Au pays des poules aux oeufs d'or par Eugène Savitzkaya (review)

The Belgian author and poet takes the reader on a dizzying journey in this fantasy-filled novel. It begins with a creation scene recalling Genesis and the opening pages of Ovid's Metamorphoses. And, indeed, the themes of creation, banishment, death, rebirth, and transformation will appear often. The refrain—"On entendait mugir la terre" (9)—reverberates and punctuates the first chapter. Savitzkaya's images and sonorities demonstrate an awe for primeval nature and life in general. The earth before humans has walking trees and rivers that sing and sculpt. An abrupt shift transports the reader to the world of fables and folk tales, particularly the Russian legends the author heard growing up. There are mermaids, orthodox priests, conniving farmers, despots, children neverlands, and a host of beasts, fish, and birds. We meet a vixen and a heron who are on a yet unspecified quest. It is La Fontaine exiled to Siberia: "La renarde et le héron s'en allaient par les steppes et les bois… Monsieur le héron aurait voulu discourir… Madame la renarde se moquait de lui" (20–21). The unlikely partners not only coexist peacefully but eventually become lovers. Savitzkaya's imagination, sense of humor, satire, and whimsy captivate and entertain. He transforms stereotypes into absurdities. A despotic ruler has a noise phobia and thus bans chickens from his domain, the "pays" (of the novel's title). Hunting from helicopters, however, is allowed. The imprisoned princess, rather than spinning and weaving, copes with her fate by literally creating insects of every variety to feed her turtledoves. One of Savitzkaya's characters overhears children talking and his observation can be applied to much of the language of this tale: "Il entendait encore leurs paroles et les interjections, les jurons, les mots tendres, les malédictions, les formulations poétiques, les blasphèmes orduriers" (65). The author, as well, exercises a verbal virtuosity, that, at times, will send the reader to a dictionary or a google search. There are lists—botanical, anatomical, zoological, ornithological—rhymes, synonyms, oxymorons, and word plays, to the point where one is unsure of or forgets where the narrative is leading. Will the princess be freed? Will eggs again enrich cuisine and the world? Will the myth of human, especially adult, superiority be dispelled? "Il était une fois. Il sera un jour" (116) is Savitzkaya's response and echoing refrain.