Reviews

Bieguni by Olga Tokarczuk

jarichan's review against another edition

4.0

"Unrast" - dieses Wort beschreibt wohl das, was viele von uns mit den letzten Monaten/Jahren verbinden. Lockdown, Reiseeinschränkungen, neue Bestimmungen... - nichts ist mehr wie zuvor. Und hier kommt Olga Tokarczuk mit ihrem Buch über das Reisen, über das Gefühl der Unruhe, der Rastlosigkeit.

Und genauso fühlt sich auch das Buch an. Man hätte diesem Werk keinen besseren Titel geben können. Wir rasen mal hierhin, mal dahin. Unterschiedliche Figuren begleiten uns. Manche länger, manche nur über einen kurzen Abschnitt lang. Dazwischen treffen wir immer wieder auf die Ich-Erzählerin (oder den Ich-Erzähler?). Alle sind unterwegs.

Dabei geht es nicht nur um Reisen um den Globus, sondern auch um Leben und Sterben. Beide jeweils eine grosse Reise. Der Tod als allerletzte. Speziell dabei: Der Tod auf Reisen.

Atemlos, hastig erzählt Tokarczuk ihre Geschichten. Bei den längeren erhalten wir eine Verschnaufspause. Aber bald schon drängt die Autorin, drängt das Buch, drängt die Unrast uns weiter. Es gibt noch viel zu erleben, zu erzählen, aufzuschreiben.

Olga Tokarczuk ist eine grandiose Autorin, ihre Kunst unvergleichlich. In die kürzesten Texte bringt sie so viel Leben und Atmosphäre, wie manch andere nicht in ganze Bücher. Ihre Texte gehen Tief. Sie ist diejenige, die einen bei einem Treffen ohne Worte anschaut, man beginnt, sich unwohl zu fühlen, weil man weiss, diese Person hat soeben die dunkelsten Ecken unserer Seelen erkundschaftet.

Ein Wunderwerk eines Buches, ein Wunderwerk einer Autorin.

biancarunswild's review against another edition

inspiring reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

estelavarella's review

informative reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

sschocking's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

3.25

sophiebillekens's review against another edition

informative reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

julibulis's review against another edition

Mintha egy nagyon rossz blogot olvasnek 

mistercrow's review against another edition

3.0

DNF. Some of it are very intriguing and other times I didn't have the focus.

maddieskye's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

borumi's review against another edition

4.0

This book reminded me of W.G. Sebald and Bruno Schulz. Could they have some cultural connection with this Polish author? Possibly, but Tokarczuk's scope of meandering seems to be much broader in both time and space and theme. I haven't expected a journey of such a capacity when I picked up this book, so I was a bit confused at first, but as I went on the strange amalgam of various viewpoints seemed to gain focus and I was hooked. This book is more like a constellation of thoughts rather than a straightforward sequence of events and I know there are people who aren't going to enjoy this kind of disjunctive narrative. I, on the other hand, have been a constant migrant all my life and not just in my physical state. If you've ever woken up in the plane or the train wondering where and when you are, or even who you are in a foreign land, you have an approximate guess of what it feels like to not belong to any specific thing yet feeling okay about it as long as you are constantly on the move. This kind of multilayered stories and meditations was familiar to me in a deja-vu kind of sense, and I found it odd how the human civilization has been constantly moving towards a direction in which we try to put boundaries around oneself and the group and stabilize it in a constant form whereas the human race, like all living organisms, has migrated and adapted to a flux of environmental changes for much more than the duration of human 'civilization'. It is also a subject of wonder when we consider the modern global crumbling of the artificial and technical boundaries. By taking us into the small rustic islands, deep anatomy labs, neglected alleys of the homeless, the wax museums and cabinets of wonders, Olga Tokarczuk takes us into the diverse and chaotic world that underlies beneath the superficial inert order and seems to scoff at the futile attempt to fool ourselves into being able to fix everything down to their designated stations and classify everything into here and there or us and them.

karinj's review against another edition

informative inspiring slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0