Michener’s Poland: A Novel is primarily about three families in nine different ages. It was written during the height of the Solidarity movement in Poland and uses a fictional, but quite representative, conflict between Polish union organizers and Communist sympathizers as the bookends between which the rest of the historical fiction is racked. Even the struggle between the two families involved in the bookend conflict serves as framing for the conflicts within the book. It is not only epic in that it covers the history of a beautiful land from the 13th century to the 20th, but it is epic in that the historical lessons and comparisons in the early part of the book function as streams running into a great river of missed potential at the conclusion. Michener presents Poland as vulnerable, the Polish people as courageous and noble, and the political consequences of the combination as representing one missed opportunity after another. Yet, somehow, the land itself experiences resurrection as surely as that singular Resurrection in which their resilient Catholic faith continues to thrive (at least, when I visited Poland a few years ago, the Catholic churches were packed and I found the mass moving even though I only understood a few words in Polish and part of the Latin).Still, one needs a disclaimer about my inherent and very subjective bias with regard to epics. I like to have a character with which I can identify and empathize. It isn’t easy for me to transfer this virtual loyalty from one family member to another. Families, even my own, evolve so that children don’t have the same attitudes and values of the parents even as the parents try to inculcate such values. Michener’s families are no different. Sons are not as noble or strong as their fathers. Wives transfer their allegiance from one family or homeland to another. The transfer of leadership, power, and wealth is not always smooth or certain. Michener captures this realistically, depicting life as it is but failing to satisfy my desire that the protagonist triumph over each obstacle. So, in reading my remarks, bear in mind that I prefer uplifting results (I think I can tell you that the results of each era are a mixed bag without providing a spoiler) to equilibrium or tragedy. So, there were times I was thrilled with this epic and times when I was disappointed (or maybe even devastated). You’ll have to decide for yourself whether that is just me or if the book is missing some human ingredient binding these disparate stories together (other than obvious genetics within the families).The first four eras demonstrate how Poland was constantly under threat from four geographical areas, even titled after the four cardinal directions. So, after the bookend of the more modern struggle is placed, the first era covered is the 13th century and first threat is from the east. I wanted to resonate with the tales of the Tatar invasion and the Battle of Legnica (which I had simulated more than once in GMT’s The Devil’s Horsemen game), but the battle scenes were almost an anticlimax to the section. Henry the Pious was treated as a cardboard character, almost as cardboard as his counter in my war game. But I kept reading because I could see the author was setting up something else.The second era covered the threat from the west and the age-old premise for conquest. It starts in the 14th century and segues into the 15th to describe Poland’s enemies from the west (the once aligned, Teutonic Knights) who claimed the Polish people were unable to protect themselves. Under the guise of taking over territory for Poland’s own good, the Teutonic Knights began to muscle their way in and it took heroic efforts to reverse the trend. The good news is that the account of the Battle of Grunwald (Tannenberg) was extremely interesting but it seemed to this reader that the families through which the book was woven together had taken an extreme back seat to these historic events—although the battle scenes do demonstrate that Michener wasn’t afraid to kill off named characters as some authors hesitate to do.The third era covered the threat from the north. The 17th century section dealt with the Polish tradition of selecting a king from another nation in order to avoid having a dynasty and the resulting threat from a coalition of Sweden and Transylvania. Though some important points were covered and the descriptions of 17th century rural life were vivid, I felt like I was sleepwalking through most of this section.Naturally, the fourth era covered the threat from the south. Perhaps, the threat from Kara Mustafa and the Turks was the frightening and devastating since the Tatar invasion of the 13th century. The late 17th century proved to be a marvelous backdrop for the heroic defense and relief of Vienna and Michener masterfully uses this stage to set the foundation for other events.Most specifically, the book now segues into the partitioning of Poland between Austrian, Prussian and Russian control. The differences in culture and polity are explored and here, some of the family members become much more than cardboard. Motivations and aspirations (only vaguely assumed prior to this point in the book) are explored in juxtaposition with other ideas and aspirations. It is at this point and later, during the Nazi era that the book assumes its greatest humanity. We almost hear the incredible music of both Austria and Poland in the Viennese music scene and the conflicting styles of Mozart versus Chopin (if you will) reflect the conflict between ideas of governance and civilization. I also found myself caught up in the search for “proper” wives during this section of the book.By far the most humanly compelling, however, were the accounts of resistance and survival during the period of Nazi occupation. Having read autobiographical accounts of such experiences (most notably that of Corrie ten Boom, Viktor Frankl, and the semi-autobiographical Night by Elie Wiesel), these sections rang very true. I particularly resonated with one prisoner’s mental resilience and Michener let us visit the mental gymnastics necessary to stay alive in such a situation during that struggle. I also enjoyed the accounts of the partisans or Stork Commandoes (very vivid symbol considering my visits to Belarus—portions of which were once Poland – and seeing those ungainly birds fly). For me, though, the entire book could have been dedicated to the partisans and I wouldn’t have minded.Finally, the book considers the disintegration of the doctrinaire Communist system. The book leaves one with the idea that there is unfinished work to be done in Poland, but it, of course, stops short of Poland’s eventual triumph and the entry of the country into the European Union. If I didn’t know the real history behind the fiction, I would be most frustrated with the conclusion of the novel. Yet, I found that I could smile smugly and think to myself that the majestic country won.For me, one of the most memorable lines in the book was when the U.S. expatriate and daughter of the railroad and real estate magnate looked out the window of her palace and “…she saw for the first time that in a human life there were many ruins which remained, giving the landscape meaning, and that like the great river, life flowed on, coming out of the mountains, seeking the ocean of which it was a part. And everything one did entailed the creation of ruins and involved one in the implacable movement of the ongoing river.” (p. 379) I also loved this pithy line: “Never try to correct a national situation by a foolish personal act.” (p. 422)Would I have chosen this book if I hadn’t visited Poland and Belarus? I probably wouldn’t have. I’m not a fan of Michener’s work because the strokes are generally too broad to give me a cathartic vision of human possibility. In this case, though, the journey was well worth it. Not only did it put my own experiences in perspective, but it helped me relive an amazing experience as I observed this virtual experience.
