Dagmara DominczykBesprekingen

My first reaction was disappointment to see the book was so short because I assumed that there wouldn't be enough time to develop the characters sufficiently. I usually prefer much longer novels.

The image on the cover of 3 young girls at an "Alice in Wonderland" tea party was amusing and thought provoking. I wondered how that image tied into the story. I read the one page pronunciation guide to Polish - you'll need to keep that handy or skip all the Polish vocabulary.

Then I launched into the first chapter which is set in 2002. Each sub-section is devoted to one of the three girls - hmm, I wondered if one of them would become the primary protaganist. Chapter 2 - what? It's set in 1989.

Dagmara Dominczyk anchors her book in 2002, drops back to 1989 when the girls first met and then swings back to "present" again. Each time shift is shorter. It's a structure that could have been problematic, but it's executed very well. I was wrong assuming that good character development doesn't happen in such a short book - a good writer can do that and cover more than a decade of time as well.

Dagmara's three girls are likeable - but not all the time. Just like real people. The structure of the book shows how their lives connect, disconnect and reconnect. Just like some real-life friendships. Their life choices wouldn't have been mine, but I enjoyed seeing where those choices took them and how it affected future choices.

The book includes a study guide for book groups and this is a very good choice for book clubs. It will provide rich material for discussions. Please note that it contains much vulgar language and frank descriptions of sexual behavior (though not gratuitous in my opinion).

Full disclosure: I won this in a Goodreads giveaway.

I really wanted to like this book chosen by my book group, because I’m not familiar with the Polish culture. However, after reading about 50 pages, I just couldn’t get past the particularly foul language and had to put the book down. I do not recommend this book.

Thank you Goodreads First Reads for the uncorrected proofs of this book!

If you do not like narratives that go back and forth in time, you will find this book hard to read.

This is not to say that Dominczyk doesn't do a good job. In fact, I would argue that, among all books that have a similar structure that I have read, she does a very good job of keeping the plot steadily chugging along. I had absolutely no trouble following characters through time. Although the book is relatively short, and there are three different characters with very different lives, and the book takes place in several different times and places, Dominczyk creates three young women who have depth, complicated identities, and real lives: Anna, the sensible idealist, Kamila the ugly duckling desperate for her childhood love's attentions, and Justyna, the loud-mouth know-it-all tough girl.

Perhaps what is most impressing about the novel is how well it captures the immigrant American identity with its many hues and versions. The homesickness, the childhood summers in the homeland that seem magical, the immigrant communities in New York, being an "American" in your homeland, yet a something else in America... And the distance time, life, and privilege can put between friends.

Recommended for those who grew up in the 80s and 90s, those who carried several identities, the generation 1.5 and 2 children, and those who like Polish food and Greenpoint!

This is the story of three Polish women who have been friends since their teenage years. Anna, Kamilla, and Justyna come from a small city in Poland. They spent their teenage years trying to attract boys. By early adulthood each has found herself in a state of crisis. Anna and Kamilla have come to the United States, and both have relationship problems. Justyna has remained in Poland. When Justyna's husband is murdered the crime will effect the lives of all three women.

This book touches on the discomfort and in-between nature of culture clash, generational conflicts, and the gender-specific limitations faced by young women. Ultimately there was nothing deep of life-changing about this book. It wasn't a bad read, and it retained my interest, but it had no lasting effect.

Dagmara Dominczyk’s The Lullaby of Polish Girls has a great title – one that enticed me to request it from the Early Reviewers Club. There doesn’t, however, seem to be a lullaby quality to the novel, nor references to lullabies – literal or figurative. I’m not sure why the author chose it. Nevertheless, I’m glad it got me to open the book.

The novel is told from three different character points of view, and in three different time lines.

Three Polish women have separate personal obstacles to their happiness. They all know each other, but were separated in their teenage years and are estranged through geographic distance, and lifestyle. The novel weaves in their separate stories, going back to when they were children and had first met each other, to when they were teenagers and young adults, up to the present.

The story ends with a poignant reunion, but not before each woman grows in strength to the point that they are able to solve their own immediate disasters.

