Poland, a Green Land

Poland, a Green Land by Aharon Appelfeld
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Strange book.
I found there 2 separate worlds with practically no connection.
World 1 - real life of Yaakov - from early years alienated from his family.
As a result of some mid-life crisis he visits Poland - a country of his parents and grandparents.
World 2 - in Poland he meets a person - Magda - who in matter of minutes frees him from all complexes and inhibitions and brings him first time in his life full sensual satisfaction.
After some 4 weeks the reality calla back - Yaakov, without much concern, leaves Magda and tombstones of his ancestors in rather hostile surrounding and returns to Word 1.
On one hand I liked the style of writing, I got a feeling that a gentle person it telling me some naively beautiful story. On the other hand I felt a bit nervous all the time, I got a feeling that the reality is not so nice, they are dangers and I worried - why the narrator treats them too light?
One more hidden stream - folk tales about God, religion, Jews - again, mostly they sounded like nightmares, still I got feeling that they are told by a good and gentle people.

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