I like James Michener a lot. That said, it's obvious that he's not for everybody and in fact, I would argue that most people are not reading James Michener correctly. And before you say, "You shouldn't need to be told how to read something in order to be able to read it," I would say this: people should have some understanding of say, the Bible, or the Qur'an, or of Nietzche, or Plato, or Buddhist Sutras before you start engaging with them. Or if you're trying to argue that that's intense philosophy, not fictional novels, well you have a selection to choose from, because we do the same with Shakespeare's plays, with Dickens' novels, etc. So I'd argue that a primer is necessary for those who are not familiar with the novels of James Michener. Michener has been called "the King of beach reading," which I find mysterious because his books are massive and (if you are reading a hard-cover, first edition copy like I was) can cause wrist cramps which doesn't seem ideal while lying on coastal paradise, being enveloped into the annals of a country that was raped by historical forces and the madness of humanity over and over again. James Michener, quite simply, tries to capture the essence of an era into a novelized format. For example, his novel "Space" begins with the close of the second World War and the escape of Peenemunde scientists from the Third Reich to the United States, and ends with the development of the Space Shuttle. And between those important events, it covers the political intrigue, the military-industrial terror of the '60s and '70s, the excitement and thrill of landing on the moon, the pop culture and misinformation of the American people, and then the tragedy of space accidents like Apollo 1. And all through these epic events, the mystical location, and the representative characters, there's the theme woven through the novel: what is humanity's next step? Knowing what you know now, you can probably construct the basics of Michener's Poland: it's about a fictional village (Bukowo) on the Vistula between Krakow and Warsaw. It features three families representing the nobility (Lubonski), the rising middle class (Bukowski), and the peasantry (Buk). And it is woven through with an important theme immortalized in this phrase: "A Pole is a man born with a sword in one hand and a brick in the other. When the fighting is over, he rebuilds." When Michener wrote Poland, it was one of the most prosperous nations in the Warsaw Pact, and was facing the least of the Soviet repressions, the memory of the Nazi terror in Poland was still fresh in everyone's mind, and with Karol Wojtyla just elected to the Papacy in Rome, he began his historical research. The first four chapters represent essentially the entirety of Polish history: "From the East," "West," "North," "South," discussing the events and effects of the invasions of Poland (or just Eastern Europe in general) by the Tatars in the 1240s, the Teutonic Knights in 1410, the Swedish Protestants in the 1650s, and the Turkish attempt to capture Vienna, famously defeated by the Polish King Jan Sobieski in 1683. In addition to the fictional families of Bukowo that are witnessing the attacks on their nation, Michener also introduces the Von Eschl family who begin as the hereditary rulers of the Teutonic Knights, dedicated to the Germanization of Poland. All of the historical set up in the book builds up to two main events: the Partition, and "The Terror," describing World War II in Poland. Michener represents Poland as a nation ahead of its time. At the end of the eighteenth century she was busy viciously attempting to adopt sorts of reforms that would allow a gentle rise of a middle class, a pacified peasantry, but ultimately to the emasculation of the nobility: "There was no justification for this terrible rape of a free land. Such nations as Switzerland had long been encouraged to exist as buffers between larger powers, and there was no reason why Poland should have been denied this privilege, except that she had committed two fatal errors: she had evolved no way to defend herself with a stable government, regular taxation and a dependable army; and in her weakness she had endeavored to initiate freedoms which threatened the autocracies which surrounded her. Had her neighbors been England, France and America instead of Russia, Prussia and Austria, she would surely have been permitted to exist, for the innovations she was proposing were merely extensions of what that first trio had already accepted. To be both weak and daring is for a nation an impossibility." Instead, she opted to protect what was called "The Golden Freedom," the ability for Polish nobles to veto any action of the (elected) monarch, and instead lost all freedoms for well over a century. Her short lived republic between the World Wars ended tragically, once again caught in her nightmare of being torn apart by the Germans to her west and the Russians to her east. I have not been to Poland yet, but in 1910, my great grandfather arrived in America from (what was) the Russian "Kingdom of Poland." The quote above about swords and bricks really resonates with me, and I can see how that cultural standpoint works so well in my family history. Or even this one from the