Why this book?
I met some new Polish people in Amsterdam that said it’s a good book. After reading a bit of reviews I notices it’s not like Tokarczuk and does not touch any science topics. Good to refresh my mind a bit. Since I had a lot on my head recently I decided to pick it up
Short review
So the book is written in Polish and touches on the topic of two brothers from Oława city. At some point, one of the brothers sees St. Mary and decides to heal people with faith. The other brother is totally different, not really religious but tries to help a self-claimed healer as much as he can
The story itself is not really interesting. I found it pretty boring in some places but what I really like is the way how the author describes the reality of life in PRL. The catholic healer Henio is a character that was inspired by another faith healer from Oława which is actually not fictional. His name was Kazimierz Domański and apparently the whole character of Henryk is inspired by that person
The whole book is written in very accessible language to not just say poor. I understand it’s because the main character is from the lower class but sometimes I really felt bad while reading another paragraph with vulgar language describing women as objects
So yeah the book is vulgar in some places and sometimes when I was reading it I felt like it’s just not something I would recommend others to read
I don’t want to spoil more, if you would like to learn more about Poland during PRL and the city of Oława I think it’s good to read. If you look for something more that will give you some higher thoughts after it I think it’s not worth reading
Good quotes
Tak właśnie wygląda wymiana pokoleń w Polsce: dziadkowie harowali, rodzice kombinowali, a młodzi balują
This quote is about differences between generations in Poland. Grandparents were working really hard, their kids had to be street smart to earn money and kids of them only have fun
Kościół nie jest zbyt ruchliwą instytucją i myśli w kategoriach stuleci
This one is about how Church is approving miracles only after the deaths of the faith healers. It’s kind of preventing them from getting money out of their scam and making it harder to falsify
Miał dobre życie i straszny koniec, ale tylko to dobre życie się liczy, nic więcej, bo mało kto takie ma, a koniec jest straszny dla wszystkich bez wyjątku
The next one stands that it’s only important to have a good life as the end is horrible for us all. We all die eventually and we should focus on having as much from life as possible
Mówię panu, papier na Biblię i banknoty z tego samego drzewa się robi
I left this one as the last interesting quote from the book. It’s mentioned that paper for Bible and money come from the same tree. I found it fun because it is true