2019 MBI Shortlist: Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead

[Antonomasia, Admin only]

Thinking & reading more about Baba Yaga, and Janina as Baba Yaga, the book seems increasingly coherent. Baba Yaga is just as ambiguous in her moralities and roles in different legends.

[LindaJ^]

This was the only one on the short list that I had not read before the list was announced, partly because of the less than glowing reviews of some fellow members of this Group. But I must say that I liked it better than Flights. I thought there was a lot of depth to the book. But in my review, I focus mainly on the dark humor - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

BTW, I think Neil's review is great. This would made a great Coen Brothers movie.

[Robert]

I just finished the book - I thought it was great!! such a fun read.

Plus my second eco-tale in the past few days.

[Dylan]

It's clear that the reception of Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead is somewhat mixed and, having finished the book just yesterday, I'm finding it difficult to come to terms with my own evaluation.

While there are certainly meritorious aspects and ambitions which I think Tokarczuk executes well I can't help but feel that I simply didn't really enjoy this one. I found myself occasionally distracted - I was not interested in nor could I connect with the narrator (in fact, I found her somewhat grating and was completely disinterested by her astrological asides) which made for some lazy reading on my part.

I think I wanted to enjoy it more than I did, but if I'm being honest I don't think this one was for me.

On to The Remainder!

[Paul]

Dylan wrote: "I was not interested in nor could I connect with the narrator (in fact, I found her somewhat grating and was completely disinterested by her astrological asides)"

I had a similar reaction - re-reading the book I found it less successful as the narrative voice became even more grating.

[Tony]

This is probably the key point here - if you don't like the voice, you'll struggle with the book (not a lot of in-between views...). I thought it worked well, so I was on the positive side.

[Paul]

I found myself sympathising with the police, Priest and hunters (and I'm very anti-hunting generally) - which was the opposite to what the author intended, so in that sense I think the book failed on the author's own terms.

I'd contrast to the novel's stable-mate Animalia, where even as a meat-eater, it is hard not to feel uncomfortable and impacted by the book.

[Val]

Paul wrote: "I found myself sympathising with the police, Priest and hunters (and I'm very anti-hunting generally) - which was the opposite to what the author intended, so in that sense I think the book failed on the author's own terms."
I would not go that far, but I did put this in my review:
'It does not, unfortunately, work as an environmental protest; animal rights activists were often portrayed as cranks by their opponents and associations with astrology, 'alternative' medicine or Crystal Healing for Animals tend to reinforce that view.'

[Karen Michele]

I've just finished the book and I'm staring at my busy bird feeder out the window and thinking of the squirrels I feed with corn cobs, the deer that rest in our back yard (and the fawn that was actually born there last spring) and the crow family that pushed their fledgling out of the nest in the back and proceeded to care for it and feed it in our yard until and after it mastered flying. I guess I did identify with the protagonist (although not with the astrology part) and (view spoiler)[ had a sinking feeling as I began to suspect and then confirm the unreliability of her narration. I'm not that crazy, I promise! (hide spoiler)]

[Antonomasia, Admin only]

Karen, there's an interview somewhere where the translator says she identifies with her too!

[Karen Michele]

Antonomasia wrote: "Karen, there's an interview somewhere where the translator says she identifies with her too!"

Thanks! I'll be on the lookout for that one. I also want to try more of her books now.

[Antonomasia, Admin only]

Here: https://thebookerprizes.com/internati...

[Karen Michele]

Thanks for the review, Antonomasia. She sums my feelings up perfectly:

"While her approach is somewhat unconventional, there are moments when I feel inspired by her, though perhaps it would be unwise to let my passion express itself quite as freely as she does."

[Ella]

See - I just thought it was a picaresque novel with the main character that's usually male replaced by an old woman carrying plastic bags.

I also borrowed some of her "diagnoses" and used them from last October when i read this until sometime in early August when someone actually read my complete notes and not just my conclusions in a patient chart. I've since stopped because I like my job and want to keep it. But it did help prove that very few of the copious notes I'm required to write ever get read.