| Title | : | Zoli |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1400063728 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781400063727 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 333 |
| Publication | : | First published September 1, 2001 |
Zoli Novotna, a young woman raised in the traveling Gypsy tradition, is a poet by accident as much as desire. As 1930s fascism spreads over Czechoslovakia, Zoli and her grandfather flee to join a clan of fellow Romani harpists. Sharpened by the world of books, which is often frowned upon in the Romani tradition, Zoli becomes the poster girl for a brave new world. As she shapes the ancient songs to her times, she finds her gift embraced by the Gypsy people and savored by a young English expatriate, Stephen Swann.
But Zoli soon finds that when she falls she cannot fall halfway–neither in love nor in politics. While Zoli’s fame and poetic skills deepen, the ruling Communists begin to use her for their own favor. Cast out from her family, Zoli abandons her past to journey to the West, in a novel that spans the 20th century and travels the breadth of Europe.
Colum McCann, acclaimed author of Dancer and This Side of Brightness, has created a sensuous novel about exile, belonging and survival, based loosely on the true story of the Romani poet Papsuza. It spans the twentieth century and travels the breadth of Europe. In the tradition of Steinbeck, Coetzee, and Ondaatje, McCann finds the art inherent in social and political history, while vividly depicting how far one gifted woman must journey to find where she belongs.
Zoli Reviews
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A beautiful and harrowing novel by one of my favorite contemporary authors. It traces the life of a female gypsy poet from the horrors of World War II, to the stultifying world of Communist Eastern Europe, to a dramatic escape to the West. We see so much of European history through the lens of this incredibly articulate, sensitive soul, all told with McCann's densely descriptive narrative intensity. For a taste of the prose, here's the opening sentence: "He drives along the small streambed, and the terrible shitscape looms up by increments--upturned buckets by the bend in the river, a broken baby carriage in the weeds, a petrol drum leaking out a dry tongue of rust, the carcass of a fridge in the brambles." It's been a while since I've read the book, but I still see that "tongue of rust" in my imagination, along with so much else in this brilliant book.
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I was immediately drawn into this novel about a young Romani (Gypsy) girl who becomes famous for her poetry. Through Zoli's adventures, McCann provides an education on the culture and mistreatment of the Roma people as well as the politics of Slovakia before and after WWII. At times it moves slowly, especially in a section narrated by her comrade/lover Swann. But overall, an impressive novel.
-
Zoli was a beautiful and riveting historical fiction novel by Colum McCann loosely inspired by the life of Papusza, the Polish poet who lived from 1910 to 1987 and the richness of her poetry as well as many other Roma poets. The story of Zoli is told from several different perspectives taking its literary tension from fictional characters woven into the fabric of history during the rise of fascism in central and eastern Europe spanning the twentieth century over the expanse of Europe from Bratislava to Vienna to Budapest to Italy and to France.
I was drawn to the six-year-old Zoli and her grandfather Stanislaus, the only survivors as they watched her parents and brothers as well as others from their group forced by fascist soldiers on to a frozen lake, and subsequently drowning the next day as the ice melted. Zoli and her grandfather then joined a new kumpanija. Zoli had grown up with a grandfather that taught her how to read and write, extraordinary among the Romani people, as well as being fluent in many different languages. Zoli relates how at an early age in the silence of the caravan, she began to like the feel of a pencil between her fingers. In Zoli's words:
"But I had fallen in with books, they were friendly to me in the quiet hours. For a long time, I remember, the only book I had was 'Winnetou, I,' penned by a German whose name I can't recall. It was a book given to simplicities. Still, I walked out in the forest and read it enough times to know it by heart. It was about Apaches and gunfighters, a volume for boys. Finally I was given a different volume, 'The Lady of Cachtice,' which I loved--it was cracked and torn with so much use."
"I stood there in the silence and it seemed to me that the spring of my life had come. I was a poet. I had written things down."
A celebrated Slovak poet, Martin Stransky, and an English zealot and ex-patriate, Stephen Swann supported Zoli in her endeavors in poetry and ancient songs of her people as her fame increases. As this passage suggests:
"She was a new sort of Czechoslovakian woman, taken out of the margins to illustrate our steps forward under socialism. She was telling the story unlike anyone had told it before. Zoli was invited to the Ministry of Culture, the National Theater, the Carlton, the Socialist Academy, screenings in the Stalingrad Hotel, conferences on literature where Stransky stood up and bellowed her name into the microphone. She spoke five languages with varying degrees of fluency, and Stransky had begun to call her a Gypsy intellectual. A shadow crossed her face, but she didn't silence him, something in her liked the novelty."
Not only was I drawn to the plight of the fictional Zoli, but to that of the Romani people. Another wonderful book by Colum McCann. I have enjoyed working my way through his magnificent body of work. -
The story of Zoli is at times harrowing even heartbreaking but above all this, she remains an incredible human being.
Colum McCann has created a beautiful, quiet, intricate story that spans time, from 1930s Czechoslovakia to Paris in 2003.
Zoli is a Romani, a gypsy and as such is persecuted and hated by the authorities from the Hlinka guards who sent her whole family to die on a frozen lake so the only person she had left was her much loved grandfather, the Nazis of WW2 who were rounding up the Romani as much as they were the Jewish people.
In her youth in the Romani community, in the caravan where she lives, her grandfather teaches her to read and write, something frowned on by the gypsies, but Zoli is also a singer of the old ways, the stories passed down orally by people that don't have the written word.
The story is a journey, Zoli's journey often on foot through many countries, painstakingly described by McCann. The main section of the journey described is long and necessarily meandering but it is I feel an important part of the story.
The writing as ever is extraordinarily good. He is a master manipulator of words, all perfect and exactly as they should be, nothing is overblown or are you ever left wanting. McCann is in my opinion one of the best authors writing today.