Tatar invasion, which explains certain facial features those of us with Polish heritage might find ourselves staring at Asian friends in the mirror and wondering: "Of course, in February of 1242 they did produce bastards, but young ones were so earnestly needed to rebuild the settlement that no disgrace adhered to them. Such events, repeated over the centuries, accounted for the fact that many Poles along the Vistula would have darkened skins and eyes slightly aslant, as if they represented echoes out of Asia." I look forward to going to Poland in the near future and seeing how well Michener's novel holds up to the feeling of being in Poland in the 21st Century, because he presents a fantastic image of its history, with all the bravery, the challenge, and the foreshadowing of triumph that Poland would soon achieve (He mentions Lech Walesa a few pages in, and remember, this was first published in 1983, prior to his acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize, and his future election in the Polish Solidarity Revolution). It's an excellent introduction to Michener fiction, just remember that when you see characters espousing expository dialogue, that they aren't fictional characters like you might see in other novelists' work: they're personified segments of entire portions of a society. In a certain and important way, we all are. Even those of us who are echoes out of Poland.
What do You think about Poland (1984)?
Poland was one of several Michener historical novels I read in the late 70s and early 80s, when it seemed everybody else was doing the same. I rarely hear him mentioned these days and wonder why.I hadn't intended to read it again now, but a copy fell into my lap, and after opening it idly I was hooked.Large chunks of the story had stayed with me over the years. I remembered Michener's accounts of the invasions by Tatars and Swedes, and the unspeakable things those people did (wonder why modern-day Poles don't seem to have a chip on their shoulders the way other nations do about past atrocities). I remembered the three layers of Polish society that Michener portrays as a constant throughout the eight centuries that are covered -- the pragmatic but usually self-centered upper nobility, the more romantic but perhaps more selfish gentry, and the serfs, who are taken completely for granted by their masters while steadfastly serving as the country's greatest resource.Reading Poland's long tale of woe, I thought of Arnold Toynbee's ironic quote, "History is something unpleasant that happens to other people. We are comfortably outside all of that I am sure." My first reading was during "Morning in America," when one might have been excused for feeling safely insulated from such terrible events. This time, beginning with the opening scene in which modern-day Poles confront the reality that communism has failed them, through the point near the end when a true believer betrays his compatriot over an ideological disagreement, I found reason to wonder how closely events over the next generation or so, much closer to home, may replicate what is portrayed here.The good news is that after every calamity, Michener's Poles rebuild. So, taking the long view, it's probably reasonable to hope that our descendents can do the same, after the lessons of history have been learned yet again.
—Stephen Gallup
All of James Michener's books are amazing. I have only reread a handful of books in my life and this was one of them. In 1989, I had the opportunity to visit Cracow, Poland and I saw how hard life was for the people. I imagine much has changed for the better. Michener truly seemed to capture the essence of Poland, how it clung to the only thing that kept it united as a nation, its history. While its borders would shift, change, and often disappear, it maintained its identity as a nation through its collective memories from the past. While I think he exaggerated how Polish armies saved Europe from the Turks at Vienna or the Communists at Warsaw, he accurately depicts the Polish people as heroic. It was hard to read about the war years and the Holocaust; and I could not read it straight through but, of course, I had to finish. This a terrific and thoughtful read. Thank goodness that the Iron Curtain is no more!!!
—Shawn
I was lucky enough to read this book while I was in Poland, which was an incredible experience. I visited Auschwitz and Birkenau the day before I stared into the world war ll portion solidifying everything I had seen in a beautiful tragic way. Even without that though, this book would have remained a page turner. With story after story of heartache and triumph, Michener takes you into the heart of Poland and makes you never want to leave. Michener is a fluid writer that takes you flawlessly from the 1200 century to just a few years ago. He is consistent in his characters and his writing, and you can feel the love he acquired for this great country through his meticulous studies. It's easy to see why this book remained a best selling novel for so long. This is a book that should be read by everyone, especially if planning a trip to Poland (which you should definitely do.). I can't wait to pick up my next great Michener adventure. (Ps. HBO? A series please?)
—Kiri
