Bluebeard’s Egg

Autor: Margaret Atwood
Titlu: Bluebeard’s Egg
Editura: Vintage, London, 1998; 288 pagini; 40 RON
Nota data de mine: *** si jumate (din 5)

Bluebeard’s Egg a fost publicata prima oara in 1983 si reuneste 14 povestiri asemanatoare ca tematica: relatiile dintre femei si barbatii alaturi de care traiesc ele; doar patru povestiri se indeparteaza un pic de tema principala, fiind mai degraba autobiografice si analizand relatiile mama-fiica.

O carte despre femei, deci, desi in doua sau trei povestiri Atwood le da glas si personajelor masculine, invitate sa-i exprime punctul de vedere. Povestirile sunt scrise ca niste studii detaliate ale psihologiei personajelor – cu precizie si fara ocolisuri stilistice.

Femeile din Bluebeard’s Egg se confrunta cu situatii mai mult sau mai putin dramatice. Una dintre ele are un sot mohorat si surmenat si nu are curajul sa-l intrebe daca ea este de fapt problema; o alta ii intretine pe cativa poeti, care isi castiga respectul de sine facand misto de ea; o alta e fericita ca sotul ei e extrem de prost, dar descopera ca el e cel smecher.

Povestirile care mi-au placut cel mai mult sunt Uglypuss, The Sin Eater si Scarlet Ibis. In prima, o femeie ajunge sa ii faca rau pisicii fostului ei prieten si sa se intrebe daca a devenit ea insasi o fiara. In a doua, un barbat descopera ca toate femeile din jurul sau se subtiaza si risca sa dispara. In ultima, o sotie se straduie sa-si inveseleasca sotul, dar singurul moment in care el e fericit e in timpul unui accident, cand are prilejul sa arunce apa afara dintr-o barca in curs de scufundare.

Ce mi-a placut: personajele si intamplarile ar putea sa fie reale, iar Atwood analizeaza fiecare „caz” cu o precizie care te face sa intelegi de ce oamenii ajung in situatii in care viata lor li se poate parea viata unor straini. Autoarea distruge ara mila micile iluzii care ii pot impiedica pe oameni sa isi dea seama pe ce se bazeaza relatiile lor cu partenerii de viata sau cu parintii.

Ce mi-a placut mai putin: stilul lui Atwood e foarte impersonal, lipsit de empatie, impiedica implicarea emotionala a cititorului in povestiri. Bluebeard’s Egg e o carte impersonala, iar unele intamplari pot le para banale cititorilor care nu s-au confruntat cu evenimente asemanatoare.

Un citat din prima povestire din volum, Significant Moments in the Life of my Mother:

One of the great amusements for the girl boarders and the sons of the family was amateur theatre. Young people – they were called „young people” – frequently performed in plays which were put on in the church basement. My mother was a regular actor. (I have a stack of the scripts somewhere about the house, yellowing little booklets with my mother’s parts checked in pencil. They are all comedies, and all impenetrable.) „There was no television then,” says my mother. „You made your own fun.”

For one of these plays a cat was required, and my mother and one of the sons borrowed the family cat. They put it into a canvas bag and drove to the rehearsal (there were cars by then), with my mother holding the cat on her lap. The cat, which must have been frightened, wet itself copiously, through the canvas bag and all over my mother’s skirt. At the same time it made the most astonishingly bad smell.

„I was ready to sink through the floorboards,” says my mother. „But what could I do? All I could do was sit there. In those days things like that” – she means cat pee, or pee of any sort – „were not mentioned.” She means in mixed company.

I think of my mother driven through the night, skirts dripping, overcome with shame, the young man beside her staring straight ahead, pretending not to notice anything. They both feel that this act of unmentionable urination has been done, not by the cat, but by my mother. And so they continue, in a straight line that takes them over the Atlantic and past the curvature of the earth, out through the moon’s orbit and into the dark reaches beyond.

Meanwhile, back on earth, my mother says: „I had to throw the skirt out. It was a good skirt, too, but nothing could get rid of the smell.”

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