4.5* rounded up to 5* -
I enjoyed this a lot for its window on Romany (“Gypsy”) culture in Slovakia from the 30’s to the 50’s and its portrait of the life of a fictional poet trying to put a voice to her people. “A” for the effort by an American author in trying to portray such a girl and woman from a first person perspective, but “B” for not quite succeeding in making her come alive for me. Maybe that’s inevitable for such an “alien” and closed off culture, so I still recommend the book for taking me the distance.
The story most drew me in with its initial sections of the imagined life of a Roma girl growing up with her grandfather after losing her family at an early age and finding her niche as a singer. The secretive but rich life of this mobile culture is lovingly revealed through the lens of Zoli’s vision. The essence of life on the move, the caravans joining in the woods and byways, the sense of togetherness of a people, the joy of dance and song, the power of the myths and traditions alien to Western traditions. Her grandfather allows her to learn to read and write, forbidden by their culture. The strange poetry in their traditional songs helps Zoli develop her identity:
If the women were swaying with cucu [alcohol], they could not remember where the song had led the night before. They said to me: Zoli, what did I sing? And I would say: “They broke, they broke my little brown arm, now my father cries like the rain.” Or they would say: “I have two husbands, one of them sober, one of them drunk, but each one I love the same.” Or I sang: “I want no shadow to fall on your shadow, your shadow is dark enough for me.” They smiled when these words came out of my mouth and told me again I had the look of my mother. At night I fell asleep thinking of her.
They survive the period of fascist oppression, which was not as severe in Slovakia as in other parts of Nazi-occupied Europe. Throughout Europe as many as 250,000 Roma people were executed or killed in the camps or along with the Jews, roughly a fourth of their population. It didn’t matter that they were “Aryan”, with origins from India in the Middle Ages.
In the communist era after the war, Zoli gains notoriety as a poet and singer. This part of the tale is told by an English socialist writer, Swann, who moves to Bratislava in sympathy with a Czech father who left his Irish mother to fight and die supporting the Bolshevics. In his work with the Writer’s Union, he becomes mesmerized and smitten by Zoli and motivated to have her become the voice of her people. The regime ultimately makes her the poster child for the Roma people, an icon of proof of the new egalitarian society. But a woman telling the secrets of the Roma is forbidden, as is a love affair outside their people. When the policy comes down to assimilate the Roma and abolish their nomadic life, she pays the cost of schism with her people and a crisis I best say nothing more of. Her survival and life she forges over the rest of the story reveals the strengths in her character founded in her origins. The writing for this part, in the form of a journal addressed to her daughter as an old woman from 2003, brings a welcome synthesis.
The middle part from Swann’s perspective highlights how hard it is for European’s to really understand the Roma people. His captivation with her mystery is captured in these few quotes:
Zoli believed there was a life-spring that went down to the center of the earth and that it ran both ways but mostly it rose from the well of her childhood.
He saw her as fully authentic now, she had forged herself in a world that was not ours, a poet filled with mysterious voices that sometimes even she didn’t know the meaning of. …she had an intellect that came to her like a bird off a branch, unrecognized, the images chasing her with speed.
She quoted a line from Neruda about falling out of a tree she had not climbed. I felt exasperated by her, always turning, always changing, always making me feel as if I was looking for oxygen—how much like fresh air and how much, at the same time, like drowning.
The challenge of the Roma people not being understood outside their culture is nicely captured by Zoli’s refelection:
The worst burden in life is what others know about us. But maybe there is one burden even worse than this. It happens when they don’t know about us, it is what they think about us when, in silence, they force us to be what they expect us to be. Even worse is how we become it and I, chonorroejoa [daughter], had become it.
A journalist who seeks to capture her story near the end prompts Zoli to formulate these thoughts:
Tell him that nothing is ever arrived at. …
Tell him that nothing is ever fully understood, that’s what I’d like to say.
So in the end, I get that McCann realizes the limits to how much understanding about a people that he can convey in his tale. I admire him for his effort. -
3.5*
Šio romano ėmiausi dėl temos – Romų (čigonų) kultūra. Labai jau menkai minima ši spalvinga kultūra literatūroje, mano galva.
Knyga inspiruota tikros istorinės asmenybės – Lenkijos romų poetės ir daininkės Papusza (Bronisława Wajs 1908/1910-1987).
Beje, yra Lenkų meninis filmas apie ją “Papusza” (2013).Dar nežiūrėjau, bet iš filmo anonso susidariau labai neblogą nuomonę apie jį.
Romanas labai jau laisva interpretacija apie šią talentingą moterį. Pakeistas ir poetės pseudonimas iš Papusza į Zoli, gimimo/ gyvenamoji/ veiksmo vieta –ne Lenkija, bet Slovakija, biografija irgi gerokai nukrypus nuo tikrosios…Tačiau, pykti negali, nes nėra tai biografinis romanas.
Pats pasakojimas gražus, bet man ypatingai nesugrojo, šiek tiek pablanko prieš tikrąją asmenybę (skaitant daug googlinausi, žiūrėjau filmo ištraukas, skaičiau jos eil.), tačiau vis tiek buvo įdomu skaityti apie šią kontroversiškai vertinamą etninę grupę.
Veiksmas apima laikotarpį nuo 1930-tų iki 2003-ių ir be abejo, lengva čigonams niekad nebuvo. Beje, žinom gi, kad karo metu jie buvo naikinamitaip pat, kaip žydai…
Zoli istorija - laimingesnė,romantiškesnė, santūriai liūdna… Papusza istorija - skaudesnė, tragiškesnė...