I was really glad that the novel ended this way. It’s empowering to read that they all individually “fixed” themselves first before reuniting.

Yes, camaraderie is lovely, and being part of a community of friends is the only way I want to live my life, but knowing that each woman had personal strength and courage to make it by herself separate from her friends is important.

The characters were real. The author did a great job at separating them with distinctive voices. I did have trouble with the multiple time lines. Dominczyk was careful to identify in which year the setting was taking place, which town they’re in, and which character was speaking. But still I struggled with matching the adult characters with their adolescent counterparts. Was Anna, the adult, the one who did such-and-such when she was a teenager? Or was that Justyna?

I liked the interspersing of Polish words, even though I don’t know any Polish. It added flavor and color to scenes that might’ve sagged without it. I also got a kick out of knowing that anyone from Poland reading this would get extra pleasure, glee, and resonance from seeing those words.

Dagmara Dominczyk writes well and develops her characters with flaws and fears – just like real people. The Lullaby of Polish Girls is worth reading if you like family or friend dynamics, well-developed characters, Poland, or stories with unique time lines.

3 out of 5 stars; I liked this book, but probably won’t read it again.

Really liked this book. The characters are authentic and raw and the story has good interest and pace. Anna, Kamilla and Justyne meet when Anna goes to Poland for a summer and then returns each year. Covers their lives through to early to mid twenties. The friendships are very realistic and the atmosphere in Poland is very stark and the people very human.

Anna has spent most of her life outside of Poland, but she seems to feel the greatest connection to herself when she is back in the town she called home in her childhood, and where she returns most summers. It is in this town of Kielce, Poland that Anna meets her closest girlfriends (and frenemies) Kamila and Justyna. The three girls create an unlikely bond when Anna comes to visit her grandmother when she is 12, and remain penpals in between Anna’s visits back to Poland.

This is the world we enter in The Lullaby of Polish Girls by Dagmara Dominczyk. The book moves back and forth in time and from the viewpoint of the three friends. Anna brings a sophisticated world view from living in many places before settling in the United States, eventually becoming an actress. Kamila is the awkward, desperate to please friend who flees to the United States when her marriage falls apart while Justyna is the wild child who never leaves Poland. A shocking tragedy brings the three friends back to each other.

I found this book really special. It could be because I am of Polish descent that I felt a connection to this book, but I really enjoyed Dominczyk’s writing and character development. Each of the girls had flaws but were lovable in their own way. You could feel and believe their friendship and their betrayals. The ending is a little too neatly packaged, but I was ever able to look past it because the overall work was so solid.

This review can also be found on my book blog www.BaileysandBooks.com

Pros:
The setting aroused my interest. I really liked learning about certain aspects of Polish culture.
Well written and engaging.

Cons:
This is an interesting story, but the way it was told made it a little less desirable than I expected. It skips back and forth in time, and made it difficult to follow at times.

The main characters, although relatable, were too similar.

First published on We Should Make T-Shirts.

Anna, Kamila and Justyna become best friends in the early 90's when Anna visits her grandmother in Kielce, Poland for the first time since moving to America as a young girl. Despite having better opportunities in America, Kielce is home to Anna, and she comes back every chance she gets.

Throughout their teen years, the girls remain extremely close, picking up where they left off every time Anna comes back. But as they grow older, and real life gets in the way, their friendship falls apart. It takes the murder of Justyna's husband to make all three women realize how important their relationship was.

Even though this novel starts out with a murder, it's NOT a mystery. It's about the girls and their similar needs of romantic fulfillment. All three characters have distinct personalities, and the story switches between perspectives, as well as between the past and the present.

The polish terms throughout the novel caused me to stumble occasionally, but the overall story made up for it. The characters could have used a little more depth, but for a stand-alone novel, it wasn't bad.½

Three women who had become friends when they were younger, but has their lived took different turns they have become separated. All this changes when one of the woman become involved in a horrible tragedy and the other woman are at points in their lives where they needed to get away. They first met in Poland and this is where they reunite. Each character tells their story and it switches from the past to the present. This was an okay coming of age story, there were some things I felt were unnecessary and a little too much of but all in all I did admire the clarity of this authors writing.

