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A review by susanhecht
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
The story centers around an older, rather unhealthy, semi-retired woman living in a sparsely-populated mountain area in Poland, near the Czech border. The plot involves several deaths in her area, but the novel focuses primarily on her mental state (including her fixation on astrology), struggles with health and part-time work, relationships with a few neighbors (including a former student who she is helping translate William Blake), and her opposition to hunting near her home.
I enjoyed the experience of reading, even though the events are rather tense. I found the way the locality was portrayed to be very vivid and the mental state of the protagonist very absorbing.
Is "eco-rage" a genre? Well, this is it.
I think the way she portrays this mountain village is compelling, in that it's rather common for people who live in a WUI (Wildland Urban Interface) zone imagine themselves to be rugged outdoorsy types and identify with hunting traditions, which they justify by pointing out (often correctly) the need to provide population control for deer, rabbits, etc. But the most prominent hunters in this story were either poachers, or came from the town's elite, who drove the biggest cars and lived in relative luxury and actually killed indiscriminately and/or maliciously.
As an atheist vegan myself, I sympathized with the protagonist's views on religion and animal exploitation. I'm not into astrology, but it's fun to read sometimes, because it provides a great example of confirmation bias, which I think we're all susceptible to in certain ways.
I enjoyed the experience of reading, even though the events are rather tense. I found the way the locality was portrayed to be very vivid and the mental state of the protagonist very absorbing.
Is "eco-rage" a genre? Well, this is it.
I think the way she portrays this mountain village is compelling, in that it's rather common for people who live in a WUI (Wildland Urban Interface) zone imagine themselves to be rugged outdoorsy types and identify with hunting traditions, which they justify by pointing out (often correctly) the need to provide population control for deer, rabbits, etc. But the most prominent hunters in this story were either poachers, or came from the town's elite, who drove the biggest cars and lived in relative luxury
As an atheist vegan myself, I sympathized with the protagonist's views on religion and animal exploitation. I'm not into astrology, but it's fun to read sometimes, because it provides a great example of confirmation bias, which I think we're all susceptible to in certain ways.