Reviews

Baba Jaga la ett ägg by Dubravka Ugrešić

franka7's review against another edition

Nije to ono sto sam mislila da ce biti

adrnvic's review against another edition

funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The third part of the book is definitely the most dense and hardest to get through after an amazing first and second part, but the payoff is still worth it.

biorg's review against another edition

3.0

A triptych posing as a dyptych... The last part is written by a folklorist character......... While I don't see anything wrong with providing more context for Slavic mythology (maybe it'd be especially valuable to non-Slavic readers) it icked me that the author doesn't trust her readers to recall the parallels themselves. She just practically points fingers and says "see what I did here? See?" maybe a reader could reread the novel with the new eyes. But it seems like the book doesn't believe in its rereadability, so it shouts at you as you near the end x-movie-explained-youtube style.
That being said, the book gave me everything: couple of chuckles, cringe, sadness (there is dementia in the story), delight, and warm nostalgia born from recognizing familiar tales.

Oh, by the way, I've never heard the Russian tale about love and egg outside this text. Liiiikke is it real or what lol?

charloforce's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

elise_ikl's review against another edition

emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Je n'ai pas été embarquée par ce livre. Si l'histoire est originale et assez touchante et que le parallèle avec la Baba Yaga est bien trouvé, je n'ai pas forcément adhèré à l'humour ni au côté "décalé" du roman.

anaurrutia's review against another edition

5.0

Me gustó mucho. El estilo, la forma de abordar los personajes de la tercera edad y el mito de Baba Yagá, las críticas sociales... Sí, una mezcla de novela, ensayo y hasta poesía muy interesante.

lynnw's review against another edition

Not my vibe, the title sounded very intérêt but it didn't feel interessiert at all

moh's review against another edition

DNF at p. 181

vivienne11's review against another edition

funny hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.5

When the author deconstruts the text for you in the literary tradition with which we're familiar, having been trained by English teachers and lit professors, are you to breathe a sigh of relief that the hard work is done? The food pre-chewed and spit directly into your mouth? No, she won't give you that satisfaction, because she's poking fun at both the tradition and the reader who needs this specific critical lens. It isn't mean spirited by any means; it's a postmodernist work that looks at both the text and the reading of it that is seemingly effortless in its complexity and depth. The humour, often dark, shines through as you explore the vagaries of aging and the marginalisation of elderly women who have served their "accepted" purposes of child bearing and rearing. The myth of Baba Yaga is more than metaphor and comes alive in each of the protagonists. You can't escape her if you try and she's coming, just like old age, for all of us.

nerdy_reader's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny informative reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

The ending really pulled this book together for me. It was incredibly self-aware, and I was a big fan of the folklore in general. My suggestion to other readers would be to keep on reading because it’s worth it, in spite of the slowness of the first two narratives and the seeming disconnections.