The plot of Polychrome is driven by a police investigation into a series of murders that demands much more than the usual forensic methods. The investigation would never get off the ground if it weren’t for a woman's intuition, supported by reliable expertise.
Anyone attempting to deduce the identity of the perpetrator will encounter a lot of twists and turns along the way. The revelation of each suspect's deepest darkest secrets usually just leads to another maze of riddles and meanings, the exit of which leads to another maze, and so on.
Women are given a lead role in this novel. They are always in control of the situation, contrary to the weak and indecisive men who are practically helpless.
His mother. He wasn’t going to call her either. The endearment in her voice annoyed him, telling him to look after himself, dress warmly, avoid draughts, and that accent of hers, the turn of phrase which reminded him of where he came from.
The author deprecates all mankind for its carelessness and irresponsibility but does not hesitate to put the blame on overambitious women. Most of the spiritually or morally broken characters of her novel made the mistake of prematurely accepting their mother's/girlfriend's/wife's expectations which came to nothing or even caused tragedies.
He’d put off talking to his mother for almost a month. And not long ago he’d been happy not to have to listen to her grumbling so frequently about his having let Malina go. It was so damn painful every time. They’d been together for six years. He’d been the one to mess things up when a year ago, they’d agreed to part.
It’s a pity to read about ageing sons of present-day matrons who always make use of moral blackmail – ‘I am so poor, sick and weak…’ – they maintain obedience to themselves, however frustrating and bitter. If you treat this novel as social science reportage about a country on the border of the European Union, you will get the best of it.
Joanna Jodełka, born in 1973, is a graduate of the history of art faculty at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. She debuted with her Polychrome for which she received the High Calibre Award for the Best Polish Crime Novel in 2009. Her subsequent novels are Grzechotka (2011) and Kamyk (2012). She was a scholar of the Ministry Of Culture and National Heritage and Polish Film Institute. She is currently working on new novels – one about crime and another a fantasy about dragons as well as preparing a script for a film about Józef Piłsudski’s Russian postal train robbery done with few future Polish prime ministers.
Author: Janusz R. Kowalczyk, March 2014, Translated by W.O. March 2014
Joanna Jodełka
"Polichrome"
Publishing House: TimeMachine, Poznań 2009
size: 123 x 195 mm
cover: soft
pages: 304
ISBN: 978-83-92864-3