(24/09/22)
I am aware that I give little chance to authors from my own region – whether Slovak or Czech. That's why I'm very pleased by the fact that when I reached for a book from such an author, not only was it "not bad", but I absolutely loved it. I had a need to read it whenever I could and after finishing it, I took a break from reading for a few days, because it stayed so strongly in my thoughts that I didn't want to replace it with something else. I wanted to continue running with Dora through the woods and villages and search for the fates of the goddesses.
But I already knew their fates and the book was finished and closed. With regret, I finally put it back on the shelf and started looking for other works by Tučková, because few people convinced me so quickly. But that doesn't mean it was an easy read, and that it won't put someone off. However, it was all the layers of the story and the different styles of its presentation that kept me hooked. I also enjoyed administrative and official documents, which can seem intimidating, especially with the amount of them that there is – but while drinking tea I could always pretend that I was really rummaging through the archives and figuring things out together with Dora. I enjoyed the author's writing style, I enjoyed the theme of goddesses and Dora's life, I enjoyed the sad display of systems and their functioning, and one of my favorite historical topics appeared as well – Nazi Germany and its sick obsession with Old German mythology. I also stopped looking at all the other cultures for a while and became more interested in my own, because Kateřina showed me that fascinating things can be found in our region as well. The story is dominated by strong female characters throughout, which is another plus. When it all comes together, each layer of this story had something that I was interested in and together it made a compelling work. So much so that the more than four hundred pages were not enough for me.
A piece of my own nostalgia appeared while reading, which connected me to the book even more firmly. I often thought of my grandmother and her memories of “kopanice region” – our Slovak ones. And a few fragments of my own memories, of meadows and horses and old houses where streams flowed behind them, of villages in the hills, of those people living there and their peculiar natures. Also memories about how we used to go together with my grandma to collect herbs for winter teas. And then I would think of my own mother, her garden and her constant gathering of plants and grasses and their dried forms, which she then transforms into beautiful works. In our capital city, in the apartment, I am a little separated from this part, and yet I have a garden on the balcony, where I always remember my village when I collect tomatoes or go to smell mint leaves late at night. Maybe we really all have it in us – that bit of witchcraft and wild nature.
However, the book is not an easy read when it comes to its content either. There is cruelty – mainly from human to human – black magic, evil, oppressive systems and tragic fates, family troubles, envy and malice, superstition and paranoia. And yet, or perhaps because of it, it is all so very human. With all the bad that we carry with us and spread around, and with all the good as well – help, determination, love, strength to face fate, care and sacrifice. Several times I felt tears in my eyes, a few times I smiled or was amused, sometimes it hurt, sometimes it gave hope. And it often left a kind of inner emptiness, when one wished something would turn out differently, but could only accept the way it happened. As it happens in life.
The whole book was like a walk through the night woods. Unsettling and fascinating, filled with the sounds of wildlife and perhaps the distant light of a cottage in the distance. But whether you will find inside it an old witch or a healing goddess and what she will give to you... that you have to find out on your own.
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