Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead - Olga Tokarczuk

in #fiction10 months ago


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I found this book too interesting to put down,so here are my thoughts. First and foremost, the novel being situated in such a strategic place seems like a very good investment to twist the many events, especially for mystery novels, without sounding too forced. I don't know if there's a special significance in choosing it or if the author is personally connected to it. Also, I suspected her to be the killer in the first few chapters, but I essentially wiped out my suspicion in later chapters and thought it would take some supernatural turn (which I don't know if it would fit the book more than the actual one), but to my surprise, my initial suspicion was correct. Although I do think I would have liked if the last murder of the president and spraying the beetle pheromones didn't work for me, it felt like it was done for the sake of uncovering the final boss. Anyway, I was also not on board with the police commander's method of murdering. I know she has said that she was a national champion in hammer throwing, but considering her age and since no description of her practicing any sport , I was not fully convinced if bashing a huge chunk of ice can make them fully dead. Also, I was kind of shocked that Boris took so much risk by giving shelter to Janina at last; I didn't expect it.

Now, what I loved the most would be how individualistic the author has made the MC, Janina: her peculiar habits, her quirky humor, her pseudo-philosophical, and sometimes actually philosophical, thoughts—from the animals to her female ancestors to people's feet and death. She personally names people as per her feelings about them, capitalizing random nouns to make them seem more bold and dominating, like proper nouns. She isn't the pinnacle of a likable character, but she makes a hell of a good unreliable narrator. Also, I found it pretty interesting to see that even though she wasn't religious, she was pretty obsessed with astrology. If I recall correctly, we never get to know why she likes astrology so much and when she started practicing it. I suspect she introduced us to astrology to make her animals killing people notion seem more solid, as if it's a supernatural phenomenon.

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