New Book Alert: Cursed Beauty: Stories of Strong Women by Valentina Tsoneva; Beautiful Deeply Personal Stories of Women Repressed By Gender Roles and Soviet Era Politics

 

New Book Alert: Cursed Beauty: Stories of Strong Women by Valentina Tsoneva; Beautiful Deeply Personal Stories of Women Repressed By Gender Roles and Soviet Era Politics

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Sometimes when writing about the past, the author doesn't have to write about the big events: the battles, the revolutionaries,  or the leaders that made sweeping changes. The authors make a stronger impact by telling about these time periods from the regular people who lived during them. Those who just simply lived their lives, had families, worked, and lived in complicated times.

Valentina Tsoneva takes that perspective by writing Cursed Beauty: Stories of Strong Women, an anthology which is set in Bulgaria, largely during the oppressive Soviet Era of the 1980's.

Tsoneva portrays the lives of women living during those times, surviving issues like infidelity, unwanted pregnancies, addiction, sexual abuse, and the limited roles relegated to women in a totalitarian regime.

Truth and reality are reflected in these stories of believable women in these conflicting situations.

The best stories in this anthology are:

"Trisome Under Socialism"

The opening paragraphs alone capture the Reader by describing a situation that many women are going through. It describes Iva, a woman suffering through an unwanted pregnancy. The opening describes her abortion in great detail then flashes back to the regulations that she has to follow (discussing it with her family, obtaining permission from the government etc.). In the United States when states have restricted abortion, this is becoming a frightful reality.

Iva is also dealing with her growing feelings for Kaloian, the boyfriend of her sister, Divina. Iva is someone who because of her past is considered a "marked" woman so she is on the outside of her sister's life looking in. Divina has a happy marriage, good career, and a child of her own. She has so much more so Iva is desperate to hold on to what she has.

This story shows the impossible standards that are set when a woman is accused of stepping out of line in a rigid dictatorial society. She can be accused for life for something that happened when she was young. If she isn't considered a part of society, sometimes she has no choice but to step outside of it and live her life the best way that she can. Sometimes, that means breaking the rules over what is considered a family.

"Woman in Love"

One of the reasons that I like this short story is because an ongoing motif in the story is Barbra Streisand's 1980 pop hit,"Woman in Love," a vastly underrated song, about a woman who demonstrates her right to announce her passions for her potential love interest instead of passively accepting his decisions.

In this case the song parallels the life of Dalia. She spent most of her life being shaped by others' opinions. She didn't study in Sofia because her parents told her that it was crime infested. She obeyed her friend Ani's insistence on what to wear and how to act on dates. It only gets worse during her marriage to the critical and demanding Kosta.

Like in the song where the woman speaks about her right to love and be loved, Dalia finally finds her voice. After years of acceptance and obedience, she declares her right to be out of love and leave a marriage that is miserable and unhappy.

"Violet"

This is a strong story about the relationship between mother and daughter and how it can be fractured until death.

Similar to Dalia, Violet has mostly lived her life based on other's standards particularly her mother's. Violet's mother controlled her life, particularly during her pregnancy when she arranged the baby's adoption without consulting Violet. Violet's mother controls and dominates her life even into adulthood to the point that she has no agency until she finds it for herself.

In this case, Violet finds her agency through a career in archaeology. Her studies and time during excavations free all of the feelings and thoughts that her mother suppressed in her. Only in finding her passion and calling can she be liberated from her mother's captivity.

"Dreams"

This is a story with a first person monologue that tells not only a lot about the character speaking but the person that they are talking to.

A mother and daughter talk to each other after the daughter's divorce. The mother mostly goes into a long spiel about her own marriage. She recalls her unhappiness and her dislike for her husband. 

It's clear that the mother has bought into the whole idea of the Soviet values of marriage and enduring tough times rather than changing them. She is angry that her daughter decides to divorce her husband. However, there is an undercurrent that she may be jealous that her daughter has opportunities that she did not.

"Cursed Beauty"

Unfortunately, beauty standards are the same all over the world. Women are expected to look a certain way to be considered beautiful. Then they are told that if they conform to those standards they will become easy prey to men.

This is the situation faced by Mary as she is obsessed with making herself up and looking beautiful despite her grandmother's warning that beauty can be a curse. Unfortunately, she attracts the wrong sort of man and ends up sacrificing everything, including her beauty for him.

Mary's appearance was something that was hers that she could count on. It gave her a sense of glamor and excitement and made her unique. Her face was practically a canvas that she could practice her art on herself.

When Mary conforms to her marriage, her looks disappear. Her individuality is crushed along with her beauty and aspirations.

"Beyond Life"

This story could serve as a prologue to many of the other stories. The Narrator is a highly intelligent well read woman who falls in love with a drummer. They are embarking on a love affair just as the Narrator is finding herself through her studies.

As we have seen in the other stories, some marriages can be messy and miserable. They especially suffer when both parties don't have their own agencies and individuality. They are in danger of living a bleak rigid existence in a system that forces them to stay together despite unhappiness. 

 The Narrator is in great danger of losing what made her unique and settling for a marriage with a narcissist who expects her to cater to his every whim. The things that she loved: her intelligence, her devotion to books, her free thinking, could disappear because of the years of regimentation that holds strident views over what a woman's role should be. In a time when she is trying to discover what it means to be a woman and how she can gain her own individuality despite an oppressive government, there is a  strong possibility that she may never find out.