In the Memory of the Forest

by Charles T. Powers

Book Overview

When the body of Tomek, a young distillery worker, is found brutally murdered in the forest outside Jadowia in Poland, his boyhood friend, Leszek, decides to uncover the mystery behind Tomek's death. Assuming the role of amateur sleuth, Leszek embarks on a clue-finding mission that takes him from country to city, into the grimy offices of once-powerful bureaucrats, and face-to-face with the Catholic Church's pious and impotent priests. And as Leszek...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 014027281X
• ISBN13: 9780140272819
• Release Date: May 1998
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.1" x 7.9"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

accountability

What a brilliant overlooked gem. I am so glad a friend recommended this book. It is a deeply nuanced, intelligent exploration of historical and personal accountability. In the form of a mystery novel, it gets to the heart of questions of the historical self, collective responsibility and collective guilt, the ways in which lies are perpetuated among generations and truth can be used as a bludgeon. It will be of great interest to anyone interested in the tribunals going on about Bosnia, central Africa, South Africa, etc.; or in WW II history; Jewish history; the uneasy transitions from communism to capitalism; or questions about how we are formed by our parents moral choices, and whether we can or should escape the consequences.

A long-overdue note of praise

I picked up this book at the library several years ago (having read nor heard anything about it) and immediately found myself absolutely captivated, entranced, spell-bound by the author's riviting story of a post-WWII Polish village and the shameful secrets shared by its inhabitants. I didn't put it down until I finished it - then returned it to the library and couldn't remember the title! (One of he drawbacks of advancing age) I was beside myself - and no one could help - until just this past month when a total stranger and I were discussing favorite reads, and he popped out with the title of this stunning work. I cannot express what an impact this book has had upon me, and I was devastated to learn that the author (and this was his only novel) had died. What a loss. Evocative descriptions of the Polish countryside, memorable characters, old-world values coming up against the modern age, evil and redemption, and an engrosing story line - this book has it all. I know that I will never forget the title again! - and I am making it part of my permanent fiction collection. Charles T. Powers had a true gift, and we readers are the less for his loss.

History, memory, identity

Superbly written, _In the Memory of the Forest_ is a powerfully haunting exploration of the dangerous consequences of suppressing painful memories, both individual and collective. I especially appreciated how Powers takes time to build his story carefully. The novel takes on the deliberate pace of history itself: each character is convincingly layered, just as the identity of a village, or a person, or a family, is also constructed over time, an accretion of interwoven layers of secrets, fears, loves, evils. A richly engrossing work that deserves to be widely read and discussed.

Crystalline prose that will break your heart.

The story of a young man coming of age, discovering love and lies, ambition and murder in a town that cannot admit its past or face its present. Set in Poland as communism collapses, the rupture of old foundations reveal the townspeople to be what they would forget.While one of the book's larger themes is what the Nazis, and by complicity, the Polish people, did to the Jewish population during the Second World War, it is not "a Holocaust book." Rather it is an absorbing murder and love story; a murder that begins the novel and whose investigation provides its framework, a love story that will leave the reader in tears, reminded what the world should be but is not. It is a rare book, one that impells its reader onward with a gripping narrative but repeatedly brings the reader to a halt to reflect on the beauty and lyricism of its prose.

One of the most important novels of the past year.

This book is a methodical telling of a village's struggle with redemption and its attempts to come to terms with only part of its sordid past. Poland's communist history starts out as the primary backdrop of this murder mystery. However, the murder of one slowly becomes secondary to the old system's silent murder of spirit and morale in the community. Finally, the old system, now replaced, becomes an inconsequential source of reconciliation compared to the disappearance of 80% of the village's population at the start of WWII. This is a hopeful story, for a broader community than the fictional Poles of the village. Mr. Powers clearly understands that there are victims at every level of societal horror, and that no amount of guilt or ingorance can move a community into salvation. Purposeful recongition of the roles of community attitudes and actions are at the heart of the redemption of individuals. The story-telling is marvelous and rich. The characters are real and human -- none of them pure evil, but all taking part in the history of a village, and its country. Furthermore, all of the characters are Polish. There is a distinct lack of Americans in the novel, and a distinct lack of Americanisms in the book as a whole, in characters, the plot, the atmosphere, or the pacing. Settling into this novel is a joy, reminiscent of the pace of life, not the thrilling romantic life of an American dream world. This is a story worth reading for the next several decades.