“A World Without Memory Cannot Become Bitter”

The reviewer opens with delight that the series exists, and that Mari Saat’s “Funerals and Song Festivals” exists within it. Saat, described as an unusually distinctive author, reveals more of her background and personality here than in her prose fiction, though the book does not immediately pull the reader into a fast-moving plot.

Instead, the story begins stealthily, circling its subjects before the excitement takes hold. Memory appears as both a well and a dream. The reviewer connects the book’s treatment of memory with a childhood dream about an unmarked well hidden in tall grass, and with the way rereading can make old impressions echo in new ways.

The book addresses false memory from its opening pages. Saat considers how she can remember a sleigh ride through 1950s Tallinn when such a memory should not be possible. The reviewer notes that many people carry similarly strange recollections.

Much of the book consists of dense writing. It includes descriptions of cafés, food, potato harvesting and fights between Estonian and Russian boys, but the reviewer finds the discussions especially compelling. Saat, who holds a doctorate and studied industrial planning, examines scarcity and quality with a sharp, well-read mind. One passage considers how the meaning of “quality” has changed, distinguishing absolute quality, such as a Stradivarius violin or a Kalashnikov rifle, from limited quality in products designed to last for an agreed period.

The reviewer also highlights historical details that were previously unfamiliar to them. These include the temporary removal of restricted zones in Estonia during Beria’s period, questions about what Lavrentiy Beria intended for the Baltic region, Jewish visits to synagogues across the Soviet Union in 1951 and 1952, and the aftermath of the doctors’ case. The book discusses forbidden songs sung at night during Estonian song festivals under Johannes Käbin, and asks whether the later night song festivals of the restoration of independence could have existed without that earlier prelude.

Funerals also appear as important public gatherings where Estonians could feel themselves to be Estonian, including the funeral of writer Oskar Luts in Tartu. The reviewer mentions secret public figures, authors of secret songs, and books burned or stripped of their covers to prevent them from being recognized. The supplied review ends mid-sentence as it turns to that final example.