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The Breaking of Eggs: A Novel

di Jim Powell

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11810233,954 (4.02)12
Fiction. Literature. Humor (Fiction.) HTML:

Read Jim Powell's blogs and other content on the Penguin Community. The Breaking of Eggs is the story of the curmudgeonly Feliks Zhokovski, Polish by birth, Communist at heart, who at age 61 finds that just about everything he has based his life on is crumbling. Separated from him family as a child when the Nazis invaded Poland, Feliks is currently living in Paris and his life's work is a travel guide to the old Eastern bloc. But unfortunately for Feliks, it's 1991: the Berlin Wall has fallen, Communism has collapsed, East Germany isn't the economic miracle he wants it to be, and he's forced to confront the fact that his travel-writing days are numbered. His guide was a flourishing business, but the old pro-Communist descriptions won't do, for Western visitors will now be able to see for themselves. So he makes the (extremely difficult) decision to sell his guide to a big, capitalist American publisher. This sets in motion a chain of events that will reunite him with a brother living in Ohio that he hasn't seen in fifty years, reveal the truth about the mother he thought abandoned him and offer him a second chance with a long-lost love.
Equal parts hilarious and moving, The Breaking of Eggs is the story of a man who closed himself off from everyone and everything years ago and now awakens to discover the world has changed dramatically and he must change with it. The Breaking of Eggs also has the added bonus of being a crash course in 20th century European history, subtly told as a backdrop to Feliks' riveting personal story. Imagine Everything is Illuminated meets The Elegance of the Hedgehog, then forget all the publishing clichés and discover this incredible new voice.
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» Vedi le 12 citazioni

I can't remember much about this book, after the time passed since I read it. ( )
  mykl-s | Aug 13, 2023 |
The Breaking Of Eggs This was the monthly book in the Book Discussion Scheme that I belong to.
 
I did not enjoy reading this book because the main character is so annoying that every page grates. I wanted to shake him and shout in his face, 'Wake Up!"
 
If that was the authors intent then 'well done that man'.
 
It was the same considered opinion of the others in the group too. Only one person actually enjoyed reading it. What really astounded me though was the discussion that followed about this book. I have  never heard my group talk so long or in such depth about any book before. Whatever you have created Jim Powell it sure has a powerful effect.
 
Obviously well written and  crafted but would I recommend it to anyone?
 
Maybe, depending on the person. I am an immigrant to this country (New Zealand) so I could relate to some bits quite strongly, especially on the subject of where one feels that home is. I think anyone with an interest in politics would like it, or maybe I should say, be able to appreciate it.
 
Challenging but brilliant ( )
  Ken-Me-Old-Mate | Sep 24, 2020 |
"My dam had well and truly burst...water seeping beneath the carapace into the furthest recesses of my life", July 27, 2016

This review is from: The Breaking of Eggs: A Novel (Paperback)
I really enjoyed this book - a gripping storyline and very intelligent writing.
Narrated by Feliks Zhukovski, a curmudgeonly elderly bachelor who has lived in the same rented Paris apartment for the past 36 years, the reader is aware from the first sentence that an interesting tale lies ahead: "I suppose that Madame Lefevre was the catalyst for most of what happened next".
Feliks, a "leftist"/ communist runs his own travel guide to the countries of E Europe. For all these years he has been regularly visiting Poland - his homeland - but has never made contact with his mother (who sent him away) or older brother (who abandoned him.) Feliks' take on his family history, like his left-wing political beliefs, are set in stone.
But his life is about to turn upside down: "I had to deconstruct and then reconstruct my intellectual viewpoint, my attitudes to the exterior world in which I lived... If this were not enough, I had to do the selfsame thing with my most deeply held emotions."... ( )
  starbox | Jul 27, 2016 |
A stunning start, only to peter out badly after the mother's letter which is frankly boring. It is then downhill all the way to fairytale land. A disappointment. ( )
  michalsuz | Sep 1, 2013 |
It is January 1, 1991 and the western world is changing. Feliks Zhukovski is a Polish-born travel writer who has specialised in authoring a set of guides to Cold War Eastern Europe. A leftist and former communist, he has spent years striving to provide a more accurate view for the capitalist West of life behind the Iron Curtain through his Guide Jaune. Whether he feels it or not, Feliks is aloof and adrift - no sense of 'home', almost no close ties or relationships, lost family. His life is centered around certain strident beliefs, truths. It is only after 36 years renting the same apartment in Paris that 61-year old Feliks Zhukovski's landlady says 2 things to him that set in motion a series of events over the year that call into question or give context to so much of his life to that point.

Zhukovski's distance from everyone, his firmly held beliefs that everything is politics and that there are absolute truths are tested time and again. He himself is stubborn and awkward in many ways. Eggs must be broken, but to what end? What sacrifices must be made?

I have 2 criticisms, or observations: 1) The novel sometimes feels dogmatic. But is this just a portrayal of Feliks's (and others') beliefs, or do the author's own views bleed into certain sections? 2) Feliks's language and behavior are stilted, but sometimes overdone for effect/storyline. Those aside, this is a wonderful novel, one that raises questions about who we are; that challenges what we believe to be true, right in our own lives (and often increasingly so as we get older); and that shows what happens when you start to crack the fragile exterior of those beliefs. ( )
  ljbwell | Oct 24, 2012 |
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For my great-aunt 'Thos'
Dorothy Letitia Powell
(1884-1977)
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I suppose that Madame Lefevre was the catalyst for most of what happened next.
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They have scattered, unconstrained by boundaries, unimpeded by armies, unhindered by ideologies, into some other homeland of their hearts.
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Fiction. Literature. Humor (Fiction.) HTML:

Read Jim Powell's blogs and other content on the Penguin Community. The Breaking of Eggs is the story of the curmudgeonly Feliks Zhokovski, Polish by birth, Communist at heart, who at age 61 finds that just about everything he has based his life on is crumbling. Separated from him family as a child when the Nazis invaded Poland, Feliks is currently living in Paris and his life's work is a travel guide to the old Eastern bloc. But unfortunately for Feliks, it's 1991: the Berlin Wall has fallen, Communism has collapsed, East Germany isn't the economic miracle he wants it to be, and he's forced to confront the fact that his travel-writing days are numbered. His guide was a flourishing business, but the old pro-Communist descriptions won't do, for Western visitors will now be able to see for themselves. So he makes the (extremely difficult) decision to sell his guide to a big, capitalist American publisher. This sets in motion a chain of events that will reunite him with a brother living in Ohio that he hasn't seen in fifty years, reveal the truth about the mother he thought abandoned him and offer him a second chance with a long-lost love.
Equal parts hilarious and moving, The Breaking of Eggs is the story of a man who closed himself off from everyone and everything years ago and now awakens to discover the world has changed dramatically and he must change with it. The Breaking of Eggs also has the added bonus of being a crash course in 20th century European history, subtly told as a backdrop to Feliks' riveting personal story. Imagine Everything is Illuminated meets The Elegance of the Hedgehog, then forget all the publishing clichés and discover this incredible new voice.

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