a new favourite.
magical, surreal, confusing, somehow imperfect and perfectly tied up at the same time.
at once traditional and full of female rage, an uncanny fascination with christianity and with everything superstitious, absolute blasphemy and absolute reluctance of atheist sentiment, devilish and cruel yet tender and lovely. mocking soviet bureaucracy and lack of imagination employing an absolutely unjust supernatural force. so very russian in its nature and humour, but i cannot pin it down.
the beauty of it all, i absolutely sank into this story. it is the first physical book i have read in a long time and it reminded me of why that is the most magical thing i have ever known in my life. i put it away for some reason 20 pages before the end and once more had a hard time coming back to it, so i must have forgotten so much, but i flew back into its magic so easily.
i want to fly over moscow on a broom and break the glass (ceiling).