Visgi skaityti knygą rekomenduoju.
https://vimeo.com/131692478 -
While I read this book I grappled with my lack of understanding. This is a book of historical fiction; I could not make up my mind if I wanted to learn the details about the life of Romani poet Papsuza (1910-1987), on which this book is loosely based, or whether I should just read the book for the delight of falling into the story. Only when I stopped trying to learn the factual details and let myself just plain enjoy the story did I enjoy the book. In the process I did learn very much about the Romani culture. I learned a bit about Papsuza too, but there are major differences between the main character in the novel, Zoli, and the real person Papsuza.
If I have any advice to give, it is to not demand complete understanding as you read this book. By the end you will understand. I was gripping after threads to master the subject. I was scared I would miss something and fail to understand. My advice: sit back, read the book, enjoy the sentences and do not worry if you do not understand everything. You will understand in the end. Many sentences can be interpreted in different ways. If you are looking for the truth, for the facts, you will surely be frustrated. I am giving this book four stars, because I love the writing. I love the message imparted by the book, and I did learned about Romani people, their hardships and lifestyle, with a focus on those living in Eastern Europe from the 30s through to the 21st Century.
This paragraph concerns the differences between Zoli’s life, the main character of this book and Papsuza. Papsuza was of Polish origin. Zoli was Slovakian. Romani women were not taught to read or write, but both Papsuza and Zoli could. However Zoli learned from her grandfather while Papsuza stole thing to trade them for lessons. The very biggest difference is that in real life Papsuza was interned in a mental institution and spent the end of her life, the last 34 years, all alone. McCann has changed that ending .
I needed McCann’s ending. I am glad he changed it. This is not a book about one woman. It is about Eastern European Romani people and it is a book that poses philosophical questions. In the lines of the book you will find the statement: “Nothing is ever fully understood.” Zoli says this, and it is clearly evident in the whole way the book is written. Life is a constant struggle to understand, and so is the book. If you enjoy pondering philosophical issues and don’t mind the brain exercise necessary to figure out what is going on, then the book is for you. This is a central theme. Listen to what is said about Henri: ”He knew in advance all that is worth knowing.” This is not to be taken as a compliment. But then humor is thrown in: “I have gone through so many of them (boyfriends), maybe I should get an accountant.” Another theme that is returned to again and again is inferred in this sentence: “The river is not where it starts or it ends.” Sentences such as this are thrown at you. I say that river is life. You may interpret this differently.
In any case the writing is pure poetry – albeit free verse and unrhymed. Zoli speaks of gullible non-Romani: “You can make them swallow anything with enough sugar and tears. They will lick the tears and sugar and make of them a paste called sympathy.” Now cannot the Romani criticize us for once?! Or this: “Once I was guilty of thinking only good things happen. Then I was guilty of thinking they would never happen again. Now I wait and make no judgment. You ask me what I love....” Then the elderly Zoli names things so beautiful as fruit trees and walks, blue wool mittens, coffee, wind…..or a daughter’s first step.
Now I must mention what has bothered me. When I was stuck in the mode of trying to learn about the life of Papsuza, I was extremely annoyed about the confusion and lack of clear facts concerning the transition from the Fascist to Communist powers in Slovakia. I thought the sentences were not clear. I wanted more dates and clear facts. I thought I would not understand history! But the message of how the Romani people suffered and how their lives were lived does become clear without excessive dates and precise historical facts. You do get some. And in fact you do get the basics events of Papsuza’s life too! If you want more, look at this link:
http://romani.uni-graz.at/rombase/cgi.... Look at her photo. She had an eye that “strayed”.
Another complaint I had was how the narration switched from third person to first and back and forth. This is confusing. Zoli is spoken of in third person and also in the first person. I very much preferred when she spoke in the first person. I disliked when I read that she did that and she did this, when I wanted to get inside her head. Later, when she does speak in first person, that the narrator of the audiobook (Nigel Carrington) was a man, was disturbing. This really threw me off ....until I got used to it. I panicked and thought: “Who is speaking?! This is some man! Oh gosh, I am totally lost.” The dates and places jump. There is a beginning section by a journalist that is further confusing. I warn you, this is a book that is scarily confusing until you just plain relax and listen/read. You do end up understanding. Don’t panic, as I did!
Originally I thought there was a conflict between the theme of the book and the writing style. But then when I got over my need to have full control and understanding of every sentence, when I let myself enjoy the words and philosophical questions, when I stopped demanding that I must learn some historical facts, that is when I realized I was totally enjoying myself. And I did learn a lot about Romani culture and suffering. About Papsuza too. I do highly recommend this book.
**************
Well, having been blown away by this author's
Let the Great World Spin, I must immediately read another. The difficulty was choosing. This or
Dancer or another?
**************
BEFORE READING:
I might be annoyed by the mixture of fact and fiction. Maybe read instead:
A False Dawn: Volume 16: My Life as a Gypsy Woman in Slovakia, which Christi told me about :0) -
What would possess a white Irish male writer to write a novel about a Romani woman from 1930s Czechoslovakia? Darned if I know, but this is a rich tale of Romani life, racism, literary awakening-cum-appropriation, and most of all human grit.
Colum McCann did tons of research, but more importantly he has shaped his protagonist, Zoli, with trademark sensitivity and masterful prose.
After her parents and several other members of their Romani caravan were murdered by the secret police in fascist Czechoslovakia, young Zoli is cared for by her grandfather; he joins them up to another caravan and sends her to school, despite literacy being a big taboo in the culture.
The relationship between Zoli and her granddad is as endearing as all get-out: when they get dissed by a gadže (a derogatory word, akin to 'barbarian,' to refer to a non-Romani), the old man prompts his horse to take a big dump in front of the offending man's house. Thereafter, "Go ahead, horse, and shit" was their private joke, a way of protesting, of reclaiming their dignity in a world that despised them.
