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3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I recently saw someone dismiss this book because they were able to guess who the murderer was within the first couple of pages. That reader missed the point. The narrative tension in Drive Your Plow comes not from wondering who the killer is, but from knowing who it is and wondering how the rest of the story is going to unfold, particularly as circumstantial evidence stacks higher and higher.
This book was fierce, fun, and thoughtful. All that kept it from absolute perfection were the final two chapters. I think Tokarczuk would have been wise to leave more to the reader’s imagination as she had done so effectively throughout the rest of the novel. The scene break on page 249 in my edition would have been a lovely place to stop. Thereafter it begins to wade into HBO limited series territory.
Definitely recommended. I look forward to tackling more Tokarczuk.
This book was fierce, fun, and thoughtful. All that kept it from absolute perfection were the final two chapters. I think Tokarczuk would have been wise to leave more to the reader’s imagination as she had done so effectively throughout the rest of the novel. The scene break on page 249 in my edition would have been a lovely place to stop. Thereafter it begins to wade into HBO limited series territory.
Definitely recommended. I look forward to tackling more Tokarczuk.
concubant, pyknische, kobold, Sudetenmormel, reu, valenki, soutane, kansel, sjasliek, karbonade, kruipden, cucujus haematodes, aasplompkever, falconet, tafonomie, boleet, hansop, sybarytisch, soutane, superplie
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
I started this one with a bang and ended with a whimper.
I was immediately smitten with the quirky old lady, the nicknames, the animals, the mystery, the strangeness. But somehow all of this lessened, in the end I felt alone, like all the quirkiness subsided and the nicknames characters ran away. Leaving only the old lady and myself, disillusioned.
I was immediately smitten with the quirky old lady, the nicknames, the animals, the mystery, the strangeness. But somehow all of this lessened, in the end I felt alone, like all the quirkiness subsided and the nicknames characters ran away. Leaving only the old lady and myself, disillusioned.
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
This did not do it for me. The reveal of the killer was disappointing and you could see it from a mile away. It felt incredibly cheap to have the "mystery" revolve around the fact that the narrator was simply omitting her role as the killer from her telling of the story. There was no compelling reason given for her to make this omission. I think it would have been better, thematically, if the killer was not revealed and remained a natural mystery. Not sure how that could quite be pulled off, but the whole thing sort of ended in a nothing.
I have complicated feelings about the prose. I really liked that certain improper nouns were capitalized and I thought that made the narrator's voice really stand out. But I was reading a bit about Polish grammar and it seems that many improper nouns get capitalized in that language depending on the sentence structure. So leaving this capitalized was probably a brilliant decision on the part of the translator, but it made me a bit sad to find it was probably not a strategy the author used to give the character more depth.
That said, I was just not very impressed by this narrator. I encounter this type of lady every day living in Northern California.Considering what this character ends up doing—three killings!— , I would have expected more digging into what it is making her tick and the contradictions inside of her, and generally just more grit and ugliness inside her. That's not really what we got, and I found it lacking.
The story is very fun to read though, and the nature imagery is very bleak, which I really liked.
I have complicated feelings about the prose. I really liked that certain improper nouns were capitalized and I thought that made the narrator's voice really stand out. But I was reading a bit about Polish grammar and it seems that many improper nouns get capitalized in that language depending on the sentence structure. So leaving this capitalized was probably a brilliant decision on the part of the translator, but it made me a bit sad to find it was probably not a strategy the author used to give the character more depth.
That said, I was just not very impressed by this narrator. I encounter this type of lady every day living in Northern California.
The story is very fun to read though, and the nature imagery is very bleak, which I really liked.
mysterious
slow-paced
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I expected a mystery from Drive Your Plow, but this is much more of a character study. In this way, the translation of Tokarczuk’s prose does a great job at embodying its eccentric protagonist, but I found the story’s presentation to be one-note and its ending predictable.