Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead

If you love strange books, a grim atmosphere and strong-opinionated weird little old ladies, this book is for you!

Olga Tokarczuk, the author, is a renowned Polish writer, winner of the 2018 Nobel Prize and a clinical psychologist. Yes, that means the characters in this novel are fascinating!

The Plot

“Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead” starts with Janina Duszejko, a 60-ish old lady living in a small, isolated village in Poland. She was an English teacher, passionate about her work, an animal lover, and a recluse who didn’t actually like people too much. She read William Blake and created Horoscopes for people she knew in order to understand their fate.

When Mrs. Duszejko’s two dogs go missing and some of her neighbours start dyeing in suspect conditions, she starts sending letters to the police with surprising suppositions about their death.

The neighbours happened to be hunters and around the place of their death, there were a lot of animal prints – specifically deer.

Of course, that means the deer were the murderers, right?

Her idea was that the deer were, in fact, seeking revenge on their hunters. The police don’t go along with her theories, and the school’s headmaster, from where she thought, feels it’s actually time for her to retire completely.

However, Mrs. Duszejko is stubborn and no one can convince her she is wrong.

Themes

Animal versus Human Life

Powerful imagery of the dead strikes you and stays with you. Whether images of dead people or dead animals, they are equally powerful and shocking. That is one of the great things about this book!

It makes you think about how we value the life of people more than that of animals, based on no real argument that it is, in fact, more valuable.

When almost everyone views cruelty towards animals as normal, going to the authorities about this cruelty turns you into a laughing stock, when your complaints are dismissed or ignored, society tells only one message: animal life doesn’t matter.

Value of Old People

I could almost hear his thoughts – to his mind I was definitely a ‘little old lady’, and once my accusatory speech was gathering strength, ‘a silly old bag’, ‘crazy old crone’, or ‘madwoman’. I could sense his disgust as he watched my movements and cast (negative) judgement on my taste. He didn’t like my hairstyle, or my clothes, or my lack of subservience. He scrutinised my face with growing dislike.

“Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead”, Olga Tokarczuk

The quote reveals exactly how authorities view old people in many corners of the world. From irrelevant, but someone who you can indulge a little, to someone annoying if they actually express an opinion different than yours. In either case, there is no respect there.

My Thoughts

Mrs Duszejko surprised me a lot. She was fearless! She inspired me so much to love and observe nature! She was quirky and opinionated and very certain of herself. Of course, she had a lot of oddities… all great characters do.

I spent most of the novel thinking she was some weird, Polish, feminine Hercule Poirot, but she was better!

Her introspective nature made me agree with her reasoning. Why couldn’t it be possible for deer to finally band and seize the opportunity to kill their hunters? It was only logical!

The other characters in the book are seen through her eyes, so they all give weird vibes: Oddball, Big Foot, Black Coat or Good News. They don’t have names, but Mrs. Duszejko knows everything there is to know about them anyway – she knows their horoscope, which means she can predict everything about them.

What we call them is a summary of their essence, as Mrs. Duszejko thinks or imagines it to be.

This was my first book by Olga Tokarczuk, but it won’t be the last. She created the perfect eerie atmosphere, away from the world, at the whim of nature. At the center of it all Janina Duszejko is the observer that adds even more mystery.

What also made me think a lot was the emphasis on “Anger”. Mrs Duszejo says:

Sometimes, when a Person feels Anger, everything seems simple and obvious. Anger puts things in order and shows you the world in a nutshell; Anger restores the gift of Clarity of Vision, which it’s hard to attain in any other state.

“Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead”, Olga Tokarczuk

For me, this says that when you witness an injustice, Anger is righteous, Anger is what needs to drive you to do something. I have to agree. When going to the authorities doesn’t work, when we created a world where the weak are dismissed or ridiculed, their only way to get justice is to become angry and fight for what they believe in.

A part of what Mrs. Duszejjko feels is Anger and it essentially comes from a feeling of powerlessness – this is also why she is so obsessed with Horoscopes. She needs a bit more control in her life.

I loved all that her character entails, I loved how she observes the lack of respect of others and how she ignores it, insisting on getting justice for her animal friends. I love how she tries to manipulate the situation and get her opinions popularised, not afraid of what everyone thinks.

Mrs. Duszejko proves herself to be the formidable force the Animals need on their side and it was amazing to watch her develop into that.

Conclusion

“Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead” was a perfect read! It was a lot more than the classic “murder mystery” I expected given the first few pages.

It was thought-provoking and memorable. Must-read!

You can find the book here: