, FL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
