“God sees. Time escapes. Death pursues. Eternity waits.”
On the outset, Polish author Olga Tokarczuk’s Primeval and
Other Times (translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones) looks like a historical novel,
chronicling the turbulent century of war and political transition in the Polish
countryside. But after relishing few pages of Tokarczuk’s prose, one filled
with deftness and lyrical grace, it would be natural to hail the novel as a
complex parable of human condition on the whole. The novel’s mystical note very
much resides in the title ‘Primeval’. This imaginary village is described to
exist near the Poland-Czech border and the tale spans between the World War I
period (1914) and the beginning of Solidarity Movement (in 1980s). Yet the
village name ‘Primeval’ and the early description of its surroundings bring up
a sacred, mythical feeling as if the place itself stands outside the
constraints of time and space. The borders of the provincial village are said
to be guarded by the four archangels Michael, Uriel, Raphael and Gabriel, and
two rivers – Black and White River – flow through the village, which remains as
a symbol of dichotomy that preoccupies human existence (joy & sorrow,
masculine & feminine, light & darkness, etc).
Primeval describes the trials and tribulations of three
generations of Polish families in a morally, socially, and physically
transitioning landscape of the Polish countryside. The story consists of numerous
characters and each chapter unfurls from the perspective of these different
individuals. Each characters showcase how the bucolic lives of the people of
Primeval was tainted by the First and the Second World War, the Nazi and
Russian occupation. The collective voices reflect the complex reality as the
fate of one individual narrator is casually expressed in the words of another
narrator and so on. Niebieski & Boski families occupy a prominent place in
the narrative. Nevertheless, even spirits and objects turn into omniscient
narrators, telling us their observation of humans. All chapters start with the
word ‘The Time of…..’ which conveys the limitations and unfettered desires of
people with respect to time. But after reading the lives of these different generations
of people portrayed within 200 plus pages, we get a sense of timelessness;
almost as if the events of past, present, and future exists in the same plane
and the people repeatedly gets torn part by the malevolent forces of history.
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| Olga Tokarczuk |
While the experiences of the peasants,
squires, Jews, Catholics, children, etc are captivating, what sets it apart is
Tokarczuk's inquisitory language, her magnificent metaphors, her wealth of
imagination, which rejects many of the conventional traits of historical and
cultural narratives. The author's whimsical and rueful prose reminds us of the
magical realist techniques of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and dirtiest,
distorted-realism of Laszlo Krasznahorkai. With one beguiling episode after
another, 'Primeval' interestingly re-imagines history, ruminates on the
cyclical nature of time, man's relationship with God, and death's
inevitability.
Originally published in 1996, Primeval
was translated to English in 2009 (by Twisted Spoon Press). The release
immediately established Tokarczuk’s international reputation, which is bound to
soar higher after the recent Man Booker International Prize (for ‘Flights’,
shared with translator Jennifer Croft). In 2014, the author published an epic
novel ‘Ksiegi jakubowe’ (‘The
Book of Jacob'), which despite receiving acclaims and awards also attracted
hostile reactions from Polish national-conservative groups. Amidst
controversies, hate mails, and death threats, the craving for Olga Tokarczuk’s
novels among readers around the world has increased substantially. Primeval is
my introduction to the author’s mythical tone of writing and has initiated a
fixation to hunt down for all of her translated works and read it as soon as
possible. Overall, Primeval and Other Times (248 pages) is a pretty mesmerizing novel which withholds the nuggets of historical
and existential truths.
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