Flights by Olga Tokarczuk
Translated by Jennifer Croft
I can’t think of a better book to start off Women in Translation month!
Author Olga Tokarczuk and translator Jennifer Croft won the Man Booker International Prize this year with “Flights”, and although I tend to avoid most book prize winners like the plague, this one was shouting out to me to be read. Having spent several stimulating days in its company, I can say that in many ways it’s a hard book to review because it’s a hard book to define. Is it a diary? A novel? A collection of interlinking philosophical musings? Short stories? A series of travelogues? An extended meditation on the human need to make journeys? A study of the study of human anatomy and the art of preservation? All of these things and none of these things? It’s certainly dark and provocative in places, yet entirely intriguing and inspirational, and full of the most beautiful writing (elegantly rendered into gorgeous English by Croft).
It is widely known, after all, that real life takes place in movement.
In simple terms, “Flights” is a book about travel. In a series of pieces of varying length, Tokarczuk’s narrator ranges through time and location to explore human beings and their constant inability to settle (a syndrome from which the narrator also suffers). These individual his/herstories range far and wide, taking in such disparate tales as the last journey of Chopin’s heart, a missing wife and child on a Croatian island, a variety of Cabinets of Curiosities, the morals of preserving a human being’s body against their will, tales from a harem and the last cruise of an ageing professor. This latter thread, towards the end of the book, has some of the most beautiful yet achingly sad writing where Tokarczuk describes with stunning and chilling imagery the effects of a stroke, drawing on the motif of water and its destructive power against paper which she uses throughout the book. As my Dad suffered from several of these, it touched a nerve.

The author – by Tomasz Leśniowski [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)%5D, from Wikimedia Commons
… the Earth is round, let us not be too attached, then, to directions.
And the overarching theme is always movement, travel, flight – the latter word with a double meaning, as we are often in flight, running during our lives, either to or from people or places. “Flights” taps into the human spirit, recognising that we are restless, constantly searching beings, always moving on from what we already have. As a species we are unable to keep still, constantly driven to explore – and it could be argued that that is why we’re in the mess we are nowadays. A very pertinent and relevant short section of the book details carrier bags travelling the world as if they were some strange new species, which was funny and tragic at the same time.
We are the individual nerve impulses of the world, fractions of an instant, barely that part of it that permits the change from plus to minus, or maybe the other way around, and keeps everything in constant flux.
Tokarczuk is a Polish author and activist who trained as a psychologist (and I think this shows in the depth of her work); she’s courted controversy over the years by expressing views which have been unpopular with some patriots from her country. She’s won numerous awards for her writing in a variety of countries, and certainly if “Flights” is anything to go by, she’s an author to explore further. Croft seems to be her ideal translator (I love it when there’s a meeting of minds between the author and the person who renders their work in another language) and apparently she’s translating another of Tokarczuk’s works, which is very exciting for us Anglophones.

The translator, by Norapushkin [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)%5D, from Wikimedia Commons
Anyone who has ever tried to write a novel knows what an arduous task it is, undoubtedly one of the worst ways of occupying oneself. You have to remain within yourself all the time, in solitary confinement. It’s a controlled psychosis, an obsessive paranoia manacled to work, completely lacking in the feather pens and bustles and Venetian masks we would ordinarily associate with it, clothed instead in a butcher’s apron and rubber boots, eviscerating knife in hand. You can only barely see from that writerly cellar the feet of passersby, hear the rapping of their heels. Every so often someone stops and bends down and glances in through the window, and then you get a glimpse of a human face, maybe even exchange a few words. But ultimately the mind is so occupied with its own act, a play staged by the self for the self in a hasty, makeshift cabinet of curiosities peopled by author and character, narrator and reader, the person describing and the person being described, that feet, shoes, heels, and faces become, sooner or later, mere components of that act.
However, I think she succeeds brilliantly with “Flights”, which is an extraordinary work, a real tour de force with soaring prose and unforgettable stories. Tokarczuk weaves a wonderful tapestry of travellers’ tales whilst all the while digging down into the human psyche to see what it is that motivates us and what it means to be human. Reading “Flights” is like taking a wide-ranging and thought-provoking journey. It’s a book that certainly deserves slow and close reading, and then reading again to truly appreciate its complex and multi-layered narrative; and it’s most definitely deserving of the praise and prizes it’s received. A wonderful start to #WIT month.
Aug 05, 2018 @ 10:31:08
So glad you enjoyed it – I loved this book, although I’d hesitate to describe it as a novel (the author did a convincing job of explaining why she considers it a novel, though).
