Book Review
May. 13th, 2022 08:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariDrive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
by Olga Tokarczuk
This engaging novel is told by Janina, an eccentric older woman living in rural Poland. She lives alone, spending her time taking care of the summer cottages of the wealthy, practicing astrology, and translating Blake with her friend Dizzy. When people in her village start turning up dead, Janina has theories about the culprit and their motivations, but the authorities are not inclined to pay her any heed.
While I found the resolution of the murder mystery slightly unsatisfying, I liked everything else about this book. The rural noir atmosphere was really good. The characters are terrific in all their quirkiness and are somewhat reminiscent of the people in the darker Coen brothers movies. Janina is particularly interesting. She's clearly a Baba Yaga figure, and I liked her darkly philosophical view of the world. The way she interacts with and moves through her milieu also provides some subtle commentary on the way older women are often overlooked and not taken seriously.
Tokarczuk elegantly weaves a lot of themes into Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead. It's a glorious commentary on and slight satire of Miss Marple style mysteries. It's also a meditation on our relationship with animals and the natural world, particularly as regards hunting. The astrology element allows for the exploration not only of the concept of inevitability, but also of how the natural world has a profound affect on people, even as modern life has created a lot of distance between humanity and nature.
by Olga Tokarczuk
This engaging novel is told by Janina, an eccentric older woman living in rural Poland. She lives alone, spending her time taking care of the summer cottages of the wealthy, practicing astrology, and translating Blake with her friend Dizzy. When people in her village start turning up dead, Janina has theories about the culprit and their motivations, but the authorities are not inclined to pay her any heed.
While I found the resolution of the murder mystery slightly unsatisfying, I liked everything else about this book. The rural noir atmosphere was really good. The characters are terrific in all their quirkiness and are somewhat reminiscent of the people in the darker Coen brothers movies. Janina is particularly interesting. She's clearly a Baba Yaga figure, and I liked her darkly philosophical view of the world. The way she interacts with and moves through her milieu also provides some subtle commentary on the way older women are often overlooked and not taken seriously.
Tokarczuk elegantly weaves a lot of themes into Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead. It's a glorious commentary on and slight satire of Miss Marple style mysteries. It's also a meditation on our relationship with animals and the natural world, particularly as regards hunting. The astrology element allows for the exploration not only of the concept of inevitability, but also of how the natural world has a profound affect on people, even as modern life has created a lot of distance between humanity and nature.