The grandfather's bequest of literacy is double-edged. Zoli not only sings the old Roma songs, but begins composing her own:
"I was writing things down then, on any paper I could find, even the labels from bottles. I dunked them in water, dried them out, and filled the emptiness with ink. Old newspapers. Brown butcher sheets. I dried them out until the bloodstains were faint, It was still a secret, my writing. I pretended to most that I could not read, but, I thought, then, surely it could do no harm? I said to myself that writing was no more nor less than song. My pencil was busy and almost down to a nubbin."
As postwar Czechoslovakia passes from facist to communist control, the new intelligentsia views these long-persecuted people—and Zoli's song-poems—as useful to the revolution.
Her celebrity and safety are short-lived. And that's all I'm going to say about the plot.
McCann is a gifted writer, and he certainly made me care about Zoli. I know almost nothing about Romani culture and history other than what's here. Is what's here accurate? I don't know. I'd be curious to hear a Romani reader's thoughts. And now I want to read fiction by Romani writers themselves.
I get nervous about mainstream writers imagining minority protagonists, but this great novel whets my appetite for Romani-authored stories.
My response to the "don't appropriate my culture's voice" crowd is to seek out and read their writers, too. That's the fence on which my "book politics" sits. -
"Παρίσι. Τελείως παράλογο. Πόσα σύνορα πρέπει να περάσει; Πόσα φυλάκια; Πόσους στρατιώτες παραταγμένους μπρος σε συρματοπλέγματα; Πόσα μπλόκα; Δοκιμάζει πάλι τον ήχο της λέξης και της φαίνεται πως υπάρχει παντού, σε όλα τα πράγματα τριγύρω της καθώς οι μέρες περνούν, ένα Παρίσι στο κλαδί ενός δέντρου, ένα άλλο στο λασπερό χαντάκι ενός δρόμου, ένα Παρίσι στο ψηλόλιγνο σκυλί που πισωπατάει κουτσαίνοντας, ένα Παρίσι ακόμα στο κόκκινο τρακτέρ μιας κολεκτίβας που οργώνει ένα χωράφι στο βάθος. Γραπώνεται από την γελοιότητα αυτής της απλοϊκής επανάληψης. Της αρέσει το βάρος που έχει η λέξη στα χείλη της και διαπιστώνει, καθώς προχωρά, πως είναι ένας ήχος που βοηθά ν'αδειάζει το μυαλό της από σκέψεις, ένα μονότονος ρυθμός στον αέρα, που τη σπρώχνει και την παρασύρει, σαν κάτι το λαθραίο, μια επανάληψη τόσο άμορφη, τόσο απίθανη και παράδοξη, που ταιριάζει με το βήμα της, και η Ζόλι εκπαιδεύεται στο να συγχρονίζει με ακρίβεια την αρχική συλλαβή της λέξης με το πάτημα της μύτης, έτσι που περπατά, σε άψογο συντονισμό ήχου και βήματος, ολοένα".
Ήθελα εδώ και αρκετό καιρό να διαβάσω McCann και η Ζόλι, αυτή η τόσο ωραία σχεδιασμένη ηρωίδα του μου φαίνεται πως ήταν ιδανική αρχή. Ο συγγραφέας αν κ ανήκει σε αυτή τη σπουδαία σχολή των λυρικών συγγραφέων της Ιρλανδίας, μοιάζει να είναι ο πιο "αμερικανός" μεταξύ τους. Μου φαίνεται δηλαδή πως είναι πιο κοντά στον Doctorow (ίσως κ στον Ντελίλο;) απ'ότι στον Joyce αν κ μάλλον είναι λιγότερο ταλαντούχος απ'τον Μπανβιλ ή τον Sebastian Barry, τον οποίο όμως δεν γνωρίζω κ τόσο καλά (μόνο την υπέροχη Μυστική Γραφή έχω διαβάσει).
Εξαρχής το ιδιαίτερο θέμα του βιβλίου, οι ταλαιπωρίες της κοινότητας των Ρομά στην Κ. Ευρώπη πριν κ κατά τη διάρκεια του πολέμου καθώς και μετά το τέλος των 50s, κάνουν το βιβλίο εθιστικό. Οι πρώτες 120 σελίδες διαβάζονται μονορούφι αφού ο McCann δεν ζωντανεύει μόνο την εποχή που εξελίσσεται η ιστορία αλλά κ τους τόπους (την Μπρατισλάβα κ τα δάση που κατοικούν οι τσιγγάνοι) κ τους πρωταγωνιστές του βιβλίου. Εκτός της Ζόλι, ο άγγλος Σουάν που την ερωτεύεται, ο ιδεολόγος Στράνσκι που την μπλέκει στις δικές του πολιτικές πεποιθήσεις και ο ιδιαίτερος Ενρίκο, είναι εξαιρετικοί χαρακτήρες που αποδεικνύουν τη δεξιότητα του McCann. Εν ολίγοις, η σκιαγράφηση της πλέον κυνηγημένης κοινότητας της Ευρώπης είναι υποδειγματική και ισορροπημένη. Δεν περιγράφεται μόνο η βιαιότητα προς αυτούς αλλά κι η ίδια η βιαιότητα που ασκούν οι ίδιοι εσωτερικά.
Ταυτόχρονα όμως, μετά το πρώτο μέρος το βιβλίο χάνει πολύ σε ρυθμό ακόμα κ αν σε αυτό ακριβώς το κομμάτι του βιβλίου βρίσκονται μερικές απ'τις πιο ωραίες στιγμές του κειμένου. Αυτό που με προβλημάτισε πιο πολύ είναι πως η κοιλιά του βιβλίου συμβαίνει όταν πια ξεκινά ο Γολγοθάς της πρωταγωνίστριας, κάτι που θα μπορούσε κανείς να μαντέψει πως θα αποτελούσε το highlight για έναν απ'ότι φαίνεται ιδιαίτερα ικανό συγγραφέα. Η αλήθεια είναι πως δεν έχω ιδιαίτερη εμπιστοσύνη στον συγκεκριμένο μεταφραστή κ δεν θα με ξάφνιαζε αν έχει βάλει κι αυτός το χεράκι του στο αποτέλεσμα που έχουμε στα χέρια μας.
