Eia Uus
Auteur de Tüdrukune
Œuvres de Eia Uus
Minu Prantsusmaa 1 exemplaire
Minu Prantsusmaa elu nagu sirelivein 1 exemplaire
Étiqueté
Partage des connaissances
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Membres
Critiques
More Pygmalion than Lesbian
Review of the Postimees Kirjastus paperback edition (2019)
40-year-old Lilian walks home at dawn singing the lyrics to the Estonian popsong Tüdrukune (diminuative of the Estonian word "tüdruk" (girl) so would translate as "girly" or "little girl") after meeting and becoming infatuated with 20-year-old Mona the night before. Lilian had just been laid off at her previous PR job and had on the spur of the moment joined some younger people at a birthday party and then out clubbing as well. Afterwards, Lilian gets a new job as campaign manager for a female Prime Ministerial candidate and she starts an affair with a mentor. Lilian has suffered abuse and harassment in the past and is undergoing treatment for it.
Some back and forth social media flirting with Mona follows and then an encounter which indicates they are both bi-curious. Mona re-enters Lilian’s life more permanently for a reason that is unexplained until the very end. During the course of all this there are some very frank descriptions of sexual activity and abuse and harassment. Occasionally this diverts into the situation of the female political candidate and the double standard of her having to be extra careful in her campaign and personal life due to what her (mostly) male opponents will use against her.
Tüdrukune has some notoriety and is a popular contemporary novel in Estonia with at least 3 print runs (as of my copy which i sourced a few months ago). Partly this is due to its sometimes shocking content in a country that until roughly 30 years ago was living under a totalitarian dictatorship with strict censorship. its marketing campaign with the striking cover art by designer Jan-Christopher Soovik would certainly have contributed to its breakthrough.
it was the cover especially that first drew my attention. The cover asks is the woman being erased or cancelled in some manner? She is presumably looking in a mirror (a hair brush is in her hand or perhaps someone else’s) but what is she seeing vs. what is the world seeing? All of these factors made it intriguing.
Once you start to read it, there is the growing tension of what is each seeking in the other’s friendship? Will Mona turn out to be a grifter and is she planning to scam Lilian at some point? is Lilian grooming Mona or does she see in her the child she never had or herself as a young person? Lilian does attempt to mold Mona in several areas such as her cultural knowledge and education and it becomes a Pygmalon relationship and certainly not one of exploitation. Mona resents the manipulation however and that creates its own tension.
I enjoyed Tüdrukune for its raising of all of these issues and tensions even if some are treated only very briefly (e.g. the political campaign). I’ll admit to some bias as Lilian recommends the book Sweetbitter (Magusmõrkjas in its Estonian translation) to Mona, a book that I also really enjoyed, also for its allusion to the poetry of [author:Sappho|59712]. The traveling art exhibit Âmes sauvages. Le symbolisme dans les pays baltes (Wild Souls. Symbolism in the Baltic States) at the KUMU Art Museum is visited at one point. Arvo Pärt, my favourite composer, has a cameo mention, which gets this into the List of Books with Fictional Characters Who Love Arvo Pärt. These all put Tüdrukune into the 4-star rating group for me.
Other Reviews (In Estonian, turn your web translator on)
Bold and provocative "Girly" from Eia Uus at Portail.
"Girly" tells the story of harassment honestly at Ajakiri.… (plus d'informations)
Review of the Postimees Kirjastus paperback edition (2019)
The yellow moon stretches in the sky.
I whistle quietly in the dark streets.
Snoring sleep both deceitful and faithful.
To me alone belongs a miraculous night.
All the houses and trees look enchanted.
In the enchantment of spring,
tomorrow's work will be forgotten.
I wear only a shirt, but I'm not cold.
Laughing, I run again into the morning.
A lovesick fool is not tarnished by the weather.
Oh, my girl.
Into tomorrow, which greets the land,
I'll enter completely as a girl. - Translated excerpt from the lyrics of Tüdrukune (2006) by Tanel Padar & the Sun.
40-year-old Lilian walks home at dawn singing the lyrics to the Estonian popsong Tüdrukune (diminuative of the Estonian word "tüdruk" (girl) so would translate as "girly" or "little girl") after meeting and becoming infatuated with 20-year-old Mona the night before. Lilian had just been laid off at her previous PR job and had on the spur of the moment joined some younger people at a birthday party and then out clubbing as well. Afterwards, Lilian gets a new job as campaign manager for a female Prime Ministerial candidate and she starts an affair with a mentor. Lilian has suffered abuse and harassment in the past and is undergoing treatment for it.
