After having previously read Olga Tokarczuk’s book “Flights” with a book club in Paris and having rated it with 2/5 ★ I didn’t think that I would read anything else by the author after it. But here we are again, a book club in Barcelona having chosen “Drive your Plow over the Bones of the Dead” as the October 2023 pick and I decided to give the author another chance. I definitely enjoyed this one more than “Flights”, now having had a complete novel in front of me, rather than different stories loosely bound together. If you’re surprised by the length of the title, it actually was a struggle to make it a reality, as the author mentioned herself (Barry, 2020). Even though it was deemed to not sell well, the author’s publisher still gave her the freedom to keep it, as it had a distinct meaning behind it. She wanted it to have an air of detective stories whose titles were often taken from a verse, a poem, or a nursery rhyme, what Agatha Christie has already done as well. In the case here, it was taken from a William Blake poem.
If I were to simply rate the book by how and whether I enjoyed it as a piece of writing, I would settle on a rating of 3/5 ★. There were times when I wasn’t really motivated to read on and I wouldn’t have finished it as quickly if I didn’t have a deadline for a book club. When additionally considering the approached themes though, such as the treatment of animals by humans, feminism, patriarchy, religion, the question of who does or doesn’t deserve to live or to die, morality and punishments for certain “crimes”, I decided to go for the rating of 4/5 ★ instead. To start with a couple of quotes, my favorite part about the book was its style, the vivid descriptions and the way nature was presented with beautiful visual comparisons.
The Sun was dazzlingly bright, it had only just risen, and still red from the effort, was casting long, sleepy shadows.
p. 61
[…] [W]e felt as if the sky had sunk very low over the Earth, and hadn’t left much space or much air for living Creatures to survive. Low, dark clouds had been scudding across the sky all day, and now, late in the evening, they were rubbing their wet bellies against the hills.
p. 71
The clouds were so low that one could hook onto them and let oneself be carried away to a distant land, to the south, to warmer climes.
p. 73
Water was pouring from the sky and streaming from the ground – it felt as if the earth were a vast sponge saturated in cold water.
p. 75
It was raining and in the brilliant light the raindrops became long silver threads, like angel hair on a Christmas tree.
p. 78
The author definitely has a way with words and I think this talent is a great reason why it would be worth reading at least one of her books if you haven’t read anything of hers before. This story was packed with philosophical reflections, thoughts about the human body, health and illness, the feelings that dominate our daily lives, observations on life outside of cities and the society in general. The author has studied psychology herself and has worked in the field for some time (Armitstead, 2018), which becomes evident in her sensibility of the descriptions of the struggles of others.
We have this body of ours, a troublesome piece of luggage, we don’t really know anything about it and we need all sorts of Tools to find out about its most natural processes. […] The only coarse and primitive Tool gifted us for consolation is pain. […] Fancy being given a body and not knowing anything about it. There’s no instruction manual.
p. 83
Anger makes the mind clear and 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.
p. 15
[…] [T]he best conversations are with yourself. At least there’s no risk of a misunderstanding.
p. 29-30
What I really enjoy doing upon finishing a book, is researching facts about the author to understand where they might have gotten their inspiration from. Olga is known to be a vegetarian, she positions herself as a feminist and the area of Poland where she lives, Lower Silesia, is close to where the story took place. The fact that translators interested in William Blake’s poetry actually live there, adds even more reality to the story (you will know why that’s a central theme upon reading the book). Her partner works as a translator, which also finds its way into the story, with one of the main characters being involved in the craft as well (Armitstead, 2018). She also has dogs as pets, just like the main character within the story did. This explained the relevance of some parts of the narrative, for instance, how one might feel about others eating meat, how people might perceive an author or what it’s like to live with another person:
I couldn’t stop wondering what they had in their bellies. What they had eaten today and yesterday, whether they had already digested the ham, whether the Chickens, Rabbits and Calves had already gone through their stomachs yet.
p. 238
If I hadn’t known her so well, I’m sure I would have read her books. But as I did know her, I was afraid to open them. What if I found myself described in them in a way I couldn’t fathom? […] In a way, people like her, those who wield a pen, can be dangerous. At once a suspicion of fakery springs to mind – that such a Person is not him- or herself, but an eye that is constantly watching, and whatever it sees it changes into sentences; in the process it strips reality of its most essential quality – its inexpressibility.
p. 51-52
Boros’s presence reminded me what it’s like to live with someone. And how very awkward it is. How much it diverts you from your own thoughts and distracts you. How another Person starts to irritate you without actually doing anything annoying, but simply by being there. […] How do people manage to spend decades living together in a small space? I wondered. How can they possibly sleep in the same bed together, breathing on and jostling each other accidentally in their sleep?
p. 157
Other influences from Tokarczuk’s own life include the essence of the main character, which is strongly influenced by one of her neighbours (Barry, 2020) but also by the fact that both of her parents used to work as teachers (Armitstead, 2018), where she possibly got some insights about the profession. During a short interview that she gave after receiving the 2018 Nobel Prize for Literature in 2019, she explained where her interest about all things cosmic came from, her having wanted to work in that field when she was younger (Nobel Prize, 2020). This fact shines light upon all the astrological references that are included in the narrative.