"The Lullaby of Polish Girls" is an engrossing read replete with vivid settings on both sides of the Atlantic. It is at once the Polish version of "Just as Long as We're Together" and gritty portrayal of alienation and the immigrant experience.

By far one of the best books I have read so far this year, The Lullaby of Polish Girls , caught me by surprise and kept me in it's grip till the very last page.

Spoken alternately by the three Polish girls, Justyna, Anna and Kamila it paints the picture of their lives as they become women from the late eighties till 2002. Though at times, I became confused with the time frames of the story, the characters were compelling.

It encompassed so much of the angst that teenagers go through, the power of friendship and how love can surprise you. I truly recommend The Lullaby of Polish Girls as a must read. I am sure you will love i as much as I do.

The Lullaby of Polish Girls was just not my book. Ordinarily I love coming of age stories and was not daunted by the Polish names or the shifts in time. The problem for me was the characters. They were not compelling to me in any way. I wondered several times throughout the book if I am too old to enjoy a coming of age story in this particular era although I haven't experienced that as a problem before. Anyway, the book was a trudge for me.

A story of friendship between three girls with Polish roots.
Anna left Poland as a child with her parents when the Communists took over the country. Her parents moved to Brooklyn NY and brought Anna up in America.
Kamila grew up in Kielce, Poland, with parents who react differently after losing their son in an accidental drowning. Mother is so afraid to lose another child, she pushes her away. Father babies her. Kamila feels ugly and unloved a lot of the time.
Justyna also grew up in Kielce but is a rebellious, outgoing child.
Anna meets Justyna the summer they are 13 when she visits her grandmother in Kielce. Kamila is so disappointed that she missed meeting the American that she writes a letter to Anna and promises that they will be friends the next summer.
The novel's chapters seesaw between the past and the year 2002. The author shares stories from each girl's point of view from both 2002 and from particular years in the past as they grew as friends and grew apart.
The novel opens in 2002, with Kamila and Anna receiving the news that Justyna's husband was murdered. The three react to the event in different ways, but their ways stay true to the characters that the author fleshes out over the following chapters.
I found it a little difficult to keep things straight with the jumps from 2002 to the past and back. Had to keep notes for a while. Once I read enough to understand each girl's situation, I followed the story much better.
I enjoyed reading this book. The fearsomeness of Kamila and the fearlessness of Justyna were balanced by the middle friend, Anna.½

This book tells the story of three Polish friends from the same town over the course of roughly 10-15 years. One of the girls moves with her parents to the U.S., while the other two remain in Poland. The chapters alternate focus on each of the girls and as the stories unfold, you begin to see how the stories overlap. The girls drifted apart over time and it took a tragic event to bring them back together. I had a hard time connecting with the characters, but maybe that was the point of telling the story as the author did. Each girl was kind of drifting until they came back together.

Dagmara Dominczyk's "The Lullaby of Polish Girls" is the coming-of-age story of three young women from the small town of Kielce, Poland, told in the present (2002), when they are about age 25, and at various points in the past, starting in 1989, when they were 12. Anna, who has a promising acting career within her grasp lives in the United States, but returns periodically to visit; Kamila flees to the States to join her o immigrant parents and escape from an unlucky marriage; and Justyna, the wildest and most irresponsible of the trio,stays put and, ironically, makes a good marriage until tragedy strikes. How the girls interact with the young men in their lives, their flawed parents, and mostly each other is the meat of the story. Only the grandmothers seem to have their heads screwed on straight enough to cope with the demands of daily life. The girls make a lot of bad choices; they smoke too much, drink too much; and they may have too much of youth's rudderlessness, but they feel a pull to Kielce wherever they are. At critical times in their lives--in the end, at *the* critical time--they face challenges together. This is Dominczyk's first novel, and it is clearly heart-felt. She gets many things right. The handling of the Polish language is adept and lends nice verisimilitude. The switches in time are perfectly clear. My minor quibbles are three: it doesn't sound right for Polish girls in the 1990's to be talking like Valley girls; there are a few places where the reader isn't sure who is talking; and the preprint has a few editing mishaps that should be corrected in the final version (the wrong "their"; "compliment" instead of "complement," for example). More important, the death of Justyna's dog doesn't heighten tension the way it ought--and probably was intended to--because I didn't recall the dog's even being mentioned previously. Perhaps this was edited out at some stage, but the lack of a firmly established presence of the dog in her life make its demise fall flat. The girls' troubles are in some part an outcome of the limitations in their environment and in some part of their own making. Despite their setbacks, and all coming-of-age heroes face them, these three interesting characters still look to the future with hope.