Το σίγουρο είναι πως θα συνεχίσω να διαβάζω τον McCann ξεκινώντας απ'τον Χορευτή, αυτή τη φορά στο πρωτότυπο για σιγουριά (άσε που είναι εξαντλημένο κ δεν το βρίσκω).
3,5* -
McCann's novel is loosely based on the life of Romani poet Papsuza (1910-1987), with the titular character Zoli as the Romani singer, turned poet, set in Slovakia, either side of World War II.
McCann weaves a character with enough complexity and certainly enough interesting quirks. We jump around in time, there is a middle section of the book written in the view of Swann - an Englishman with a Slovakian father, who falls in love with Zoli. Then the Communists decide to use her as a postergirl for their resettlement policy.
The best parts of this novel are the descriptions of Romany culture and their interactions. It was not a surprise to read in the acknowledgements that McCann was heavily influenced by a book which iI read and enjoyed -
Bury Me Standing by Isabel Fonseca.
Between 3 and 4 stars, but ultimately short of 4. -
What a daring idea...trace the life of a Roma poetess from early life under fascist rule in the dying democracy of Czechoslovakia to dying years in the utterly different but equally repressive "Free World" that doesn't like her unrepentant socialism...in her own voice.
McCann's up to the task. It's a very well-built book, and Zoli (a boy's name in her culture, given by her grandfather to help protect her) is a fully realized person. She lives an exciting life. She writes amazing poetry (so we're told). She has a daughter who, true to life, turns out to be very little like her amazing mummy.
My kick is that, like most extraordinary women, she falls in love with the damnedest collection of creeps and yutzes imaginable. There's this one Brit who is just about the most Babbitty little snot imaginable. Her response to him when they meet up later in life is pretty amusing.
But, and here's the kick part, why is she bothering with these guys? Why is it no one writes about these women with actual worthy partners? Blech.
Recommended. Enthusiastically. Read now. -
Meh. I read this book because it is primarily set in Slovakia, and it was a drag. Its title character is a Romani singer, turned into a poet by Communist authorities after WWII, and based on a real-life poet named Papusza. (Zoli is about 20 years younger though, conveniently allowing her to be a sexy lover for the Englishman who narrates one of the middle sections of the book.) The book follows Zoli’s life in a disjointed and meandering way – switching points-of-view between sections and switching between first and third person – and has no particular plot. Two-thirds of the way through, a major chapter in Zoli’s life closes, and I wasn’t sure why the book wasn’t just finished rather than needing to drag on for another 100+ pages.
Of course, a character’s life can be a plot, but it helps if you care about the character, and I didn’t give a whit for anyone in this book. The characters have no personality, just life circumstances; they seemed more like ideas of people than actual humans. Even when we’re in their heads, they take seemingly arbitrary actions that feel disconnected from any thoughts or feelings that they have. McCann’s writing being rather stylized, those thoughts and feelings are often expressed in the form of long flights of figurative language that do more to draw attention to the writer than humanize the characters. Meanwhile he describes in great detail the characters’ mundane actions, which drag down the pace without revealing insights into the characters. Even by the end, Zoli was still a cipher to me; I was never clear on what she wanted out of life, what was behind her often strange or inconsistent decisions, or why I should care what happened to her. “Has suffered tragedy” does not substitute for a personality and an inner life.
Speaking of tragedy, this is not exactly a fun book to read; the setting for the majority of the novel is drab and gray and hopeless, punctuated by occasional brutality. Later on it becomes less dark, but more tedious, as its opaque protagonist wanders about with no discernible objective. You’ll learn a bit about the persecution of the Romani/Gypsies, but you can get that more directly from other books. I’m glad to have this one behind me and would not recommend it. -
I loved this book. I started reading it on the airplane journey home from Vienna after a long weekend (and a previous novel by Josef Roth) immersed in the Hapsburg empire. It felt very appropriate. The book creates a rich atmosphere of the nomadic lifestyle of gypsies during and after World War II in the areas of what once was the Austro-Hungarian empire. The book also takes place in part during the transition years of communism in what is today Slovakia. I learned much about the Romani lifestyle and their "old world" mores. The book makes me want to go out and find a nonfiction book about the Romani people, just so that I can have more of the blanks filled in. The language flowed. The images sparkled. The world described in the book felt very real to me. This is the second book I have read by Colum McCann. I definitely want to read more of his work. He's a great writer.
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In his acknowledgements, McCann writes that "We get our voices from the voices of others." This struck me because it's so much of what this compelling novel is about. Zoli is remarkable because of her voice, her stories of Gypsy culture and history. In the 1939s, when the novel begins, it's unheard of for a Gypsy woman to read, much less write and, only because of the tumultuous times she's living through is she celebrated for sharing her voice.
But at what price?
Similarly the rise of communism in Czechoslovakia can be read as the voice of the people. How can the Czechs capture this voice? Importantly, at what price?
McCann gives voice to a largely unknown WWII story of the culture and persecution of Romani/Gypsies. It's beautiful and heartbreaking.
As I continue to make my way through all of his books, I treasure the brilliant way he evokes setting and mood. He's just a brilliant writer. -
a quote, to live by:wash your dress in running water. dry it on the southern side of a rock. let them have four guesses and make them all wrong. take a fistful of snow in the summer heat. cook haluski in hot sweet butter. drink cold milk to clean your insides. be careful when you wake: breathing lets them know how asleep you are. don't hang your coat from a hook in the door. ignore curfew. remember weather by the voice of the wheel. do not become the fool they need you to become. change your name. lose your shoes. practice doubt. dress in oiled cloth around sickness. adore darkness. turn sideways in the wind. the changing of stories is a cheerful affair. give the impression of not having known.
