An Absurdist Novel That Tries to Make Sense of the Ukraine War

"Stand-up comedy marches on in Ukraine, albeit in underground bunkers and with regular interruptions from air raid sirens. The comedians, most of whom now donate their earnings to the war effort, joke that they want payback from Russia for making their jobs harder: "Russia has stolen my absurdism," said comedian Vasyl Baidak in a performance in Kyiv in October 2022. He urged that "joke reparations" be added to Ukraine's list of demands when the war finally ends."

"Endling 's heroine is Yeva, a woman in her 30s who hails from Kharkiv but has spent the last few years living out of her mobile scientific lab, driving around Ukraine. Yeva is a prominent fixture of the "mail-order bride" industry (or "international dating," as these companies now prefer to be known), which at one time raked in tens of millions of dollars every year in Ukraine."

Ukrainians maintain a tenacious, dark absurdist humor amid more than three-and-a-half years of war. Stand-up comedy continues in underground bunkers with air-raid interruptions, and performers often donate earnings to the war effort while joking about 'joke reparations' from Russia. The central figure, Yeva, is a thirty-something from Kharkiv who lives in a mobile scientific lab and travels Ukraine. She operates within the mail-order bride/international dating industry, which once generated tens of millions annually. The depiction dissects the industry's mechanics—the brides commodified, matrons, and interpreters as 'lubricants of courtship'—and skewers the foreign men's bizarre idealized fantasies.

Read at The Nation