Tea Obreht’s The Tiger’s Wife is an almost idyllic story in spite of the fact that the characters have just survived the war in a no-name country that sounds like Yugoslavia.

In this post-war world, Natalia, a female doctor, adjusts to the new normal — orphans, tuberculosis, shortages just starting to let up, cities that used to belong to “us” and now they belong to “them.”

Natalia and a fellow doctor bring vaccines to the orphanage in a seaside town, meeting resistance and superstition.

I floated through the story, feeling about like I do the morning after a killer headache, when a few milligrams of ibuprofen are still wandering through me.

Things got more difficult when Obreht wove in a parallel strand. Natalia has just lost her grandfather. As she adjusts to his absence, she attempts to make sense of the stories he told her. They were tales of people who couldn’t die, or people who were pals with ferocious animals (i.e. the tiger in the title).

I don’t think grandfather meant them as fairy tales. He told them the same way you’d tell what just happened to you at Wal-Mart.

There was a lot to like about The Tiger’s Wife, but I finally wore out on grandpa’s memoirs. Natalia moves through an all-too-real world of guards who might stop her at the border. And then there were all the shortages. If grandfather always stumbled on to magic, why not Natalia? It might have come in handy when the guards hinted about bribes, or when Natalia, thanks to the trade embargoes, couldn’t buy a skull for anatomy class.

Or was beloved grandfather a crazy liar?

Maybe Obreht wove it all together into a snappy ending. If so, I’m sorry I missed it.

sugar cookie blog ready

Here’s the remedy for a disappointing book:

1) Eat a sugar cookie. Christmas-decorated cookies make a lot of troubles go away.

2) Find another book. From an author you already enjoyed. The one currently on my nightstand looks promising, so stay tuned.

SUGAR COOKIES, big batch
2 cups margarine, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. lemon extract
6 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda

In a large bowl, cream butter adn sugar. Beat in eggs, vanilla and lemon extract until light and fluffy. In a large bowl, combine flour adn baking soda. Gradually stir flour mixture into egg mixture until blended.

Chill dough (or divide in four parts, form into logs, wrap in wax paper, then tin foil and freeze for up to 6 months). Roll out dough and cut into shapes. Bake on greased cookies sheets, at 350′ for 8-10 minutes.

The big secrets are to keep from handling the dough too much with your hands, and to roll kinda thick. We frost our with Vanilla Butter Frosting and throw  sprinkles on top.