As I was leaving Arizona to move to Poland, a friend gave me two books about my new home, one was James Michener’s historical novel, Poland. I must admit that I didn’t start it right away.
I’d been leery of Michener’s writing ever since a senior officer in Ed’s squadron recommended Michener’s Iberia to me when we arrived in Spain in the early 1980s. I checked out Iberia from the base library and renewed it a couple of times.
I could not for the life if me get into the book. It remains to this day, one of the few books I’ve started and not finished. As I recall, the book starts with the formation of the geographic land mass that is the Iberian peninsula. There was no dialogue. I work on it for days and was never rewarded with any characters or conversation, ugh!
It was a relief when I finally did open Poland to find people and conversation waiting for me in the first few pages. The story opens with a government official negotiating with farmers about production during the Soviet times.
Then we’re whisked back into the past, to medieval Poland, a land of magnates and serfs. We follow families rich and poor through hundreds of years of history. It was an amazing history lesson!
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Key points that I took away:
- Polish kings were not Polish, and they were elected!
- Serfdom was a form of slavery
- Poland saved Europe and Christianity by defeating the Turks in Vienna
- Poland ceased to exist, it was taken over by neighboring countries
- Very brave people risked their lives to keep the Polish language alive
- Poles persevere, there was no giving up
If your family is Polish, you may think these are things everyone knows, but I certainly didn’t learn them in school.
Michener spent four years doing research before he published Poland in 1983. He met with historians, scholars who could tell him about Polish music and other arts, military experts, and clergy who could speak about the history of the church in Poland.
In the end I was glad that I had spent some time in the country before reading the book. It helped me to “picture” things, and knowing a few Polish phrases that were tossed about like Pan and Pani made me feel like I was in on the secret. In case you’re interested in Poland or world history, I highly recommend this book to you.
Pozdrawiam,
Lois
kat newkirk
i loved this book i went through 3 copies! i need to look for a fourth! LOL
it matched up very well with what i learned at my grandmother’d kitchen table.
polishhousewife
Oh, Kat, this is so good to hear! I wanted to think with his very detailed research that I was getting a good history lesson. That the novel matchs up with what your grandmother taught you, just confirms it!
I found it interesting when he described a popular hairstyle with the Polish magnates, shaved sides with sort of a short Mohawk; it was all the rage with the young Polish men when we lived there. What’s old is new again.
kat newkirk
one of the nicest things about this book is that he detailed the lives of the peasants as well as the nobility. the poor are so often ignored, yet kinga and queens and popes ans princes could do nothing if not for the peasants’ hard work!
polishhousewife
So true!
Julie Kenkel
I’m half Polish, but it’s my best half! My great-grand parents on my mom’s side immigrated to the US from Prussia in the late 1800’s. Both her mom and dad’s families came from near the Gdansk area. I loved reading this book and being able to imagine what life must have been like for my forebears and then to be able to visit Poland on a guided tour by you and Ed! Well it is one of my, all time, favorite trips of my entire life. I honestly believe, no matter where your ancestors come from, that if you do not descend from royalty, that somewhere back in time, some of your ancestors were serfs or slaves or indentured servants of some sort or another. That was the only way to stay alive, and so I try to live a life that honor’s all who have gone before me and suffered and worked to keep our gene pool alive. On a side note, all of my maternal grandmother’s family disappeared during WWII. I can only imagine what befell them.
polishhousewife
I’m so happy that this was one of your favorite trips because you, my friend, have traveled so much of the world!
kat newkirk
there is another historical novel you might like- ‘Jadwiga’s Crossing by Aloysius A. and Richard J. Lutz. it’s about how our great-grandparents made the journey from Poland to America.
polishhousewife
I’ll check it out; thanks!
Diana Lis
Kat Newkirk, do you know the time period of ‘Jadwiga’s Crossing’?
polishhousewife
This has some info on the book, Diana:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/990501.Jadwiga_s_Crossing
kat newkirk
set in the 1880’s, it starts near Gdansk and the first few chapters talk about life in a Polish fishing village, then the voyage in a sailing ship, that’s as far as i’ve read so far but Jadwiga is wonderful!