Beata 's Reviews > The Colony
The Colony
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For a relatively short novel, The Colony offers several important themes such as the sense of national identity preserved in a language, hatred having its roots in history and religion or the need to cut off oneself from life lived previous generations.
I put off reading this novel for a long time, and I was yet again rewarded after deciding to read it or rather listen to it. The language. Poland was non-existent as a country for 123 years and preserving the language and culture was seen of the utmost importance by both the elites and ordinary people. It was a non-violent tool against the legal systems of Russia, Prussia and Austro-Hungary, the latter one being least oppresive regarding the Polish language. Having the history in mind, I was related to this theme strongly. The hatred. Opposing any religious intolerance which leads to killing your brother, the newspaper-style chapters on brutal murders of Catholics and Protestants left me saddened and helpless.
The colony. This word receives several meanings and shades in the novel, and the island with its inhabitants is the place which can be appreciated if not fully comprehended only by those who want to bond themselves with it. The artist who arrives at the island expects to exploit it for his own ends and leaves after achieving them and destroying hopes of some of the inhabitants. Those islanders who resist him, win.
Beautiful novel that will stay with me ...
OverDrive, thank you!
I put off reading this novel for a long time, and I was yet again rewarded after deciding to read it or rather listen to it. The language. Poland was non-existent as a country for 123 years and preserving the language and culture was seen of the utmost importance by both the elites and ordinary people. It was a non-violent tool against the legal systems of Russia, Prussia and Austro-Hungary, the latter one being least oppresive regarding the Polish language. Having the history in mind, I was related to this theme strongly. The hatred. Opposing any religious intolerance which leads to killing your brother, the newspaper-style chapters on brutal murders of Catholics and Protestants left me saddened and helpless.
The colony. This word receives several meanings and shades in the novel, and the island with its inhabitants is the place which can be appreciated if not fully comprehended only by those who want to bond themselves with it. The artist who arrives at the island expects to exploit it for his own ends and leaves after achieving them and destroying hopes of some of the inhabitants. Those islanders who resist him, win.
Beautiful novel that will stay with me ...
OverDrive, thank you!
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Reading Progress
January 22, 2023
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Started Reading
January 22, 2023
– Shelved
January 22, 2023
– Shelved as:
to-read
January 22, 2023
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Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-17 of 17 (17 new)
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Jasmine
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Jan 23, 2023 07:28PM
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Thank you, Jasmine :)) An excellent read! :))
Thank you, Libby :)) It's one of those novels that embrace you and you're in them, not with them :)
Thank you, Daniel, much appreciate you kind words :)) The more I think about this novel, the more important it seems to me ..
Lithawania ; also the Pre Ukrainian area who called themselves many things including Russian and also from Poland but is no longer Poland and I don’t have enough info to know even its old names seemed like the boundaries were always changing.
Mary Beth, thank you, dear! :))
Thank you, Maureen :)) The thought still holds :)
Fionnuala, thank you :))
Thank you, Annette :)) The novel is not only about preserving a disappearing language, naturally, but I did find some similarities with Polish language during the Paritions ...
Thank you, Q :)) You're so right about the borders! And with borders being shifted, other official languages were forced upon communities .. Lovely comment, as always :)
Thank you, Jen :)) The novel leaves you with some thoughts, which is always appreciated :)