Word: polisher
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...year saga is a collage of the most dismal events in Polish history, including invasions by Tatars, Cossacks and Turks; partitioning by Russia, Austria and Germany; and the Nazi occupation during World War II. Michener attempts to impose an artificial symmetry upon these events by telling the stories of three fictional families who do battle through the centuries against the country's successive despoilers. Each family represents a different stratum of society. The Lubonskis are nobles, the Bukowskis are members of the gentry, and the Buks are peasants. To keep the scions of these families rushing forth to affront...
...surprising, then, that Polish farmers have little faith in what they derisively call "those people down in Warsaw." The government, they feel, refuses to adjust to the fact that farming requires long-term planning. In addition, the "rural brigades," groups of soldiers who occasionally visited farmers during the martial law period to remind them of the government's good intentions, hardly inspired confidence. Scoffs Szur: "They knew less about farming than my two-year-old daughter. They pretended to be interested in me, but they really wanted to hear about my political views." Farmer Jan Skrzypkowski was spared such...
...farm, similarly dismisses current complaints by recalling the discomforts he endured between two world wars. That may be small consolation to his fellows as Poland's economic prospects grow darker and darker. Soon after Pope John Paul II's visit in June, it was reported that the Polish church was negotiating with the government to funnel about $2 billion into providing farms with machinery, seeds, fertilizer and other needed goods. Most of the farmers in Borkowo are either unaware or skeptical of the offer. The only thing they are sure of is that the best response to hardship...
...learn of its choice; he was telephoned the news while on a visit to Austria. Although the Pope does not know Kolvenbach, the Vatican had approved his 1981 appointment as rector of Rome's Pontifical Oriental Institute. Kolvenbach became a trusted adviser to Wladyslaw Cardinal Rubin, the Polish prelate who heads the Vatican congregation that supervises the church's Eastern rites...
...book does have two strengths: the intrigue of the subject and the author's ability to quickly construct scenes. Michener is at his best when describing the homier aspects of Polish life; his 17th century wedding festival is the strongest scene in the book. He specifies which section of the slaughtered pig is eaten by which class, and how they cook it, as well as the music, dancing, costumes, and ceremonies which make up the rest of the celebration. But that sort of immediacy is missing in most of his scenes; a potentially lively and fascinating topic literally suffocates under...