Give us this day

by Janusz Głowacki

English, Polish (translation)

121 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1984

Reviews

[Chris]

I really enjoyed this first-person account of the Polish Solidarity shipyard strike in Gdansk. The writing is terse and unornamented. It reads as an account of an ordinary worker caught up in historical events and weighing his options and risks while cooperating with authorities for small personal gains or pushing for the reforms that he knows, if achieved, are far better for all.
I enjoyed the simply, unsophisticatedly-named characters such as Swarthy, Skinny, High Comrade, and Superior Comrade. The one named Walrus was surely Lech Walesa. The humor in the names of characters like Little Maly, Sloniu the Elephant, and Misiak the Bear might be lost on readers without some understanding of Slavic languages.
Give Us This Day is a sympathetic portrayal of the 99% of us who face change with our minds on the risks involved and conscious of all we stand to lose should we fail.
The translation by Konrad Brodzinski was uneven at times. The original Polish title of this book is Moc Truchleje which, according to Google Translate, means Power Trembles. I prefer the English title given; it conveys an uncertainty, yet a hope, in the outcome.
I read a St Martin's/Marek printing with a beautiful cover illustration from Andrzej Czeczot and an expressive photo of the author,Janusz Glowacki, on the back cover.

[James Cooper · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hope, faith, and love all won out in this story of how a workforce in a country can dictate the conditions of which to work by. This was pretty unbelievable in a time where workers who went out on strike could have been sent to a camp, or even worse.