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This book reeled me in. Such a talented writer.
A young Roma/gypsy girl returns from a walk in the forest to find her parents had just been rounded up on the ice and…(won’t spoil). She is raised by her grandfather and is given more freedom than her cohorts: she learns to read and write which is not allowed.
After her mother’s death, a lady brings her under her wing, stroking her hair and says, “Your mother was famous for many things, most of all she was a great singer.” She leaned down to my ear and sang, and the songs grew and grew, and she took my face in her hands and kissed my forehead. “Pity about your eye” said Eliska, “otherwise you’d be as pretty as she was.”
The story was captivating. It was slow to start but it ramped up that many cogs by the end I was disappointed that it had to end.
I liked the author’s construction choices. He could easily have gone for more drama but instead took the more genuine route and as a result I was fully invested in everything. For example there is a chaser-escaper dynamic that lasts quite a long time. I was hoping for something (won’t spoil) and I got it. There was another event where someone was about to get hurt, and instead of them getting hurt, it turned all Kill Bill on the attempted perpetrator. It was so unexpected and I was cheering.
There were some good themes experienced. Here’s how one flows:
“The crux of the matter was assimilation, belonging, ethnic identity. We wanted them, but they wanted us to leave them alone.”
There is another theme regarding banishment, “I thought, I am polluting them and they do not know, I am bringing shame down upon them and they have no idea. It brought a sharp knife to my heart and yet what was I to do? How many small betrayals would there be for me? Who will eventually speak the complicated truth? It is rules not mirrors that steal away our souls.”
I chose this book as my around the world reading challenge for Slovakia. It was a good 70% set there and lots to learn about the history and the land. I’m at the point of my challenge where some options are limited and I feared this might have been a chore but I was pleasantly surprised.
Once again, kudos to the author. He had no connection to that place or with the themes and yet it sounded authentic. -
Couldn't put this one down. Fascinating story of the Roma [gypsies] encapsulated through the story of a Roma woman, Zoli, with a gift for song and poetry. The story is very loosely based on that of Papusza, a famous Roma singer and poet.
The story begins in 1930s Czechoslovakia where Zoli's family are drowned by the fascists' driving them onto ice, which then breaks beneath their weight.
Zoli and her grandfather escape and find refuge with another kumpanija--musicians all.
The horrible WWII years pass, then under the repressive Czech government, Zoli decides to flee to the West--Paris, she has in her mind. She is ostracized by her tribe. Most of the novel tells of her journey and contending with gadzhe [non-Gypsy] prejudice.
The author's writing style was crisp, incisive, with deep sympathy for the Roma and their plight. The novel was an easy way to learn something of Roma culture.
From a poem of Zoli's:"They drove our wagons onto the ice
And ringed the white lake with fires,
So when the ice began to crack
The cheers went up from the Hlinkas,
We forced our horses forward
But they skidded, bloody, to the shore.
My land, we are your children,
Shore up the ice and make it freeze!
....
The snow fell large and white
And buried our wheels center deep"
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Colum McCann, a very gifted writer, must have sought out or stumbled upon the story of a Romani (Gypsy) woman who, against convention, learns to read and write and sings her own poems to wide acclaim. McCann turns this into a novel, good enough despite the feel that it came from library research; such is his talent.
A book will be more than worth the effort, however, if the author: a) makes you think about or see a thing in a way you never saw it before; and b) says something so profound, clever or just damn funny that you have to steal it and use it yourself.
So: a) a bookshop (remember them?), "It's like not having any walls." Figuratively, or literally, that is a room where I'd like to take my wine.
And: b) an awkward trek (first date?) through a mountain pass, and Enrico asks Zoli, "Are you not scared of the troopers?" And she ultimately replies, "I would happily lick a cat's arse, my heart's friend, if it got the taste of troopers out of my mouth."
How could they not fall in love? -
Colum McCann is a magician with words and while I didn't like Zoli as much as I liked Dancer and Let the Great World Spin, I still found myself mesmerized by Zoli and her world. The research that must have gone in to this for an Irishman to recreate the world of a Gypsy in eastern Europe during the middle part of the last century is incomprehensible to me.
The book bogged down a bit somewhere in the middle, but the last quarter or so was so strong. I've got two more novels of his left to read before I run out, and I'll spread them out so I don't find myself doing what I have to do with Paul Auster. Sunset Park has been sitting on my shelf, unopened, for more than six months because I can't bear to read it until I know another one will soon be available. McCann is very quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. -
McCann, a novelist so good that both Ireland and America claim him as their own, is the author most recently of Let the Great World Spin. Zoli is McCann’s sixth work of fiction and the one that immediately preceded Let the Great World Spin. What the two novels have in common, as does This Side of Brightness, McCann’s second novel, which are the three I’ve read so far, are an historical setting, a collage of narrative voices, a recurring theme of multi-cultural migrant peoples, and a strong sense of compassion in the face of life’s hardships and dangers.
Zoli Novotna, the novel’s main character, is loosely based on the Romani poet and singer known as “Papusza” (Bronislawa Wajs, 1908-1987). Papusza was a Polish Gypsy; Zoli is a Slovakian Gypsy. Despite that difference in nationalities: both the fictional and source figures embraced and defied Gypsy traditions, both were writers and singers, both survived the Nazis and the Communists, the latter of whom first celebrated and then tried to compel conformity to the Soviet-citizen ideal, and both real and imagined heroines were viewed with suspicion internally because of their being promoted by literary and political figures in the outside world. McCann is an inspired researcher; he reportedly knew little or nothing about Romani culture when he began working on the book. He read, he interviewed, he traveled and observed and he convincingly constructs (to someone as blank a slate as the author was off the start) a unique insular world as it intersects and is overwhelmed by a larger one. His zealous research carries him and the reader a long way but perhaps not all the way it needs to.