Some back and forth social media flirting with Mona follows and then an encounter which indicates they are both bi-curious. Mona re-enters Lilian’s life more permanently for a reason that is unexplained until the very end. During the course of all this there are some very frank descriptions of sexual activity and abuse and harassment. Occasionally this diverts into the situation of the female political candidate and the double standard of her having to be extra careful in her campaign and personal life due to what her (mostly) male opponents will use against her.
Tüdrukune has some notoriety and is a popular contemporary novel in Estonia with at least 3 print runs (as of my copy which i sourced a few months ago). Partly this is due to its sometimes shocking content in a country that until roughly 30 years ago was living under a totalitarian dictatorship with strict censorship. its marketing campaign with the striking cover art by designer Jan-Christopher Soovik would certainly have contributed to its breakthrough.
it was the cover especially that first drew my attention. The cover asks is the woman being erased or cancelled in some manner? She is presumably looking in a mirror (a hair brush is in her hand or perhaps someone else’s) but what is she seeing vs. what is the world seeing? All of these factors made it intriguing.
Once you start to read it, there is the growing tension of what is each seeking in the other’s friendship? Will Mona turn out to be a grifter and is she planning to scam Lilian at some point? is Lilian grooming Mona or does she see in her the child she never had or herself as a young person? Lilian does attempt to mold Mona in several areas such as her cultural knowledge and education and it becomes a Pygmalon relationship and certainly not one of exploitation. Mona resents the manipulation however and that creates its own tension.
I enjoyed Tüdrukune for its raising of all of these issues and tensions even if some are treated only very briefly (e.g. the political campaign). I’ll admit to some bias as Lilian recommends the book Sweetbitter (Magusmõrkjas in its Estonian translation) to Mona, a book that I also really enjoyed, also for its allusion to the poetry of [author:Sappho|59712]. The traveling art exhibit Âmes sauvages. Le symbolisme dans les pays baltes (Wild Souls. Symbolism in the Baltic States) at the KUMU Art Museum is visited at one point. Arvo Pärt, my favourite composer, has a cameo mention, which gets this into the List of Books with Fictional Characters Who Love Arvo Pärt. These all put Tüdrukune into the 4-star rating group for me.
Other Reviews (In Estonian, turn your web translator on)
Bold and provocative "Girly" from Eia Uus at Portail.
"Girly" tells the story of harassment honestly at Ajakiri.… (plus d'informations)
Statistiques
- Œuvres
- 8
- Membres
- 18
- Popularité
- #630,789
- Évaluation
- 4.2
- Critiques
- 3
- ISBN
- 7
Review of the Kirjastus Postimees paperback (Coptic bound) edition (September 2021)
This is an especially beautiful book not only for its memoir and generous photograph contents about exploring the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, but also for its actual bookbinding design and layout by Angelika Schneider which allows its contents to "breathe", in the author's words.
Eia Uus is both a fiction and travel writer. I read her recent novel Tüdrukene (Girlie) (2019) earlier this year and enjoyed it quite a bit. I learned about her book Kirjad Buenos Airesest (Letters from Buenos Aires) after its crowdfunder was already closed and I sourced it from an Estonian book store website. Reading that its design was by Angelika Schneider was an especial draw as I was familiar with the beauty of her open spine Coptic bindings from previous books issued by the Arvo Pärt Centre (e.g. Arvo Pärdi tintinnabuli-stiil: arhetüübid ja geomeetria, In Principio: The Word in Arvo Pärt's Music, Arvo Pärt: Vaikusest sündinud, etc.)
Uus lives for several weeks in Buenos Aires, at various apartments, visiting bookstores and a literary festival, meeting fellow writers, perpetually searches for coffee in a city where everyone drinks mate, observes tango dancers and even attends a dancing class, chats with strangers in restaurants, reads local writers and does her own writing in letters and notebooks. She assembled these into a book during the first year of the pandemic when she could no longer travel. The result is a wonderfully evocative picture of a city and its people.
One of the montage sets of photographs used in the book's crowdfunding campaign. Image sourced from Hooandja
Trivia and Links
The publication of Kirjad Buenos Airesest was supported through a campaign at the Estonian crowdfunder Hooandja. The campaign page with a video (Estonian language) and showing a selection of photographs from the book can be seen here.
Various bookstores are visited and pictured including:
El Ateneo Grand Splendid.
Eterna Cadencia.… (plus d'informations)