The Empusium

 

The Empusium / Olga Tokarczuk
trans. from the Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
New York : Riverhead Books, c2024.
300 p.

Here is Tokarczuk's response to Mann's The Magic Mountain. It takes elements of his book and transforms it into a feminist horror story, of sorts. 

Mieczysław Wojnicz is a young man going to Gorbersdorf, a sanitorium/resort in the Silesian mountains. It's supposed to be a healthy atmosphere, perfect for quick healing of the tubercular. But it's so popular that there is no room in the main building, rather, Mieczysław finds himself in a guesthouse along with two old men and another young resident, Thilo, whom he befriends. They have a gruff local as their landlord, alongside a skulking servant - the only woman in the mix was the landlord's wife but she dies very shortly after Mieczysław  arrives, a situation which haunts him. 

There are many other haunting elements within this story: strange scratchings from the attic, hallucinatory mushrooms growing all around, an intermittent narrative shift to voices that can see all and drift through floors and walls, and the local legends of women who fled their homes years ago and now live mad in the woods devouring young men in season. Also the Tuntschi - reclining female figures built from twigs and leaves and moss in the woods, for the pleasures of itinerant (male) workers. 

Along with the feelings of dread, we have feelings of boredom and lack of focus among the residents; the atmosphere makes it hard for them to concentrate or really grasp the passing of time. We hear their daily routines, their meals, their petty politics and griping, as well as some of the internal struggles that Mieczysław is having. Why won't he undress for his doctor? And why does every discussion or argument between guesthouse residents end up denigrating women? Tokarczuk takes words and arguments directly from many of the "great minds" of literature, who she lists in the end, to cobble together these statements about women never being enough. 

But this fixation on dualism is upended both in discussions between Mieczysław & his doctor ("the vision of the world as black and white is a false and destructive vision") and by Mieczysław's nature itself. The ending is a breath of fresh air, the healing kind that Mieczysław  went to Gorbersdorf to find in the first place.

Like some of her other works, this one is a bit fragmentary and requires the reader to be comfortable with not knowing exactly what's going on at all times. But although it can feel slow in parts, it's worth the journey.