u/fixtheblue

Cześć i witaj (hello and welcome....I think) to our first discussion for the Read the World - Poland book Ferdydurke. Today we will be discussing the first three chapters . As always there will be a summary below and a bunch of questions in the comments to get you started.

If you need 'em

• The schedule
• The Marginalia

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#Summaries

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#1 - Abduction The narrator wakes from a bad dream with deep feelings of anxiety and concerns about his own immaturity. He considers his book Memoirs from the Time of Immaturity and its reception by various groups. The MC, Joey, shunned the elite but found his book was considered immature by the "semi-educated". He reflects on his social demeanor and how it was inadequate due to contrariness and/or anxiety. Taking stock leads the MC to burst into fits of laughter. This is when he notices an apparition of himself in the corner. He jumps out of bed and slaps the apparition away then begins writing. The maid brings his breakfast when shortly after T. Pimko appears (a doctor of philosophy and a professor, in reality just a schoolteacher, a cultured philologue from Kraków). He offers condolences for Joey's dead aunt. The Professor reads the Joey's work as he, uncomfortably, watches and waits. The Professor questions the Joey about poet Kasprowicz the historian Lelewel and adverbs/conjugation. The Professor gives him a poor grade then says Joey must go to Mr. Piórkowski’s school to fix his lacking education. The maid begins wailing as he is dragged from the house. On the way, as Joey tries to keep up, a little dog jumps up and rips Pimko's trouser leg....

#2 - Imprisonment and Further Belittlement Pimko drags Joey all the way in to the school and demands he is enrolled in the sixth-grade. He is left with the students who behave immaturely though they remain under the eyes of their mothers standing outside the fence?!. A school inspector is reported to have been seen snooping from behind the tree. It is, in fact, Pimko, and he has written a note in which he says that the students are innocent. The students laugh at this. Joey tries to get Pimko to come out from behind the tree, but he continues to assert that all the students are innocent even as they swear and mock him. After he leaves the students joke about Syphon being innocent. Things escalate and when Syphon rejects Kneadus' apology they fight. In the face of defeat Syphon and his side begin singing the Falcon's March. Kneadus can do nothing but walk away. He and his friends plan to stop Syphon singing as Joey is called in to Principal Piórkowski's office by Pimko. From there he meets the disagreeable teachers who haven't a thought in their heads, and whom the Principal keeps anemic with a poor diet. At the bell all the students pile into the classrooms and come immediately with excuses and attempts to get out of class. The teacher, "Ashface", tries unsuccessfully to teach poetry, which should be appreciated for poetry's sake, but the students do not care. The teacher argues with a student called Gałkiewicz, but the the boy is not buying it. Ashface makes Syphon recite some poetry which has an effect on the students. Joey realises he has to run away, but he cannot run away from himself and what Pimko has made of him. Kopyrda quietly appears...

#3 - Caught with His Pants Down and Further Kneading After the bell the students are released and Pyzo rallies for Syphon and his lads while Syphon himself sits quietly. The boys fight over their varying, yet equally narrow, awkward, constrained, and inept ideals. The argument becomes dishonorable and only Kopyrda avoids getting sucked in. Joey tries to prevent Kneadus jumping Syphon but that only puts him head to head with Kneadus. He tries to convince Kneadus to run away with him to the real world of the journeymen. The Syphonists over hear and mock Kneadus for being a farmhand sentimentalist. Things escalate and....Kneadus challenged lls Syphon to a face-pulling duel *(Ok I tried to keep the commentary out of my write-up but seriously....WHAT on earth is going on?!?!?!)* to which he names Joey as umpire. The bell rings and Latin class begins, but none of the class has done their homework. They are systematically awarded F's by the teacher who insists Latin enriches the mind. Eventually he calls on Syphon who recites the passage fluently and with ease. The teacher is amazed. At the bell he walks out and the conflict resumes. Kneadus won't let Joey off the hook, because he is upset that Joey let out his secret desire to be farmhand. Mizdral and Hopek (Kneadus' seconds) beg him not to participate, believing he'll be defeated. Joey is alone with the 2 fighters and their seconds. The battle begins....amid the facepulling Kneadus eats a fly and they both break down crying then Syphon points and Kneadus picks his nose but Syphon keeps pointing and that somehow means he is the victor.... IDK folx .... I honestly don't know. Kneadus refuses defeat and they attack Syphon and co. Particularly Syphon's ears. Joey is frozen to the spot. Pimko returns....

