The older I get the more I realize there is no such thing as a nailed on reality. Rather, a temporary stage or a set-up we get to live in and experience. I have noticed that only recently, for example, living under the new Covid-19 rules which have managed to alter our surroundings quickly and significantly. Living in Poland, I have also experienced a switch of governments – from a more liberal and democratic to a right-winged and conservative one; all the way through it has seemed like a replacement of stage decoration for a new play to be acted out. This is exactly what Margaret Atwood’s celebrated book The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) is about: the change of reality. In the novel, however, this process is extreme, absurd, outrageous. Yet, the author manages to show that it is in fact possible…
Tag: review
“Normal People” by Sally Rooney
I was gifted the book “Normal People” in December 2019 by a friend living in London. “I thought I might give you something talked about at the moment,” she said, handing me a novel with an intense orange cover and words on its top: THE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER. Sometime later, back in Poland, I spotted Sally Rooney’s “Normal People” in a popular bookstore chain on the bestseller’s bookshelf. By that time it had already been translated into Polish. Only the cover was different. Vivid blue.
The abundancy of laudable citations on its cover, as well as inside on the first couple of pages, made me decide I should read it. Such high praises, as: “At last, a gifted literary voice for a generation” or “Timeless… A classic coming-of-age love story” made me believe I’m holding a masterpiece. Finally, I read “Normal People” and can now form an opinion of my own.
“Swimming Home” – some thoughts on my latest summer read
This summer I have again immersed myself in literature. To be exact, in Modernist Polish literature. I have been reading it for sentimental reasons and to refresh and look anew at some of the books I had once covered in school. The process of restoring these novels has been fascinating, but suddenly books of the past began soaking me in, too deep, too far from today. And then, a friend popped up and gave me a helping hand. She proposed I read something miles apart – a contemporary British novel by Deborah Levy entitled Swimming Home (2011).
“Educated” – a vivid memoir of a girl who believed her own mind
Educated (2018) by Tara Westover is undoubtedly a noteworthy tribute to the enlightening experience we generally refer to as “education.” For me, however, this bestselling novel is an homage paid to something even more important – to independent, critical thinking. Ultimately, education is external and optional, whereas reasoning comes from within and can easily become obscured by schooling. The author and the protagonist of this memoir, Tara Westover, is surely blessed with the ability to think for herself.