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chirson's review against another edition
3.0
I received the ebook copy of this book courtesy of the publisher and NetGalley. All my opinions are my own.
I actually ended up reading both Priceless and its original, Bezcenny, side by side. Much of my reading experience became dedicated to tracing discrepancies and changes, and I feel like I should write two reviews, because to my mind, Priceless and Bezcenny are not the same book. But let's leave that for later. For now, just Priceless.
I had some minor issues with the novel, but on the whole, enjoyed it and found it quite unputdownable. It's an enjoyable action-adventure-crime romp that very much calls to mind Joanna Chmielewska in plot and theme and - to a lesser extent - in style. Aside from occasional missteps (related to characters' sexist actions and words being ignored or, on the contrary, extolled), there is good characterisation and fast plot to enjoy, and great use of historical detail.
Unfortunately, as I was reading, I came across a passage I found quite clunky and so I decided to compare the translation to the original... and discovered that the discrepancy was vast and gaping. The fragment I was confused by referred to Lisa, one of the characters, speaking in broken Polish. This was barely evident in her English dialogue - a lot of the humour was lost, and sometimes this led to loss of meaning, too. But the problem was deeper - it turned out this translation was in fact an abridged version of the original. Whole scenes and passages were missing in the final English-language text. Some of it was, frankly, for the better - a half-page aside about sexy lady who happened to be a little person (with zero bearing on the plot), a group of funny but less-than-important treasure hunters or vaguely-possibly-antisemitic parts disappeared giving the reader a leaner and more focused end result (and tigers changing into lions were definitely a step-up, since tigers CAN run in the snow). I get that. But some of the cuts gave us an inferior result. A lot of them concerned Polish politics, apparently considered too obscure for the international audience. Some were clearly about saving space, though I'd say Zofia calling Alice Munro's writing pretentious is quite different from her complaining about Munro but alsoCormac McCarthy and Roth. And why was the same necessary for scenes of conflict between the characters, giving us relevant insight into their motivation? Why did Zofia's grandfather have to have his plotline altered (to enable the editor to cut ~20 pages, I assume)? I ended up feeling a little cheated - I know translations can take liberties, but I must say I wasn't familiar with the practice of delivering a translation that's possibly 10% shorter, and avoids a lot of detail that makes the original what it was - a novel in argument with political and historical issues, so many of which end up expunged, resulting in a bowdlerised edition.
And I must insist that I found the translation of Lisa's dialogue to miss the mark quite a lot throughout the text. It wasn't funny, or match characters' reactions, quite simply.
Since I was reading an ARC, perhaps some of these problems disappeared from the final product. But I must say this didn't really give me much hope for the quality of translations from Polish to English. If you can, do read this in Polish.
I actually ended up reading both Priceless and its original, Bezcenny, side by side. Much of my reading experience became dedicated to tracing discrepancies and changes, and I feel like I should write two reviews, because to my mind, Priceless and Bezcenny are not the same book. But let's leave that for later. For now, just Priceless.
I had some minor issues with the novel, but on the whole, enjoyed it and found it quite unputdownable. It's an enjoyable action-adventure-crime romp that very much calls to mind Joanna Chmielewska in plot and theme and - to a lesser extent - in style. Aside from occasional missteps (related to characters' sexist actions and words being ignored or, on the contrary, extolled), there is good characterisation and fast plot to enjoy, and great use of historical detail.
Unfortunately, as I was reading, I came across a passage I found quite clunky and so I decided to compare the translation to the original... and discovered that the discrepancy was vast and gaping. The fragment I was confused by referred to Lisa, one of the characters, speaking in broken Polish. This was barely evident in her English dialogue - a lot of the humour was lost, and sometimes this led to loss of meaning, too. But the problem was deeper - it turned out this translation was in fact an abridged version of the original. Whole scenes and passages were missing in the final English-language text. Some of it was, frankly, for the better - a half-page aside about sexy lady who happened to be a little person (with zero bearing on the plot), a group of funny but less-than-important treasure hunters or vaguely-possibly-antisemitic parts disappeared giving the reader a leaner and more focused end result (and tigers changing into lions were definitely a step-up, since tigers CAN run in the snow). I get that. But some of the cuts gave us an inferior result. A lot of them concerned Polish politics, apparently considered too obscure for the international audience. Some were clearly about saving space, though I'd say Zofia calling Alice Munro's writing pretentious is quite different from her complaining about Munro but alsoCormac McCarthy and Roth. And why was the same necessary for scenes of conflict between the characters, giving us relevant insight into their motivation? Why did Zofia's grandfather have to have his plotline altered (to enable the editor to cut ~20 pages, I assume)? I ended up feeling a little cheated - I know translations can take liberties, but I must say I wasn't familiar with the practice of delivering a translation that's possibly 10% shorter, and avoids a lot of detail that makes the original what it was - a novel in argument with political and historical issues, so many of which end up expunged, resulting in a bowdlerised edition.
And I must insist that I found the translation of Lisa's dialogue to miss the mark quite a lot throughout the text. It wasn't funny, or match characters' reactions, quite simply.
Since I was reading an ARC, perhaps some of these problems disappeared from the final product. But I must say this didn't really give me much hope for the quality of translations from Polish to English. If you can, do read this in Polish.
rpmiller's review against another edition
4.0
Plenty of mystery in this book, about art, about relationships, about spycraft, and more. My favorite episode was the chase across the frozen Baltic just outside Stockholm. A Ferrari station wagon (supposedly a real thing) with four unlikely occupants being chased by three ATVs on ice with a nearby cruise ship, shots fired, spins, drifting wheels, and apparently a US commando team doing the chasing. I actually was laughing so hard it was difficult to keep up the pace of reading even though I had to know how it would end. The ending was excellent, too, but I won't spoil it.
florunia's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.75
To mógłby byc bardzo dobry letni blockbuster. Taki od którego wymaga się jedynie ładnej, znanej obsady i ~2h czystej rozrywki, czy to oglądany w kinie czy na kanapie.
Ale to książka. Niestety niezbyt porywająca. Tzn, początek/prolog był intrygujący, ale potem nic się nie działo. Ruszyło trochę znowu około połowy i niby się toczyło ale nie bez dłużyzn.
Bohaterowie ciekawi w teorii ale wypadli średnio. Doktor Zofia ma bardzo irytujący zwyczaj do wygłaszania wykładów. Karol to "fajny luzak z furą" a Anatol to typowy "zmęczony życiem policjant/detektyw (tu wyjątkowo agent) z niszczęśliwym życiem osobistym". Najciekawsza jest Lisa, super złodziejka w mocno średnim wieku, ale nie wgłębiamy się w jej postać za bardzo.
Ogólnie - dłużyła mi się, do bohaterów się nie przywiązałam, nie sądzę żebym sięgnęła po koleją przygodę doktor Zofii Lorenz.
reubend1ca9's review against another edition
3.0
Recommended if you like the TV show Crossing Borders. Follows a team of European specialists as they track down art stolen by Nazis and uncover a historical secret much bigger!
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