Unquiet Days

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Melding his experience of living in Warsaw during 1980-1982 with return stays in '85, '88 and '90, Swick, travel editor for the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel , adroitly succeeds here in capturing the country's ethos, especially--and perhaps remarkably for a non-Catholic--its religious rites. We accompany him to the funeral of cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, buried with the solemn pageantry befitting a primate of the Church; partake of family celebrations of Christmas Eve Wigilia and Easter Wielkanoc , followed by Mass; achieve, with the euphoric if footsore Swick, an epiphany on a nine-day pilgrimage to the legendary Black Madonna of Czestochowa. The author, who taught at the Methodist English Language College in Warsaw and with his native-born wife endured shortages and discomforts on a scale with the average hard-pressed Varsovian, ``adopted the Poles as other writers had the Greeks.'' Readers of this resonant memoir will agree he made a good bargain. (Aug.)

Library Journal

Swick, an American journalist, moved to Poland in 1980 for two years in order to live with his new Polish wife and teach English in Warsaw. In this chronicle, he reveals the daily lives of the Polish people. His perspective is unique, since he is a foreigner as well as an insider (due to his new family ties). He records the turbulence of hard economic times, food shortages, and martial law, while living in an apartment with no heat in one of the country's worst winters. Swick's various family members, work cohorts, and friends are like characters in a novel--the reader cannot wait to hear about them during Swick's subsequent 1985 and 1988 return visits. Of particular interest, of course, is the 1988 journey. His book provides excellent insight into a country that continues to fascinate Westerners.-- Melinda Stivers Leach, Precision Editoral Svces., Wondervu, Col.