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pineconek 's review for:
Swimming in the Dark
by Tomasz Jedrowski
Prepare yourself for the most biased review ever.
So this book meant so much to me for so many reasons. Firstly, I'm deeply familiar with this time in Polish history, but secondhand. My parents are exactly of the main characters generation, also participated in the resistance, and also left Poland in the early 80s. My parents lived in Wroclaw and grew up near there, and I've been to Warszawa, the Tatry, Rabka, and know exactly what the author is describing.
And then to have this book be written in English by someone like me (whose strongest language is English but who speaks Polish fluently) felt so precious. It's not something I ever experienced.
But then to have it be a book about same sex love, loneliness, and identity? And for it to pay gorgeous homage to Giovanni's Room (pokój Janusza...), another five star read from earlier in the year? I'm breathless and my little heart feels so seen and connected and like it's been through something electrifying.
This book is sad, political, melancholic, lonely, beautiful, and feels so familiar in the best of ways. A lot of that has to do with the person I am and the significance of this time in Polish history to me - but also the accurate depiction of the challenges of same sex love within a Polish historical context, which is something our community continues to struggle with. Anyway, I'm having a lot of emotions. I came to this book expecting the emotions and I was not disappointed. I'm so close to this material that I can't even recommend it appropriately - it just feels so perfect to me.
So this book meant so much to me for so many reasons. Firstly, I'm deeply familiar with this time in Polish history, but secondhand. My parents are exactly of the main characters generation, also participated in the resistance, and also left Poland in the early 80s. My parents lived in Wroclaw and grew up near there, and I've been to Warszawa, the Tatry, Rabka, and know exactly what the author is describing.
And then to have this book be written in English by someone like me (whose strongest language is English but who speaks Polish fluently) felt so precious. It's not something I ever experienced.
But then to have it be a book about same sex love, loneliness, and identity? And for it to pay gorgeous homage to Giovanni's Room (pokój Janusza...), another five star read from earlier in the year? I'm breathless and my little heart feels so seen and connected and like it's been through something electrifying.
This book is sad, political, melancholic, lonely, beautiful, and feels so familiar in the best of ways. A lot of that has to do with the person I am and the significance of this time in Polish history to me - but also the accurate depiction of the challenges of same sex love within a Polish historical context, which is something our community continues to struggle with. Anyway, I'm having a lot of emotions. I came to this book expecting the emotions and I was not disappointed. I'm so close to this material that I can't even recommend it appropriately - it just feels so perfect to me.