THE POLKA: What’s Riveting in Polish Literature by Anna Blasiak. MARTA HERMANOWICZ and her delirious KONIEC, that is end
A disclaimer first – I have just translated an extensive extract from this novel. And, as always happens, translating forced me to read deeply, perhaps more deeply that I would have otherwise. I was sucked in completely, taken on a rollercoaster ride through these hypnotic pages. The entire thirty-nine chapters of the book (the number is not coincidental) are written as one long stream of consciousness – there are no breaks for dialogue, no respite from this mad journey. The reader has no choice but to keep the pace, to follow the story, however disjointed it may seem at first.
It takes a while to start piecing that story together. The main protagonist, Malwina, is on her way to her hometown in western Poland to visit her grandmother, Lotka, who has fallen ill. The link between Malwina and her grandmother has always been a particularly strong one, albeit somewhat strange – the love between them is always mixed with hate and disgust, and quite openly, unashamedly so. What’s more, Malwina seems to dream Lotka’s dreams, again and again. Which is how we learn the story of Lotka herself, of her family in Volhynia in the 1940s and their forced journey to Siberia (cattle wagons and barracks, ever-present hunger, lice and bedbugs, slave work in the taiga). And the trauma of war does not go away, it is not limited and does not disappear with the people who have survived it; it is passed on to the next generations, in this case to Malwina. The girl (and then the young woman) is broken, her identity is fractured, even her accent has an unexplained Russian lilt. She experiences mystic visions, talks to the burning bush and Jesus on the cross. She is destructive and self-destructive. All she wants is death – she wants to die, lost between herself and her grandmother’s dybuk.
In an interview about writing this book, her debut, after work and at night, Hermanowicz states that while she did extensive historical research, she wanted to let the subconsciousness come to the fore, to lead the creative process. I think she succeeded – big time. End reads very much like one long piece of automatic writing in which one word or phrase often triggers another and another, only adding to the feel of an unhinged rollercoaster ride with some surreal switches thrown into the mix.
‘I walk along a street and I can see you better than you can see me. Each of you a tormenter. I know what you are capable of. I assign, count off. A looter, an arsonist, a snitch, a rapist, a thief. Among the nations of the world. On a silent night. Get up, miscreants, God is not born. Tell those who were used to fertilise the soil that good always wins. Supposedly each of you carries a spark inside, supposedly you were created for good and truth as much as for murdering. Textbooks are full of statues of heroes, decapitated demigods. Dates of battles, exterminations, nights of the long knives, starless nights when blood soaked into the ground not at all furtively. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto millions and billions. You have done it out loud. With lights on. The digits merge, travel deeper and deeper in, fade away, quieten; Roman, Arabic, as good for counting bread as for counting bodies of enemies.’
What a book!
By Anna Blasiak
(The extract was translated in cooperation with the Book Institute as part of the Sample Translations ©POLAND programme.)
Read previous posts in The Polka series:
THE POLKA: What’s Riveting in Polish Literature by Anna Blasiak. WE HAVE NEWS!
THE POLKA: What’s Riveting in Polish Literature by Anna Blasiak. FOUND IN TRANSLATIONS AWARDS
THE POLKA: What’s Riveting in Polish Literature by Anna Blasiak. The Chameleon that is DANIEL ODIJA
THE POLKA: What’s Riveting in Polish Literature by Anna Blasiak. MAŁGORZATA LEBDA has it all
THE POLKA: What’s Riveting in Polish Literature by Anna Blasiak. JOANNA BATOR and her bears
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