Aug 05, 2018 @ 10:34:01
Yes, I loved it too – though I agree it defies classification! Still resonating in my mind days after finishing it.
Aug 05, 2018 @ 10:34:20
Excellent review. I completely agree that it’s a difficult book to write about (which is why I didn’t) but you’ve risen to the challenge and I think you’ve done it justice.
Aug 05, 2018 @ 12:34:25
Thanks so much – so kind! It just felt too important a book to not write about and at the end of the day what I’m giving here is my thoughts and reactions to a work – which I why I started the blog, after all! 🙂
Aug 05, 2018 @ 11:18:58
Thank you so much for this wonderful review!
Aug 05, 2018 @ 12:33:14
Very welcome, Jennifer! I loved the book, as you can probably tell. And thank you for all your work in translating it – without that, monolinguists like me would have a much more limited range of reading matter! :))
Mar 15, 2020 @ 10:31:14
I have just read Flights and it was one of the best translations I have ever read (not that I have any knowledge of Russian). Thank you for bringing this to us.
Aug 05, 2018 @ 13:11:40
This sounds completely wonderful! Great to see a prize going to such an experimental work too.
Aug 05, 2018 @ 15:19:39
It’s a great book, and wonderful that the prize went to something pushing the boundaries. A shame the English language lit prizes don’t go more that way!
Aug 05, 2018 @ 13:43:19
I was wondering the whole time while reading your review whether it’s cohesive at all. You answered that question. I must say, I too was very tempted to pick thus up. Still am. It sounds very different, very profound.
Aug 05, 2018 @ 15:16:42
It certainly is a very original work, with much to say and much that lingers in the mind. And yes, it did cohere for me. I do recommend it.
Aug 05, 2018 @ 15:12:46
Golly, those excerpts are rich and wonderful!
Aug 05, 2018 @ 15:15:20
The writing/translation really is marvellous- and it’s one of those books that I think will yield even more on a revisit.
Aug 05, 2018 @ 15:40:38
A wonderful start to #WITmonth, I have seen a lot of love for this book around social media. It certainly appears to be a profoundly moving and thought provoking collection.
Aug 05, 2018 @ 16:49:05
It really does deserve all the love it’s getting Ali. Such a multi layered and memorable work – marvellous!
Aug 05, 2018 @ 19:30:55
Well, this certainly seems to have struck a chord with you. Like Ali, I have seen a lot of praise for this book on Twitter and the like, so I’m glad to hear that it did not disappoint. Fitzcaraldo seem to have published some very innovative books in the past year or two. (I’m thinking primarily of Zone by Mathias Enard, another book that attracted a lot of attention at the time of publication.)
Aug 05, 2018 @ 19:46:47
It did indeed, and strangely enough it’s my first Fitzcarraldo book – which is odd when you think about how much love translated literature! I’ve seen a lot about their books online so obviously they’re another publisher I need to explore a bit more! 😀
Aug 08, 2018 @ 04:25:05
Very interested in this one too. Glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
Aug 08, 2018 @ 07:58:03
I really loved it – can’t recommend it enough!
Aug 18, 2018 @ 17:01:43
I’m hoping to read this later this month, and you’ve certainly given encouragement to do so! I’ve heard nothing but good about it.
Fitzcarraldo are a natural for you Kaggsy. Throw a stone at their catalogue and I suspect you’ll hit something you like.
Aug 18, 2018 @ 17:23:05
LOL! Don’t encourage me – the house is already crumbling under the weight of books as it is! And I suspect you might be right about Fitzcarraldo – just what I *don*t need, another publisher to collect! 😀
But yes, “”Flights” is marvellous, deserving of all the praise. I hope you enjoy it!
Flights by Olga Tokarczuk | book word
Aug 30, 2018 @ 07:56:12
Dec 31, 2018 @ 07:06:13
Dec 31, 2019 @ 07:53:44
Feb 21, 2020 @ 06:39:20
Mar 15, 2020 @ 10:29:59
This was such a complex book, I can’t imagine how anyone could hold so many themes in their head, and shape and pace such a subtle set of narratives. Each section was beautifully written, and the translation was beautiful. I definitely didn’t understand it all first time round, but it will stay with me.
Mar 15, 2020 @ 10:55:44
Isn’t it marvellous? A book with such riches, and yes, definitely one which will repay re-reading. Tokarczuk is a magnificent writer.