Just finished Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones. What a book.
About mid-way through I was ready to give it 3 stars, meaning really 2.5. It just kept going on a particular subject, I think a bit too much. Then it got better. And the ending...
I won't write spoilers in this post. This book, or rather this author, won the Nobel. This is the only book by her that I've read, so not sure how to judge. As good as Faulkner? Unsure. Definitely different. I was ready to tell everyone it's just an animal rights book. But it's more than that. Much more.
I also grabbed the audiobook version from the library because I had a long dog-walk in my future, and I was about 70% done. I wanted to use that hour, hour plus, for good. The person who read the book, Beata Pozniak, did an incredible job of reading the book, keeping the "foreign-ness" in the book, ensuring the reader understands this story took place in Poland, not in America or even "the West." One issue, though: at 100% speed, the narrator was so slow! Couldn't believe it. I had to ramp it up to over 140% and it still sounded like she was reading at normal speed. Are Poles usually slow talkers? I've known a few and they didn't seem to speak slowly...
Anyway, I'd recommend you read this. All in all, I liked it. 4 stars. Oh! And this counts toward the 2022 Books in Translation Challenge.
I did not know of this blog of yours; so glad you left the link for me! I liked Drive Your Plow Over The Bones of The Dead, and you’re right…the ending! But, I especially enjoyed Flights which I read first. And now I have purchased her work The Books of Jacob which is about a million pages long. Or so. ☺️ Something to look forward to when the Japanese Literature Challenge 15 is done.
ReplyDeleteCan you tell me more about the 2022 Books In Translation Challenge? Did I miss it in your sidebar under challenges?
Hello Bellezza! The translation challenge is here: https://introvertedreader.com/books-translation-2022/
ReplyDeleteI got Flights when it came up on Bookbub as a Kindle deal, but I read Plow first. Perhaps I'll read Flights later this year. I did more research on the woman who read the Audible and she's done some interesting films I may have to watch.
I'm going to have to look at The Books of Jacob...
I’m always impressed by readers who can listen to books…my auditory skills are not as good as visual, in that I lose a lot of comprehension while listening. It would be nice to be better at that, though, so I could listen while walking, or drawing.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link. It’s not like I need more challenges, as I already read a plethora of translated books (they’re my passion), but I would like to be aware of that challenge.
Do I understand from the DLPT that you are/were with the Department of Defense? I began my teaching career with the Department of Defense Dependents Schools in (West) Germany…
You understood correctly! DoD since 1986. First assignment was (West) Berlin. None of our kids ever did DoDDS though as by the time they were school-age we were no longer on bases with those schools, or were overseas on diplomatic assignments where those schools didn't exist.
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