The Women's Decameron

Ten Leningrad women quarantined in a maternity home for ten days pass the long evenings trading anecdotes on subjects like love, farcical sex, seduction, rape, revenge, good deeds, and happiness. The women range from "bigwig," engineer, secretary (Voznesenskaya's Everywoman) to dissident's wife and tramp. The tales, seemingly collected by Voznesenskaya during her own time in a labor camp, offer a funny, pathetic view of unfamiliar aspects of Soviet daily life. They also depict conditions known all too well worldwide: women as victims of male lust and scapegoats for frustrated ambition and claustrophobic living conditions. The protagonists' earthy good sense, mutual respect, and valiant optimism transcend the artifice of the form and unify a hundred anecdotes into a compelling book well worth reading.