A review by just_one_more_paige
Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I have sort of been passively trying to meet some of the Reading Women prompts for 2021 – not as intensely as last year, but just for fun. And one of the prompts that I figured I just wouldn’t meet was to read a Crime Novel or Thriller in Translation…mostly because I just don’t read that genre. But I made a simultaneous passive goal of reading more Polish/Lithuanian literature (after Between Shades of Gray was a book club choice earlier this year). So, when I got this one out of the library, translated from Polish, and realized it was also a crime novel/thriller, I was weirdly excited to be able to meet a prompt I’d already written off. Checking things off a checklist is a super satisfying experience for this Type A reader.  
 
Janina is an old woman, living in a remote Polish village and spending her days looking after the vacation homes of “big city” residents when they aren’t around, translating the poetry of William Blake with her friend Dizzy, calculating horoscopes, and just generally getting herself the reputation of the “crazy old lady who prefers animals to people.” When bodies starting turning up dead in her village, Janina has a few very specific ideas about who is behind the murders, but no one will listen. 
 
This was absolutely unlike any thriller I’ve ever read before. I mean, it had all the “right” elements, a rural location, suspicious circumstances, evidence of shady dealings, incompetent local police and a fantastically creepy winter-in-the-woods sort of aura, but it had some incredibly unique additional characteristics. First of all, the narrator Janina. Goodness she was a hoot. A sort of quirky MC that came across like a mix of Eleanor Oliphant and A Man Called Ove – ornery and opinionated and very idiosyncratic, but with a very intelligent sort of bent to it all. Her philosophies, centered primarily around the absolute knowledge that can be gained from reading horoscopes and her fierce ideals about animals’ intelligence and humanity, all came across as incredibly peculiar, but also…kind of logical and believable? It was really interesting. I am not sure it’s a reading vibe I could have gotten through without the audiobook to help keep me moving, as it had a very theoretical and scholarly communication with a heavy lean into the [fairly on point] “everyone ignores old women” outlook, but I enjoyed the oddness of the combination in a single-serving way. (As in, I will not search out more of Tokarczuk’s work, I don’t think – or at least not any time soon – but I was bought in for experiencing it at least once.)  
 
The other thing that really set this novel apart was the rumination on the nature of life and death, in connection with the cosmos, and with specific focus on animal rights and hunting politics. Janina’s narrative POV is very clearly on the side of pro-animal rights and anti-poaching/hunting (in her view, they are one in the same, since, whether legally sanctioned or not, the animals are killed in various and mostly inhumane ways) and, I’d like to reiterate, the cerebral way she addresses it is really hard to argue with. However, as the novel progresses its clear that though her ideas are based in a solid argument, there is clear potential for her mental state to take things past the point of socially acceptable ways of communicating it. And, whether merited or not, this is where she/Tokarczuk really fall into the way(s) that society overlooks old women. It could have just been really sad and upsetting to read, and yet Janina’s voice, as well as the turns the plot takes, really throw this idea over on its head, taking advantage of this discounting, instead of wallowing in it. Though it didn’t come quite as much of a shocking twist as I maybe would have wanted, the slow-dawning realization as the plot unfolded actually fit the vibe better than a surprise development would have, so I was ok with it. 
 
Overall, this novel had a great creeping, meditative mystery vibe. It was incredibly atmospheric (I was totally transported this this rural Polish summer-vacation village) and Janina was a fantastic narrator, really pulling me into the flow of her life and story. The clever wordplay and the philosophical-ness of the writing were unique for a thriller and I appreciated that within a genre that’s not as known for it. While this wasn’t a favorite read for me, I liked some of the messages and was definitely satisfied with the way it wrapped up.     
 
“Anger makes the mind clear ad incisive, able to see more. It sweeps up the other emotions and takes control of the body. Without a doubt Anger is the source of all wisdom, for Anger has the power to exceed any limits.” 
 
“Once we reach a certain age, it’s hard to be reconciled to the fact that people are always going to be impatient with us.” 
 
“It’s easier to cope with a snowstorm than a death.” 
 
“It is as Dusk when the most interesting things occur, for that is when simple differences fade away.” 
 
“Everything will pass. The wise Man knows this from the start, and has no regrets.” 
 
“Anger always leaves a large void behind it, into which a flood of sorrow pours instantly, and keeps on flowing like a great river, without beginning or end.” 
 
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