A review by irismaybooks
Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk

dark emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This was just an absolutely stunning read. Despite being labelled as a mystery fiction book, I'd say this is actually more literary fiction with mystery sprinkled in, but either way it was very gripping and it held me the whole way through. 

This novel is quite serious, it explores subjects relating to disability, conservatism, age and specifically the treatment of older generations, religion and general discrimination of those who do not have traditional ideals. Despite these serious elements, it was at times a rather humorous read and it was a lovely break from the harsher nature of the writing and in my opinion, very well timed within it. 

Mrs. Duszejko was such a forceful character in all the best ways, pulling you into her view and forcing your head in the direction of seeing her exact worldview which was utterly brilliant when it comes to gripping a readers interest. She was also interesting in the sense of portraying what life is like to live with a chronic illness, and how her vegetarianism impacts her life and how she sees the world and the people living within it - even how the way these people interact with the nature around them forms her opinions of them. 

This book is absolutely riddled with humanity and even without great in depth monologues of Mrs Juszejko's emotions, it was easy to find yourself empathising and feeling all her love, sorrow, joy and anger alongside her. Her fascination with the cosmos and how astrology maps out a persons life was such an interesting component of her life, and as someone who does not believe in astrology, it was so riveting to read and understanding her justifications for these beliefs was rather compelling, too.

The writing itself was absolutely stunning, Tokarczuk has such an amazing mind and understanding of the world around us, and Lloyd-Jones has done such a beautiful job with her translation I cannot help but be incredibly grateful for her doing this so an entirely new audience can enjoy this also. I have a few stand-out quotes from the novel, which I will include at the end for my own interest, but hopefully if anyone is intrigued by this book they will see these and see the beauty in them. They are beautiful as standalone sentences, but within this world Tokarczuk has crafted they are utterly dazzling and absolutely perfect.

I think my only gripes with the book is that it was first person, and she uses apostrophes instead of quotation marks for speech. This gave me a slower start than I would have liked, but once I had managed to get over these little problems - which are entirely personal preferences when it comes to the literature I read - it was just one of the best books I think I have ever read. 

Pg. 61

They really were the people from the well - they'd fallen into it long ago and arranged their lives at the bottom of it, thinking the well was now the entire world. 

Pg. 67

But as the Fall is the beginning, can we possibly fall even lower?In any case, I know the date of my own death, and that lets me feel free.

Pg. 105

How great and full of life the world is.

Pg. 116

I cannot be someone other than I am. How awful.

Pg. 178

Everything will pass.The wise Man knows this from the start, and has no regrets.

Pg. 218

He laughed, because for him it was unimaginable - he was entirely geared towards the Sun, like a sunflower. 

Pg. 224

To my mind, the word 'priority' is just as ugly as 'cadaver' or 'cohabitee'.

Pg. 225

How wonderful - to translate from one language to another, and by so doing to bring people closer to one another - what a beautiful idea.