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Allusion is not Illusion
You'll pry my books off my cold, dead body. By the time you shift them all I'll be flat and dessicated.
Currently reading
Winter's Tales
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Already Dead
The Rings of Saturn
Lady Audley's Secret
Unequal Protection: How Corporations Became "People" - And How You Can Fight Back
The City, Not Long After
You Can Sketch: A Step-by-Step Guide for Absolute Beginners
Lonely Werewolf Girl
Intriguing! This story of an old woman eternally searching for the Christ Child whom she passed up the opportunity to see at the nativity is new to me, and apparently subject to debate. The cover claims it is a "Russian folktale" but Russian reviewers are unfamiliar with it and suggest it is Polish or perhaps made up by Mikolaycak. I'm more inclined to believe the doubters as the story didn't seem to quite work for me, but that may be a flaw in the retelling. A woman called Babushka (although she appears youngish in the early panels) who is famous for her housekeeping smells cinnamon one night and steps outside to see the Three Wise Men on their way to find baby Jesus. They invite her to come with them. Naturally she doesn't know what they're talking about so she declines and goes to bed. The next morning she is overcome with an obsessive desire to follow them and goes running off down the road. Naturally she doesn't and ends up wandering the earth for all eternity, dispensing the occasional treat to a tot to make up for never giving a gift to the Christ Child.
Sounds like a big downer to me, although the tone of the book is more explanatory. Is Babushka being punished for prioritizing housekeeping over religion? That seems kind of unfair since she had no way of knowing what was going on. If not, why does she live forever? It's like some elements of the Martha story got mixed in with the Wandering Jew. Odd story, pretty illustrations.