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inga_lara's review against another edition
4.0
Svipmyndir úr pólsku samfélagi með sterkum mannlýsingum frá löngum blaðamannsferli höfundarins. Skrifaðar af miklu innsæi og samkennd með ólíkum örlögum fólks. Hvort heldur það eru farandverkamenn með hálftómar samanreirðar töskur, sem hvergi ná að festa rætur, unglingsstúlkur með brunnar tennur í smáþorpi sem þrá það eitt að flytja burt til borgarinnar eða móðir sem bilast þegar einkadóttirin gengur í klaustur án þess að kveðja. Líka margar kátbroslegar lýsingar á aðstæðum og atburðum. Vel skrifaðir og lýsandi textar.
avibrantmind's review against another edition
informative
sad
slow-paced
2.0
I picked up this short collection of essays while visiting family in Poland, hoping to catch a glimpse of the country my parents grew up in. The author, a journalist, captures a particular era with his observations, but the essays often feel like rambling lists, lacking context and coherence. The short, jagged sentence structure leans more toward the lyrical than the clear. Often, midway through an essay, I found myself wondering what the point was. Kapuściński inserts himself into the places and stories he describes, yet maintains a distance that left me questioning why these moments were deemed worth writing about. Though this collection has received praise, I found it challenging to connect to that time and place as I had hoped.
bigbigi's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
_dilliam_william's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
3.5
This book was really good fun! Not much to say about it to be fair other than that everyone should read it!
It’s super short, super simple, it’s to the point and I love the style. I feel like it’s a pretty faithful translation. Even with my tiny knowledge of Polish it just mirrors the rhythm of the language super well.
Some of the lines in this book are just gorgeous and there are stories in here that have kept me thinking all day.
I want to read more of what Kapuściński has written, and I plan on revisiting this book again in the meantime and annotating it. There’s just so much to be found in this book about Poland, people, and the art of writing.
seedwa's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.25
Kapuściński lives up to his hype as Polands most well regarded journalist. Whereas Western journalism is so deterministic, he has a way of writing that arcs around the indents people leave behind, the impression of the way things move and feel. I love that this selection focuses on Polish life, although I will say that sometimes I feel he is missing context on certain aspects of peasant Polish life. They are still masterful, even more so for how true and realistic they are while contending against Soviet censorship. An icon ❤️