Going beyond the borders of the book, it was really interesting to find out how critically it has been received in Poland and the judgement around the author as a person. It has enjoyed a wide reach, having been adapted into a film, “Spoor“, in 2017, as well as into a theater play that has toured in various countries. After the release of her previous novel “The Books of Jacob“, her publisher needed to hire bodyguards to protect her during a certain period of time because she received so many threats (Armitstead, 2018). The movie adaptation of the novel “Drive your Plow over the Bones of the Dead” was received in a similar way, having been described as “deeply anti-Christian [work] that promoted eco-terrorism” (Armitstead, 2018). The novel is available in 36 different languages at the time I was writing this review (as far as I was able to find the information online, the full list with the details can be found in the end of this review). Below are a couple of cover designs that stood out to me the most:
Even though this typically wouldn’t have been a book that I would have picked up myself, I’m glad to have stepped outside of my comfort zone. For readers who usually enjoy writing in the direction of thrillers or murder mysteries might really enjoy “Drive your Plow over the Bones of the Dead” and I believe that this would be a good book to start with in order to discover the author’s writing.
★★★★☆ (4/5)
Edition: ISBN 978-0-525-54133-2
Riverhead Books, 2019 (first published in Polish in 2009)
Sources:
Armitstead, C.: “Olga Tokarczuk: ‘I was very naive. I thought Poland would be able to discuss the dark areas of our history'” (2018). The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/20/olga-tokarczuk-interview-flights-man-booker-international. Last accessed: 13/10/2023.
Barry, I. J.: “‘Anger is Not a Bad Energy’: In Conversation with Olga Tokarczuk” (2020). Brooklyn Public Library. https://www.bklynlibrary.org/blog/2020/01/12/olga-tokarczuk-interview. Last accessed: 13/10/2023.
Encyclopedia Britannica: “Olga Tokarczuk” (2023). https://www.britannica.com/biography/Olga-Tokarczuk. Last accessed: 13/10/2023.
Nobel Prize: ” ‘Curiosity is an important motivation.’ Olga Tokarczuk, Nobel Prize in Literature 2018″ (2020). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOO1X69RcT4&ab_channel=NobelPrize. Last accessed: 13/10/2023.
Details about the languages the book is available in:
- The original in Polish (“Prowadź swój pług przez kości umarłych“)
- English
- Spanish (“Sobre los huesos de los muertos“)
- German (which has the title that has been changed the most, translating as “The Song of the bats”: “Gesang der Fledermäuse“)
- French (“Sur les ossements des morts“)
- Italian (“Guida il tuo carro sulle ossa dei morti“)
- 2 Portuguese translations (“Sobre os Ossos dos Mortos” and “Conduz o Teu Arado Sobre os Ossos dos Mortos”)
- Romanian (“Poartă-ți plugul peste oasele morților“)
- Turkish (“Sür Pulluğunu Ölülerin Kemikleri Üzerinde“)
- Swedish (“Styr din plog över de dödas ben“)
- Dutch (“Jaag je ploeg over de botten van de doden“)
- Lithuanian (“Varyk savo arklą per mirusiųjų kaulus“)
- Finnish (“Aja aurasi vainajain luitten yli“)
- Norwegian (“Før plogen din over de dødes knokler“)
- Bulgarian (“Карай плуга си през костите на мъртвите“)
- Greek (“Οδήγησε το αλέτρι σου πάνω από τα οστά των νεκρών“)
- Slovenian (“Vuci svoje ralo po kostima mrtvih“)
- Czech (“Svůj vůz i pluh veď přes kosti mrtvých“)
- Ukrainian (“Веди свій плуг понад кістками мертвих“)
- Danish (“Kør din plov over de dødes knogler“)
- Slovak (“Cez kosti mŕtvych pluh svoj veď“)
- Croatian (“Tjeraj svoj plug preko mrtvačkih kostiju“)
- Arabic (“جر محراثك فوق عظام الموتى“)
- Estonian (“Aja oma atra läbi koolnute kontide“)
- Macedonian (“Терај си го плугот по коските на мртвите“)
- Russian (“Веди свой плуг по костям мертвецов“)
- Icelandic (“Drag plóg þinn yfir bein hinna dauðu“)
- Hungarian (“Hajtsad ekédet a holtak csontjain át“)
- Hebrew (“על עצמות המתים“)
- Persian (“با گاوآهن استخوان مردگان را شخم بزن“)
- Chinese (“糜骨之壤 or 犁過亡者的骨骸”)
- Korean (“죽은 이들의 뼈 위로 쟁기를 끌어라“)
- Basque (“Erabili goldea hilen hezurren gainetik“)
- Belarusian (“Вядзі свой плуг праз косткі мёртвых“)
- Malayalam (“അസ്ഥികൾക്കുമേൽ ഉഴുതുമറിക്കട്ടെ നിന്റെ കലപ്പകൾ“)
- Sinhalese (“මරණයේ රළ නැගුම“)
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