The story, though, is compelling on a personal (Zoli) and ethnic level. In the end the larger world with its international politics and near universal social values and its own cultural and ethnic prejudices refuses the Gypsies any escape. Nazi racism, Soviet social control, and the societal norms of modern Europe all have little tolerance for a way of life that resists a national adjective on a culture whose tradition is timeless and transcends conventions like national borders. Granted these forces of compulsion are different in their intent and imposition—Nazi concentration camps versus insistent social service agencies—but all are unwilling to allow Gypsy traditions to continue unchanged. McCann’s novel captures this larger tragedy while focusing on Zoli’s life.
The novel spans a period from the 1930s into the early 2000s, jump cutting between its past and present, shifting narrators between first person (Zoli and Stephen Swann, an Irish-Anglo of Slovakian origin who moves to Czechoslovakia for political reasons and falls in love with Zoli) and third person. We begin with a young Zoli traveling with her grandfather and end with the widowed Zoli visiting her daughter in Paris in 2003, encountering at a conference celebrating Romani culture her former lover and the recognition that this once mobile and restless wanderer and performer had for some decades become rooted and is now satisfied with anonymity. It’s a well-crafted and thoughtful novel and one that works better at capturing the universals of the human condition than representing a deep investigation of what is unique and entrenched in the world of Gypsies. There is sufficient and convincing detail to tell the tale, not to make a culture come fully to life. McCann’s gift however is the way he invests his readers in the universal elements of his characters. How they strive and struggle for meaning, success, comfort, identity, notice and how despite the turmoil and loss there is dignity and hope, compassion and resilience. -
2.5**
This novel is loosely based on the life of the Gypsy poet Papusza. Traveling across Europe – from Czechoslovakia to Hungary, Austria, Italy and France – the book focuses on Zoli Novotna, a young woman raised in the Romani tradition. As fascism spreads over 1930s Eastern Europe, the orphaned Zoli and her grandfather flee their home and join a clan of traveling Romani harpists. Despite the potential censure of the traditional clan members, Zoli’s grandfather teachers her to read. Her curiosity and zeal for learning are sharpened by her reading, and she becomes a symbol of a supposedly new culture of tolerance in the Soviet Union. She adapts the ancient songs to the new times, and has her fame grows the ruling Communists begin to use her for their own repressive purposes. Eventually she is cast out from her family and tribe, and finds that the only way to survive is to abandon her past and make the trek to the West.
I was intrigued by the back story of this novel and the critical acclaim (The Washington Post, The New York Times, and San Francisco Chronicle among others) landed it on my tbr. There is some beautifully evocative writing herein. For example: By early evening it seems to her that the darkness has begun to lift itself out of the earth, overtaking the grays and yellows of the marsh floor. It rises to the top of the trees and shoulders against the last patches of light. She considers a moment that it is, in fact, more beautiful than she has ever created in words, that the darkness actually restores the light. The trees more dark than the dark itself. But they are sandwiched between long passages where I was completely bored. I never felt any connection to Zoli or the other characters in the book. The ending was rather abrupt and dissatisfying, leaving me with more questions than answers. -
Perhaps one day I'll finish this book--if I somehow stop having access to other books, am holed up in my house, and have an ample supply of happiness and comfort to get me through the last tiny bit I have left. I'm perhaps one chapter from the end, but the thing got so unimaginably depressing in the last half that I think I'm finally making the decision to call it quits. Reading it has become like slogging through a field with no foliage except densely packed stinging nettles. It's painful and terrible. There's no hope. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth, like infernal fennel toothpaste. It's sad because this is a book I revered at first because of how well-written it is, its beautiful language and unique tale; I highly recommended it to people, and bought it, and loved it. But then, perversely, after all the buying and recommending and loving, I reached the part where it becomes unbearable and realized that the whole rest of the story was going to be utterly, entirely miserable. Think: first half Amelie, second half Schindler's List. Too bad.
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This was a very interesting read about a group of Romani (Gypsies) in Slovakia in the middle part of the 20th century. It follows Zoli (Marienka) Novotna from early childhood through her middle, and finally late years. She is a bit of an anomaly; raised by her grandfather, she is taught to read and write, which was considered taboo for Romani females. She becomes a poet, singing the songs of her heritage. As she becomes famous, she finds herself more and more at odds with her people/culture, and is eventually banished from their circle.
As in all of McCann's works, the writing is superb, and the story is gripping. Why not a higher rating, then? I'm not really sure, but the story just didn't captivate me throughout. I'm sure that if I'd read this 20 years ago, it would have made a greater impact on me. Still, a fascinating story about a group of people (gypsies) that are relatively unknown to many. Lots of history. A solid 3 1/2 stars, but it didn't quite rate a 4 star for me. -
Colum McCann finds the world to be a dark, seedy place where nothing good can last. At least, that's what I think he feels after reading or trying to read two of his books. Last year I read Let the Great World Spin, as a part of my effort to read more male authors, and more literary fiction. Reading that review now, I can see that my feelings on McCann's writing are very similar now, having tried unsuccessfully to read his novel Zoli.
Here is what Amazon has to say about the plot of Zoli,
A unique love story, a tale of loss, a parable of Europe, this haunting novel is an examination of intimacy and betrayal in a community rarely captured so vibrantly in contemporary literature.
Zoli Novotna, a young woman raised in the traveling Gypsy tradition, is a poet by accident as much as desire. As 1930s fascism spreads over Czechoslovakia, Zoli and her grandfather flee to join a clan of fellow Romani harpists. Sharpened by the world of books, which is often frowned upon in the Romani tradition, Zoli becomes the poster girl for a brave new world. As she shapes the ancient songs to her times, she finds her gift embraced by the Gypsy people and savored by a young English expatriate, Stephen Swann.
