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m_oonmoonFirst book of the year! It didn't quite fit the season but I had a good time reading it.
Our protagonist is Mieczysław Wojnicz, a young man sent by his father to a sanatorium in the mountains to recuperate from tuberculosis. Here he consorts with other guests in the Guesthouse for Gentlemen as they wait for a vacancy in the sanatorium. The bulk of the novel involves these men's "intellectual" conversations. Their chief topic is primarily their perceived inferiority of women compared to men. No matter their initial topic, they always seem to circle back to the question of women: are they deserving of respect or not? There are some crazy takes here that would have pissed me off if there wasn't a pervading sense that Tokarczuk is looking down on these characters. This is further reinforced by Tokarczuk's author's note at the end of the novel. The author's note honestly made me laugh out loud, especially since it came completely out of the blue. All these conversations take place in an eerie backdrop, a persistent feeling that something is wrong or about to go wrong.
The novel culminates in a fantastical scene where men are forcibly lead to the the forest, pied piper of Hamelin-style, and one of them is chosen as a sacrifice to appease the spirits. I read somewhere that Tokarczuk wrote this book out of spite and the ending does feel like a revenge. After the inane drivel from these men that we are forced to read, there is some satisfaction to be got from the ending. However, much of the action comes from the latter half of the novel, which may bother some readers.
Personally, I find that there is much to enjoy even in the quieter moments of the book. Early on I found Wojnicz to be a relatable character. He has an obsession with being observed by other people, imagining that someone is looking through holes in the wall or taking note of how he moves and presents himself. It is later revealed that this obsession stems from the fear of his secret being revealed. Wojnicz is in fact intersex but presents himself as a man. His father insists on manliness and tried hard throughout his childhood to suppress Wojnicz's feminine inclinations. While outwardly he appears as a man, isn't it an almost universal feminine experience to have a man in your head observing how you look, policing how you act? Wojnicz's desire to have a more 'appetizing' life I also found to be a painfully relatable. There is a lovely scene where he comes to terms with his condition and proceeds to buy macaroons in different colors and flavors. (Of course, I am not saying that these two things are a strictly feminine experience, nor that the feminine experience can be boiled down to these, but it was relevant to my own experience. Also, I refer to Wojnicz as 'him' because that is how he is referred to in the novel, even after it was revealed that he is intersex.)
Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain has been in my to-read list for a long time. Knowing that The Empusium is a novel borne out of Tocarczuk's anger and spite towards Mann's exclusion of women makes me want to read it even more, although now I am quite positive that it won't be a good experience.
Our protagonist is Mieczysław Wojnicz, a young man sent by his father to a sanatorium in the mountains to recuperate from tuberculosis. Here he consorts with other guests in the Guesthouse for Gentlemen as they wait for a vacancy in the sanatorium. The bulk of the novel involves these men's "intellectual" conversations. Their chief topic is primarily their perceived inferiority of women compared to men. No matter their initial topic, they always seem to circle back to the question of women: are they deserving of respect or not? There are some crazy takes here that would have pissed me off if there wasn't a pervading sense that Tokarczuk is looking down on these characters. This is further reinforced by Tokarczuk's author's note at the end of the novel. The author's note honestly made me laugh out loud, especially since it came completely out of the blue. All these conversations take place in an eerie backdrop, a persistent feeling that something is wrong or about to go wrong.
The novel culminates in a fantastical scene where men are forcibly lead to the the forest, pied piper of Hamelin-style, and one of them is chosen as a sacrifice to appease the spirits. I read somewhere that Tokarczuk wrote this book out of spite and the ending does feel like a revenge. After the inane drivel from these men that we are forced to read, there is some satisfaction to be got from the ending. However, much of the action comes from the latter half of the novel, which may bother some readers.
Personally, I find that there is much to enjoy even in the quieter moments of the book. Early on I found Wojnicz to be a relatable character. He has an obsession with being observed by other people, imagining that someone is looking through holes in the wall or taking note of how he moves and presents himself. It is later revealed that this obsession stems from the fear of his secret being revealed. Wojnicz is in fact intersex but presents himself as a man. His father insists on manliness and tried hard throughout his childhood to suppress Wojnicz's feminine inclinations. While outwardly he appears as a man, isn't it an almost universal feminine experience to have a man in your head observing how you look, policing how you act? Wojnicz's desire to have a more 'appetizing' life I also found to be a painfully relatable. There is a lovely scene where he comes to terms with his condition and proceeds to buy macaroons in different colors and flavors. (Of course, I am not saying that these two things are a strictly feminine experience, nor that the feminine experience can be boiled down to these, but it was relevant to my own experience. Also, I refer to Wojnicz as 'him' because that is how he is referred to in the novel, even after it was revealed that he is intersex.)
Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain has been in my to-read list for a long time. Knowing that The Empusium is a novel borne out of Tocarczuk's anger and spite towards Mann's exclusion of women makes me want to read it even more, although now I am quite positive that it won't be a good experience.