#References This site has a particularly good break down by chapter of the book (credit to u/bluebelle236 for finding this).

Well friends that was....er....different and I fully empathise with all the high-school Polish literature students having to wade through this odd book. Next week join u/bluebelle236 for chapters 4 through 6. 📚🇵🇱

Добредојде назад ("Welcome back"... I think) to our final discussion for Read the World - North Macedonia short story collection I'm Not Going Anywhere by Rumena Bužarovska. Thanks to my co-runners u/nicehotcupoftea and u/bluebelle236 for the first 2 discussions. Today we will be discussing the final two stories Cherokee Red & The 8th of March (The Accordion). As always there will be a summary below and a bunch (many....many, many!) of questions in the comments to get you started.

If you need 'em

• The schedule
• The Marginalia

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#Summaries

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#Chrokee Red Matej and his mother Beti arrive in Arizona, US from Macedonia to reunite with Vlado, his father, who had travelled ahead to get their new life set up. Their new apartment is simple and still bare, but Matej is excited about the pool. Vlado works a lot of overtime and is not home much. School hasn't yet started for Matej, and he is bored by the TV that only has news reporting awful crimes and violence. One evening they visit Yotso (aka Jordan) and Sandy for a BBQ. Yotso is also Macedonian and, according to Vlado, has it made in America by marrying the wealthy, older, estate agent called Sandy. Vlado drinks too much to be able to drive home so Sandy and Yotso drive them. Back home Vlado picks a fight with Beti. They send Matej out with the trash where he picks up a beer bottle and throws it at the house belonging to the two gay men that had politely said hello to the family a few days before.

#The 8th of March (The Accordion) Professor Vesna recieves an invite by the International Women's Community to a meet and greet for powerful women at the American ambassador's residence. She is thrilled. She reflects back on the protests of the students against the new higher-education law. She, along with Ellie and Aneta (her work "besties"), join the protest motivated by Vesna's son Vojdan's participation. She's buzzed on vodka which gives her the courage to motivate the students in their protests and even get up to give a talk that she is unprepared for and, later, barely remembers. She is congratulated by other professors for being so brave, but her friends and son are nowhere to be seen. In fact both Vojdan and her "husband" Ljubo are unimpressed by her choice to speak. Remembering the speech gives Vesna anxiety.

At the meet and greet Kelly Davis, the American ambassador's wife, proposes they put on a show. Vesna offers to perform both English and Macedonian songs. She rips her pants, and so exits the gathering as soon as possible. Vesna suffers anxiety with her impending performance relying heavily on her stash of vodka and ignoring emails whilst still insisting she will perform. She practices loudly in a desperate attempt to get Vojdan and/or Ljubo's attention. The day of the performance Vesna makes her apologies and downs rakija for her nerves. On top of the screwdrivers, one slider and a performance that leaves her sweaty she begins to feel her mouth water.....and yeah...you know the rest, you read it 🤢.

#REFERENCES

• Interestingly Vlado explains where Macadonia is by referring to Alexander the Great aka Alexander of Macedon. Though it seems that Macedon region was the current days Greece vs. the country we know today as North Macedonia. Cue rabbit holes into the history of the time. I now realise how little I knew of this period, and it is fascinating (imo).
• Vlado mentions Frank Lloyd Wright. Learn more about the architect here or see adobe style house designs here.
• For plant lovers the vegetation Vlado points out are paloverdes trees that thrive in the hot, dry Arizon climate and saguaro aka cacti.
• An interesting article about women's rights in Macedonia (among others) and International Women's Day Match 8th!
• Vesna chooses to perform Meredith Brooks' Bitch and the Macedonian folksong Nazad, nazad, Kalino mome (check out these gorgous tranditional outfits!)

