The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine

The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine
By Alina Bronsky (262 pages)
Translated from German by Tim Mohr
Published by Europa Editions
Bookish rating: 4.25

The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine is a refreshingly unique novel that is simultaneously depressing and hilarious. We begin in Soviet Russia, where our narrator, Rosa, learns her teen daughter, Sulfia, is pregnant. Despite a botched abortion attempt (forced by Rosa), granddaughter Aminat (who, Rosa realizes, is actually quite pretty and thus worth keeping around) is born. We then follow Rosa, Aminat, and Sulfia for the next 20 or so years.

Rosa is the best narrator I've read in a long time. She is absolutely unreliable, evil, controlling, convinced that Her Way is the Only Way, and she's a bit of a martyr too. Why, if something must be done right, she must do it herself. For example, as Roas meddles in Sulfia's business, straightening up her closet so Aminat "doesn't live in filth," they have this little exhange:
     "Sulfia was, as always, ungrateful. All she said was, 'Just leave it mother.'
     She even screamed at me. That was after I straightened out her wardrobe. I sorted and folded the underwear, bras, and leggings, and repaired the holes in them by hand. I did all this depsite the fact that I would rather have been watching TV or reading the paper. But she shouted at me so loudly that Aminat came to the door of the room and asked, 'Mama, are you crazy?'
     Up to then Sulfia had never shouted. She had just helplessly exclaimed, 'Mother, why? Just leave it, mother. Mother, please don't touch that.'
     I let her scream. . . . But after a few minutes I also thought that enough was enough. When I decided she had gone on long enough, I picked up my boot and hit Sulfia in the face with it." (p. 60)

So that's Rosa. Bronsky expertly gives Rosa a fabulously self-absorbed, mean, yet weirdly disarming and almost charming voice. Her observations and perceptions are depicted in such a nuanced, ironic way--the text is meaty, multilayered, and brilliantly funny. I mean, Bronksy lets Rosa convince us readers that handing over her preteen granddaughter to a pedophile is not such a bad idea, and that Sulfia is, well, rather dim-witted. We discussed this in the book club--how did Bronsky get us all on Rosa's side?

The fact that the novel--hence, Rosa's narration--is translated from German makes all the more impressive. To have a voice as clear as Rosa's via translation is remarkable. Highly recommended.