But Zoli soon finds that when she falls she cannot fall halfway–neither in love nor in politics. While Zoli’s fame and poetic skills deepen, the ruling Communists begin to use her for their own favor. Cast out from her family, Zoli abandons her past to journey to the West, in a novel that spans the 20th century and travels the breadth of Europe.
Sounds like a sweeping tale of love and transcendence, doesn't it? Instead, reading it felt like being sunk into a dark, bleak world where even the most beautiful, innocent things were tainted by something cold and dreary. At first I was drawn into the world of the Roma in eastern Europe during the early 20th century. I knew that they had been persecuted, but I didn't know a lot about their traditions or culture. But eventually I began to feel weighted down with all of the misery of the place. I suppose that was probably purposeful on McCann's part. After all, the Roma were persecuted, and we are talking about the start of the Soviet Union and the cruel grip of communism here. But nothing, and I mean nothing, that I read seemed to speak to the transcendence of the human spirit. Even the love story was bleak, and felt strangely unemotional. It is not that I am adverse to reading melancholy, haunting, tragic books. I read and loved The Road, and found the triumph of the father's love despite the complete destruction of the world to be meaningful, even if the events of the novel themselves were bleak. A Thousand Splendid Suns is one of my favorite books, and it is undoubtedly tragic and heart-wrenching. But even within the horror of living as a widow or a battered wife in Taliban Afghanistan, there were moments of tenderness, or beauty, or light. Not so with McCann's books.
Maybe I am being slightly unfair, since I didn't finish the book. Maybe the page after I finally gave up started a trend showing something, anything positive in the human experience. Sadly, I couldn't take the unending dreariness long enough to find out. -
I had heard my roommate talk about Papusza, the Gypsy poet whom inspired this novel, after he returned from a trip to the Balkans last summer. Something or other brought the novel back to my attention and I ordered a copy from Amazon. After about two weeks I sat down and read the introduction. I was transfixed -- a man drives into a gypsy village in the present day, plies them with cigarettes, liquor, money, etc., eventually earning their trust, he thinks, so he can interview them. When he asks about Papusza they immediately stonewall him: we don't talk about that, why are you asking questions, what do you want, get out. He's chased out of town and then coerced into getting more money from an ATM by father with a deformed child. The father uses the money for glue.
Trust me: McCann does all this much better than I can. This novel is extraordinary. There's this scene when the young gypsy poet comes home from a trip with her grandfather and they've taken the entire gypsy caravan out to the middle of a frozen lake and built fires around the edges, melting the surface until the weight of the wagons... well... and then there's this other scene where her English boyfriend totally sells her out and refuses to stop the presses on her book when he knows that by printing it she'll be exiled...
Oh man. It's so good. I finished the book at 3:00 in the morning and immediately got down my old copy of UP IN THE OLD HOTEL so I could read Joseph Mitchell's old New Yorker profiles of New York's Gypsy "Kings" from the first half of the twentieth century. The next day at work sucked, mostly because I had nothing else to read about gypsies until my copy of Isabel Fonseca's BURY ME STANDING arrived from Amazon. -
What an accessible and interesting read about Slovakia in the 1930s-1950s. We meet Zoli as a young Romany girl travelling with her grandfather in Slovakia before WWII breaks out. We follow her for a while as her life changes. Then we meet other characters how have a profound impact on her life post-war as they put her forward as a poster girl for Socialist Slovakia, which no one realises at the time (only afterwards we can see it's so obvious) was just a dream.
Zoli is put up as the perfect socialist ideal. A Romany who is educated and a poet, who sings/speaks of things that other working Slovakians may think and observe but through education and equal opportunity is able to be realised. However, I think that that sentence sums it up much better than the book does. My understanding of socialism and communism allowed me to make this book make sense. I think that if you didn't have this information, you would be wondering why Zoli was chosen to be the poster girl.
I did like the idea of these "Western" capitalists who were disillusioned with their own countries who came to these new "socialist" republics and expected them to be some sort of utopia. The 'I'm not meaning to be but unfortunately appear colonialist/imperialist about the whole thing' essence to it all.
Overall though, an interesting insight to a time and place of history I know little about. And nicely told, so I will look into more of his writing.
For more reviews visit
http://rusalkii.blogspot.com.au/ -
Continuing on my McCann kick. Found this book an excellent foray into portraying the lives of Slovakian Romani people before, during, and after WWII. Harrowing images of persecution, destruction, and the fickleness of post-war Communism. Loved the main character of Zoli. McCann's writing gave an excellent sense of what her life was like at every stage, and how her fame as a singer was manipulated by the state. Watching her cast first as a great heroine of her people and then as a great betrayer was heart-rending. Her terrible journey on foot across the border to the West was depressing as all hell.
Wished the initial chapter did not exist. Would have been a stronger story without the flash-forward book-end of the journalist seeking information about her.
Thought the ending was magnificent, even if it was faintly sentimental and melodramatic. After the life she led, some sentimentalism is allowed. -
Really had trouble caring about the characters despite caring deeply for story. The prose is, of course, beautiful given how McCann narrates but something is lost.
I think, perhaps, that it is a really bold move to do lots of research pertaining to fiction. It's wasn't so much that it was fact overload or that McCann was trying to get the backdrop just right. I think at times he was perfectly lost in his story about a gifted gypsy to not burden us with that. However, maybe he was a little too lost and left me out.
"Let the Great World Spin" gave so much depth to the characters. It's one of the extremely few books that left me close to tears. With "Zoli" I stood outside these people and the time period. The point may be made that the gypsy life, in general, is one of mystery. But I think I was ready to be opened up into this world I know little about. And now, I still feel that way.
