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The Elephant and the Polish Question: and Other Stories
The fall of the Berlin Wall and the overthrow of Communism in Eastern Europe form the backdrop for this interlinked sequence of short stories. They provide an affectionate and humorous portrait of a Poland in which politics and history are played out through the psyches of individuals.
350 pages, Paperback
First published December 4, 2009
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April 12, 2015
It was hard to decide what rating to give this. Barring some strange grammar from time to time, it is beautifully written and deeply evocative, telling the story of the author's time spent in Poland before and after the birth of her first child. By nature it is episodic, but it also describes the arc of her relationship with her boyfriend as well as that of her relationship with Poland.
My problem was with the latter relationship. She claims to love the country: I'm quite happy to accept that she does, but nothing she describes explained that love - in fact, the Poles came across as inhospitable, bigoted, greedy, nasty people, determined that they should have suffered more than anyone else in the world and that there was nothing to be done to improve their corrupt, backward, impoverished country. I actually had to stop reading at one point as I know quite a number of Polish people and felt that her compelling writing was making me look at them differently, less sympathetically. In the end she seems only to have moved to Poland to avoid living in Thatcher's Britain, which makes her in one respect at least very much like the Poles she is criticising.
I'm glad I read the book as it taught me more about 1980s Poland, but I'm still left a bit confused by the book itself.
My problem was with the latter relationship. She claims to love the country: I'm quite happy to accept that she does, but nothing she describes explained that love - in fact, the Poles came across as inhospitable, bigoted, greedy, nasty people, determined that they should have suffered more than anyone else in the world and that there was nothing to be done to improve their corrupt, backward, impoverished country. I actually had to stop reading at one point as I know quite a number of Polish people and felt that her compelling writing was making me look at them differently, less sympathetically. In the end she seems only to have moved to Poland to avoid living in Thatcher's Britain, which makes her in one respect at least very much like the Poles she is criticising.
I'm glad I read the book as it taught me more about 1980s Poland, but I'm still left a bit confused by the book itself.
Displaying 1 of 1 review