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528 pages, Paperback
First published February 23, 2022
This novel is definitely a feministic must-read for it touches upon a range of topics very important to the movement all over the world – home violence, female careers, the image of woman in society. But this read has definitely much more to it. It is simultaneously a colourful portrait of interbellum Poland with a touch of suspense and a look into the bohemian society as well as a bit of enthno-imagological approach. But let’s go into it step by step.
The characters
Shall we start with focusing on the three main female characters? The first of them, Rozalia Lubowidzka is a once strong and inspired young woman of half-French and half-Polish origin broken by an unhappy marriage to a humiliating and violent husband. When a sudden murder sets her free, Rozalia finds herself on the way of self-searching and is trying to re-discover her ex-passion towards creating perfumes.
The second lady is her sister-in-law, Ada Lubowidzka, who has lived all her life in the shadow of her two brothers – Ignacy, the prominent politician chosen to be one of the sejm representatives, and Gustaw, once a military man and now a thriving doctor. After the death of Ignacy, Ada gathers all her inner strengths to fight against her domineering mother and prove that being a caring suppressed wife is not her way in life, that she can achieve much more studying law.
The third character is quite ambiguous – Zuzanna Grabińska – Ignacy’s lover who in addition has given life to his only child – Lily. Although none of the Lubowidzki family knew about her existence, the death which seems to be the trigger to all the novel’s plot lines connects Zuzanna to them very strongly. Having realized that she was reduced to poverty and misery and has no expenses to bring up Lily on her own, the woman sees no other way but to let Rozalia know about the child in a blackmailing letter and try to get some money for living.
All these three characters are relatable and vivid. All these three plot lines are interweaved and the bond gets tighter and tighter throughout the novel before in the end they turn out to be completely indistinguishable.
Rights of women
The novel discusses a lot of important sides of this issue and unfortunately most of them are not too pleasant. Starting with Rozalia’s case when the lady found herself in the hands of a true beast and had no way of fighting back. Tragically, home violence is still an issue in many countries and at this point it can’t be fully eliminated. Such as many other women our character faced the situation where she was not strong enough both physically and mentally to fight against it and all the people who observed it have chosen to overlook her suffering as they thought that such matters had to be decided between a husband and a wife and nobody else must interfere. It’s amazing how many people nowadays still believe this lie.
However, the author masterly refers Rozalia’s feelings when she was inside this situation and couldn’t find the way out, her emotions after her husband’s death and her long and stony way of rehabilitation from the trauma.
The other topic concerning women rights is connected with another character – Ada. The author depicts her fight for the equality in education and at work between male and female members of society. Sadly enough, the phenomenon of “glass ceiling” appeared the very moment when women achieved the right to get education and jobs. Again and again, she faces misunderstanding, ridicule and even proper aggression, the men and even some women trying to stop her from building a career and to persuade her that the only “decent” way of life for “a proper lady” is that of a self-sacrificing wife and a devoted mother. Ada doesn’t deny that she wants to build a loving family as well but at same time tries desperately to show others that it’s neither her only nor a prioritized wish.
The author doesn’t forget to mention the suffrage movement in the XX century Poland which was active during the whole interbellum period – from 1918 up to 1939. The novel is set in the middle of 1920s and this period was actually chosen purposefully. As one can understand, the suffragists have existed for almost 10 years by that time and have achieved quite a lot. In fact, law-wise Poland was a very modern and advanced country, it was one of the first states to give women the right of vote and made marital rape illegal. The author’s main point is to show that although legally women became more socially secured, in didn’t necessarily help to change their lives in reality. Poland still had a long way to go.
Not everything connected with women is so dark and depressing. The author also shows another type of women – brave, strong, independent and creative. Such are Rozalia’s aunt Klara and her friend Tamara Łempicka. The former is a successful editor of an educational magazine for women, the latter – an outstanding modernist artist. Both are active participants of the suffrage movement of that period and both are self-made women. In fact, they are totally opposed to our main characters, for all of them are living the life of La Boheme, giving no consideration to the society’s opinion and having their way in every little detail of their life, yielding to any sudden temptation they might have.
In contrast to them, our main characters are less unbuttoned but none the less decisive. The ladies are looking for a way to combine their appetence for romance and family love with the strong aspiration for personal realization.
Interbellum Poland
The period chosen by the writer was generally unstable and restless. Poland was experiencing a revival when, after 123 years of occupation, it finally became independent with the end of the WWI. Miscellaneous political parties kept fighting for the parliamentary influence, moreover Poland was simultaneously engaged in several military conflicts. Both internal and external policy was changeable and inconsistent. The country desperately needed an idea, a common cause to unite it and unfortunately wasn’t able to find it. All that lead to the military coup d’état in 1926 organized by Marshal Józef Piłsudski, which is presented in the book.
The author criticizes the political figures of the time using the image of Ignacy Lubowidzki who embodies everything that a decent politician shouldn’t be. Not only he contradicts his own statements in parliament by his behaviour in real life, but also too often uses his power for personal benefits. The peculiarity of this character is that he is an off-stage personage. The reader never actually gets to meet him and the image is created exclusively through memories and contemplations of other characters. This makes Ignacy look not like a proper character but rather like a generalized type, presenting features of many important figures of the time.
Easy to guess, this difficult period was full of riots, protests and social problems. The novel mentions all those events here and there, creating a deeper historical context and the atmosphere corresponding to the period. The writer doesn’t also forget the national issue which was as topical as ever. Influenced by the ideas of fascism that was experiencing a rise in many European countries and torn into pieces by inner troubles, Poland’s society was feeling acutely the presence of many foreign diasporas in it, including the largest ones – Jews and Ukrainians. The result of this tension can also be seen in the novel.
One of our heroines, Rozalia, is also a part of this topic. A French woman, raised within French culture finds it very difficult to fit into Polish society and suit the demands of a Polish husband. France in this novel is in fact opposed to Poland, as it is seen by the characters as a land of progress and freedom, while Poland in many ways turns out to be less advanced and more constrained. Nevertheless, most of them feel patriotic and doesn’t want to leave the native land in search of a better place, they want to bring changes to it and build the Poland that they would be happy in.
I’ve met some reviews that blame this book for being a “read for women”, but in my opinion it’s definitely not. It’s a very decently written historical novel with a great atmosphere, vivid characters and a lot of important topics to discuss. I do hope it is going to be translated into English some day for it’s a very good book for those who want to get acquainted with Polish culture and literature.