Next, however, come the disastrous 1790s: Poland's reformers fail to dislodge the barons ('Symbolically, Feliks and Jan, master and serf, walked together up the gentle hill' to join freedom-fighter Kosciuszko) Poland's neighbors exploit its internal weakness, annexing and obliterating the nation. In the 1600s the land is devastated again, by Swedes ('they went totally berserk') and slaughtering Transylvanians yet by 1683, despite the 'insane' governing system of the Polish barons, the country has pulled itself together-thanks in part to charismatic King Jan Sobieski, who leads triumphant Polish forces (including a Buk and a Bukowski, of course) against Vienna-invading Turks. land from the west (ostensibly because the Poles are still 'pagans') in the 1410 Battle of Grunwald, the Poles join the Tatars and others-in serviceable battle scenes-to trounce the Germans.

A century-and-a-half later, the current count sends a Bukowski/Buk duo to spy on the Teutonic Knights who threaten po. In the 1200s these Poles are ravaged by Tatar raids, with the Polish 'abhorrence of central power' one cause of the region's vulnerability. Then it's back, back, to the 13th century-when Buk's ancestors are downtrodden peasants, Bukowski's are the local feudal lords, and above them are the fully noble Counts Lubonski. The saga begins with a talky 1981 confrontation, in the village of Bukowo on the Vistula, between farm-union leader Janko Buk and Communist agriculture minister Szymon Bukowski. to the present, but with little of the uplifting, dynastic sweep of this mechanical Michener-format at his best. The dullest, if timeliest, history lesson yet from Michener Junior College-following three Polish clans (noble, petty-noble, peasant) from 1204 A.D.

Poland james michener review