Entertaining listen

Really engaging listen, funny, warm and above all interesting. Really well narrated by the author too.

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nor home most of the time

describes Poland and its people and culture well. I went in 2001 to Poznan, enjoyed the novelty of Poland pre EU , the people were then quite introverted to foreigners but as they grew with EU MEMBERSHIP and the younger generations shook off their last 50 years , they expanded to a very different nation

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Enjoyed every minute.

Beautifully narrated and fascinating story. Would definitely recommend it. I will also listen to it again.

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Excellent, unexpectedly brilliant.

Poetic prose used to illuminate the mundane. Makes me fancy a trip to Poznaz. 😂

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I love Poland

Audio book listening, I'm no intellect, failure at reading so enjoy this lazy method, only returned from a mini break in Poznan so was intrigued when saw this, so much easier when you can relate to somewhere, me & Ben probably have different political views, which come across, but that's fine, I'm sure we could have a polite debate on this, many great parts, but the Xmas tradition of turning up unexpectedly, wow Mr Benjamin got bigger balls than me, I cringed with embarrassment, but was so impressed, great book, love this type of reading, thank you.

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1 person found this helpful

This is a book as much about life as it is...

... about Poland. And works all the better for that. Aitken is a warm, intelligent and interesting story teller. It's not a Bill Bryson travel book (as I first thought), although there are echoes of that. Instead, Aitken has his own, less forced, more rhythmic style of writing. The narration is great too. Overall... one not to miss.

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First Bill Bryson rip off, now this! Lacks energy.

I got through the whole book, something I wouldn't have done if actually reading it myself. I kept expecting something to happen but the author apart from deciding to go to Poland seems to be so apathetic that he just drifts from one situation to another as a causal ill informed observer. The inclusion of footnotes do get very repetitive as he does the research after. I've read other reviews and was under the impression that the book would be charming and witty ( I laughed out loud once!), it's neither, droll perhaps. I didn't particularly enjoy his writing style which involves using three or four descriptive words in a row in an effort to depict thoughtfulness, one will suffice.
On to the narration which is no fault of the author, it was generally monotonous but better than if the Author had read it like in his previous books.
Bottom line: There are lots of better written travel books out there but if you have low expectations and want to know a little about Poland from a person who knows a little about Poland then give it a go.

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Yikes

Whiny, un-original, navelgazing, ill-
informed waste of the listener’s time. So sorry to have spent 3 hours before giving up.

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It just didn’t grab me

I really wanted to like this book, I almost gave up several times but preserved. There’s some excellent parts on what nationality really means and for me showed how far this country has sunk. But it just didn’t do it for me as something I’d want to recommend or talk about with friends.

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Unnecessary and upsetting chapter 18

Chapter 18 ia upsetting, disturbing and unnecessary with its horrific graphic descriptions. It ruined the whole book that I was enjoying up to then. Thank goodness I can get a refund as I won't be going further or listening again.

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1 person found this helpful