A review by jlkenneth
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk

funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

"But why should we have to be useful and for what reason? What divided the world into useless and useful, and by what right? Does a thistle have no right to life, or a Mouse that eats the grain in a warehouse? What about Bees and Drones, weeds and roses?"

3.5/5 stars. This book was like a fairy tale told by the Witch meets “Piranesu solves a murder mystery” and I gotta say, the vibes were IMMACULATE. Creepy deaths questionably being caused by animals? Gorgeous wintry prose from an eccentric old astrologer? William Blake meets existential dread? Sign me up!!

I really loved the premise, philosophy, and general feel of this book. There were several points where Tokarczuk’s writing was so powerful that I genuinely just had to put the book down and stare out the window in a sort of thoughtful fugue, (for me that’s always a win). Despite the kookishness of the narrator, there’s a sort of yearning tenderness at the heart of this story that I found extremely moving. 

"The nastiest criminal has a soul, but not you, beautiful Deer, nor you, Boar, nor you, wild Goose, or you, Pig, nor you, Dog…What sort of a world is this, where killing and pain are the norm? What on earth is wrong with us?”Mrs. Duszejko’s core argument for the good of animals is also shockingly compelling as the book goes on. It reads as moralistic in the right way. "Crime has come to be regarded as a normal, everyday activity. Everyone commits it. That’s just how the world would look if concentration camps became the norm. Nobody would see anything wrong with them.”

The core exploration of religion, God, and nature was also stunning. This was a book that took the poetry and religion of William Blake and brought it strikingly into the 21st century with a concern for climate crises and post-religious society. All in all, I loved the themes and ideas this books concerns itself with. 

Unfortunately, it fell a bit flat for me in terms of the plot, particularly toward the end of the novel. Without spoiling anything, I’ll say that I was disappointed to find the narrator to be unreliable in exactly the way you expect. For me, unreliability needs to make me read the text along a different lens once I understand what the narrator has been concealing the whole time, and that doesn’t happen here. What I suspected from the start of the novel what exactly what I got, and it caused the whole plot to feel a bit monotone in the end. Would still absolutely recommend this if you’re looking for a philosophical work about nature, love of the earth, and organized religion, even if it did fail to meet some of my expectations in the end.