This is the story of three friends from the same town in Poland. One of the friends emigrates to the United States at a young age, yet always feels as if Poland were her true home, so she visits often and stays in touch for a while with her old friends. As the years go on, the three lose and re-establish contact sporadically, until a traumatic event brings them together (sort of).

The action moves between the 1990's and the 2000's, focusing on each young woman in turn.

I never developed an interest in the characters or the plot. The development of the characters was lacking, and, considering that the plot was also slow, there wasn't really anything compelling to me about this book. The characters seemed sketchy and poorly differentiated. Considering that the novel alternated settings between Poland and the United States, there was a surprising lack of a sense of place. Really, nothing in this novel worked for me.

I got the chance to read this uncorrected proof. I was thankful for the beginning note from the author with proper Polish pronunciation. I hate reading and guessing.

This was a decent coming of age story of 3 Polish girls. It is a story that bounces around from past to present. The author writes it in a way that is not confusing.

This book has promise. It lets you know your charactor and they are relateable. But I felt it was lacking. The girls never come into their own and accomplish anything except Kamila.

Was a hard read for me. I never fully could get into it.

This book was sent to me as an Advanced Uncorrected Proof from LibraryThing. I found it to be full of disgusting language and a rambling story line. Surely this story could have been told without so much vulgarity. In fact, it could have been an enjoyable story on a better level. I did not enjoy this story and would not recommend it to anyone.

I received this book as a uncorrected Advanced Reading Copy from LibraryThing.com. There was way too much sex and bad language in it for my taste. I would not have read the whole book but for it being an ARC. I thought the book was a bit shallow, yes these girls formed a strong friendship and Anna made a place for herself in the country of her heritage, but it didn't really give me anything to think about.

As an Early Reviewer for Librarything.com I received an advance uncorrected proof of The Lullaby of Polish Girls by Dagmara Dominczyk in exchange for my honest opinion.

I generally enjoy coming of age stories and childhood friendships taking place in foreign places, but despite this book containing all of the aforementioned, it did not resonate with me. The book began in the present (2002), but flashed back to childhood and young adult memories from Poland. I usually like the past and present dynamic, but in this story it was slightly confusing.

The three main characters, Anna, Kamila and Justyna, childhood friends from Poland, had a definite bond and connection, but unfortunately their love for one another did not endear me to the characters. Each character was living a miserable life in the present. Anna was disillusioned with her family, career, and engagement; Kamila had recently discovered her husband, the love of her life, was gay and unfaithful, and Justyna's adored husband was murdered. Their stories of their friendship from the past, leading up to the present, were neither heartwarming nor inspiring. Their memories should have produced nostalgia and their struggles should have provoked empathy, but in my case, there was somewhat of a disconnect.

It was difficult to like the main characters even though I wanted to. They came across as crude and hard core. The girls/women were incessant smokers, drinkers, foul talkers, and graphically sexual. At times, as with all childhood friendships, they were jealous and cruel to one another, but in this case, their actions distanced the reader from the characters rather than provided insight.

There were some interesting story-lines that needed further development. Additionally, it would have been gratifying to have the characters release their pent up feelings to one another and to those who have hurt them. Justyna probably was the most enlightening, but most of the characters' true emotions were locked inside, and were revealed through their thoughts rather than through their words. Exposure of this magnitude would have peeled away some of those hard layers to find the essence of each character.

The ending was satisfying, but also a little over the top.The author's warmth and affection for Poland was clear, as was her love of family. I know that there will be a following for this novel. It just wasn't for me.½