This book is a sort of Polish version of East of Eden, a huge, sprawling, family saga, epic novel that shows life in Poland under Russian occupation, and the transitions going on in society during the 1800's. The political and historical events going on in Poland are not in focus in this book, because the story focuses on an Orthodox Jewish family that was initially self-isolated from the modern world. That isolation becomes increasingly tattered and fragmentary with each new generation, and even the older members of the family find themselves living in ways they could never have dreamed of during their isolationist Orthodox years. Most of the family still claims a Jewish identity throughout the story, but what that means changes a lot over the course of each person's life.
I liked this book. I could see why it was split into 2 books- it is a dense story with lots of characters and places and events, and after a while the different characters do tend to get easily muddled and confusing. Keeping track of which children were whose, and who married whom, and which characters knew each other or liked each other was tough, and a notepad might have been a useful reading aide for this book. I may reread it later, since I know I missed a few things towards the middle and not all of the family drama after that made much sense as a result. Also, I don't know a lot about Polish history, so I missed references to what was going on outside the family's dramas. Still, this was a good book, well written and well-translated, and worth reading in its entirety. It brings up all sorts of questions and ideas about identity, belief, and tradition, and shows an interesting side of Poland, the Orthodox Jewish community, that is a bit different from what I usually think of when I think about Poland. ( )