Review of 'Drive Your Plow Over The Bones Of The Dead' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Very impressive translation
Hardcover, 274 pages
Published Dec. 17, 2019 by Rverhead Books.
Drive Your Plow Over The Bones Of The Dead
4 stars
(60 reviews)
With Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, Man Booker International Prize-winner Olga Tokarczuk returns with a subversive, entertaining noir novel. In a remote Polish village, Janina Duszejko, an eccentric woman in her sixties, recounts the events surrounding the disappearance of her two dogs. She is reclusive, preferring the company of animals to people; she’s unconventional, believing in the stars; and she is fond of the poetry of William Blake, from whose work the title of the book is taken. When members of a local hunting club are found murdered, Duszejko becomes involved in the investigation. By no means a conventional crime story, this existential thriller by ‘one of Europe’s major humanist writers’ (Guardian) offers thought-provoking ideas on our perceptions of madness, injustice against marginalized people, animal rights, the hypocrisy of traditional religion, belief in predestination – and caused a genuine political uproar in Tokarczuk’s native Poland.
Review of 'Drive Your Plow Over The Bones Of The Dead' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Fun novel. I can't say it blew me away but the voice of the protagonist was entertaining. The use of Blake's poetry was evocative and I'm sure there is much to say here about the marriage of heaven and hell but I am not up enough of my Blake scholarship to make very many connections.
Review of 'Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead' on 'GoodReads'
5 stars
Tokarczuk cleverly disguises a story about obsession, singular ideas, patriarchy, grief and Anger inside a funny and touching narrative of rural life in Poland, near the Czech border. The narrator, Mrs. Duszejko, is a frail old woman, derided and belittled by her neighbours as she launches tirades about the evils of hunting. Her neighbours cannot understand her point of view and choose to ignore it in most cases. When the animals seem to be rising up and murdering people in the night, her Astrology-inspired theories begin to hold sway.
The book is frighteningly perfect in its dark humour, and the execution is flawless.
Review of 'Drive Your Plow Over The Bones Of The Dead' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
I'm giving up at 40% and still counting it as read since it was so painful to get this far. Some of the prose in parts sparkles with a grumpy edginess, so at least 2 stars; but more than half the book so far are unhinged PETA-terrorist rants and glorification of astrology. At "young people have a religious zeal believing in statistics" I gave up. Too bad I listened to the audiobook so I can throw this piece of garbage into a corner.
Review of 'Drive your Plow over the Bones of the Dead' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Ich war zwischendrin versucht, fünf Sterne zu vergeben, schon weil die Geschichte aus einer (zumindest für meine Leseverhältnisse) sehr seltenen Perspektive erzählt wird, nämlich von einer astrologiegläubigen alten Frau. Was ich auch immer sehr zu schätzen weiß, ist die späte Darreichung von Informationen, die schlechtere Autorinnen auf den ersten beiden Seiten untergebracht hätten. Den Schluss im "ich habe euch alle hier in der Bibliothek versammelt"-Stil fand ich dann aber ein bisschen zu glatt.
Review of 'Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
4.5 stars
A compelling story and intriguing story about injustice, animal rights, feminism, corruption and hypocrisy, especially in traditional religion. Tokarczuk writing is distinctive and original, dark and witty, and Antonia Lloyd-Jones has done a remarkable job in capturing the sensitive and melancholic prose in the English translation.