I hope you have enjoyed this stop in North Macedonia 🇲🇰 on the Read the World adventure and I look forward to seeing you again soon. Happy reading (the world) 🌍📚

Hello fellow book lovers Now that No Name by Wilkie Collins is well under way it is time to announce our next Mod Pick which will be The Books of Jacob by Nobel prize winning author Olga Tokarczuk. We have enjoyed her work previously on the sub and have read The Empusium and Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead together. (Plus Read the World is heading to Poland shortly with Witold Gombrowicz' Ferdydurke so it seems fitting). Myself and u/lazylittlelady would like to invite you to join us in this door stop adventure starting in August

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#Book Blurb

>!The Nobel Prize-winner Olga Tokarczuk’s richest and most ambitious novel yet follows the comet-like rise and fall of a messianic religious leader as he blazes his way across eighteenth-century Europe. As new ideas—and a new unrest—begin to sweep the Continent, a young Jew of mysterious origins arrives in a village in Poland. Visited by what seem to be ecstatic experiences, Jacob Frank casts a spell that attracts a fervent following. He reinvents himself again and again, converts to Islam, then Catholicism, is pilloried as a heretic, revered as the Messiah, and wreaks havoc on the conventional order, Jewish and Christian alike, with scandalous rumours of his sect’s secret rituals and the spread of his iconoclastic beliefs.!<

>!The story of Frank—a real historical figure, a divisive yet charismatic man—is the perfect canvas for the genius and unparalleled reach of Olga Tokarczuk. Narrated through the perspectives of his contemporaries—those who revere him, those who revile him, the friend who betrays him, the lone woman who sees him for what he is—The Books of Jacob captures a world on the cusp of precipitous change, searching for certainty and longing for transcendence.!<

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Will you be joining us? 📚

Hello readers, Myself, u/Lachesis_Decima and u/nepbug would like to invite you to join us for the final Galactic Empire and the final Greater Foundation novel Pebble in the Sky by Issac Asimov

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Book blurb

>!One moment Joseph Schwartz is a happily retired tailor in 1949 Chicago. The next he's a helpless stranger on Earth during the heyday of the first Galactic Empire. Earth, he soon learns, is a backwater, just a pebble in the sky, despised by all the other 200 million planets of the Empire because its people dare to claim it's the original home of man. And Earth is poor, with great areas of radioactivity ruining much of its soil--so poor that everyone is sentenced to death at the age of sixty.!<

>!Joseph Schwartz is sixty-two!<.

>!This is young Isaac Asimov's first novel, full of wonders and ideas, the book that launched the novels of the Galactic Empire, culminating in the Foundation books and novels. It is also one of that select group of SF adventures that since the early 1950s has hooked generations of teenagers on reading science fiction. This is Golden Age SF at its finest.!<

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The official schedule will follow shortly for an mid June start.

See you soon space travellers! 📚🚀

I wonder what she found.....

Hello book lovers. I am excited to announce our June core reads of 2026 will be.......

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#THE BIG SUMMER READ

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• 1st place -

#Devils by Joe Abercrombie

• Joint 2nd & 3rd place -

#North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell & A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving*

• 4th place - Seveneves by Neal Stephensen

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#LGBTQ2+

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• 1st place -

#The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai

• 2nd place -

#Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian* (6 votes behind 1st)

• 3rd place - Less by Andrew Sean Greer (1 vote behind 2nd)
• 4th place Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters (1 vote behind 3rd)

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*These three books will be added onto the Wheel of books, and the care of the warden of the wheel u/Joinedformyhubs and the devestatingly darling doogeroonie, the Thormester!!!

Also special shout out to ...me who nominated both winners 🥳

So will you be joining us for one (or both) of these reads?

Happy reading bookclubbers 📚