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Will is a young American ad executive in Paris. Except his agency is a front for the CIA. It's 1959 and the Cold War is going strong. But Will doesn't think he's a warrior-he's just a good-hearted Detroit ad guy who can't seem to figure out Parisian girls. Zoya is a beautiful young woman wandering les boulevards, sad-eyed, and coming off a bad breakup. In fact, she impaled her ex on a spike. Zoya, it turns out, has been a beautiful young woman for hundreds of years; she and her far more traditionally witchy-looking companion, Elga, have been thriving unnoticed in the bloody froth of Europe's wars. Inspector Vidot is a hardworking Paris police detective who cherishes quiet nights at home. But when he follows a lead from a grisly murder to the abode of an ugly old woman, he finds himself turned into a flea. Oliver is a patrician, fun-loving American who has come to Paris to start a literary journal with the help of friends in D.C., who ask for a few favors in return. He's in well over his head, but it's nothing that a cocktail can't fix. Right? Add a few chance encounters, a chorus of some more angry witches, a strung-out jazzman or two, a weaponized LSD program, and a cache of rifles buried in the Bois de Bologne-and that's a novel! But while Toby Barlow's Babayaga may start as just a joyful romp though the City of Light, it quickly grows into a daring, moving exploration of love, mortality, and responsibility.… (altro)
I'm dissatisfied with the ending but I very much enjoyed this visit to post war Paris with the witches. The chicken and the egg may have been my favorite part. ( )
This book was definitely a slow start, but once I got into the story I was swept away by Barlow's intriguing cast of characters and helter skelter plot. Most triguing for me (unsurprisingly) was the pair of witches whom the book was named after. The babayags of Eastern European myth and legend have always been an interst of mine, because they seem outside the realm of witches who populate Western European folktales; they are neither truely good nor bad, and are ever content to live their lives according to their own rules until someone disturbs them. Barlow has taken this pair (Elga and Zoya) far from the steppes and forests of Russian to the streets of post-war Paris, and yet the witches do not last long before they are entangled in plots with the CIA and the French police. Of course, it is partially their own fault for causing a murder most foul, but their encounters with the CIA are entirely by chance (or at least not of their own doing, since there'sa group of scientists bent on discovering the witch's source of power and immortality). The final scenes of the book are seemingly anti-climactic, since all of the characters return to their respective routines rather than gaining much dramatic character change, but that seems to be Barlow's point about any story involving the babayagas. They may enter as a whirlwind of change, but some things in this world (including map-cap magic) are meant to stay a constant. ( )
A highly entertaining collision of cold-war espionage hijincks, slightly melancholy Parisian romance, and a gritty style of supernatural witchery. Imagine Mad Men invaded by Gregory Maguire's Elphaba. If we had half-stars this would get 3 & 1/2. ( )
A highly entertaining collision of cold-war espionage hijincks, slightly melancholy Parisian romance, and a gritty style of supernatural witchery. Imagine Mad Men invaded by Gregory Maguire's Elphaba. If we had half-stars this would get 3 & 1/2. ( )
Dati dalle informazioni generali inglesi.Modifica per tradurlo nella tua lingua.
Man hunts and fights. Woman contrives and dreams; she is the mother of fancy, of the gods. She possesses glimpses of the second sight; and has wings to soar into the infinitude of longing and imagination. The better to count the seasons, she scans the skies. But earth has her heart as well.
—Michelet
Women must tell men always that they are the strong ones. They are the big, the strong, the wonderful. In truth, women are the strong ones. It is just my opinion. I am not a professor.
—Coco Chanel
Dedica
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Dedicated to Richard Peabody & Rob Stothart, both poets & teachers & good, honest men
Incipit
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Time was bothering Zoya.
Citazioni
Ultime parole
Dati dalle informazioni generali inglesi.Modifica per tradurlo nella tua lingua.
Will is a young American ad executive in Paris. Except his agency is a front for the CIA. It's 1959 and the Cold War is going strong. But Will doesn't think he's a warrior-he's just a good-hearted Detroit ad guy who can't seem to figure out Parisian girls. Zoya is a beautiful young woman wandering les boulevards, sad-eyed, and coming off a bad breakup. In fact, she impaled her ex on a spike. Zoya, it turns out, has been a beautiful young woman for hundreds of years; she and her far more traditionally witchy-looking companion, Elga, have been thriving unnoticed in the bloody froth of Europe's wars. Inspector Vidot is a hardworking Paris police detective who cherishes quiet nights at home. But when he follows a lead from a grisly murder to the abode of an ugly old woman, he finds himself turned into a flea. Oliver is a patrician, fun-loving American who has come to Paris to start a literary journal with the help of friends in D.C., who ask for a few favors in return. He's in well over his head, but it's nothing that a cocktail can't fix. Right? Add a few chance encounters, a chorus of some more angry witches, a strung-out jazzman or two, a weaponized LSD program, and a cache of rifles buried in the Bois de Bologne-and that's a novel! But while Toby Barlow's Babayaga may start as just a joyful romp though the City of Light, it quickly grows into a daring, moving exploration of love, mortality, and responsibility.
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(3.62)
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