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| Polish Publisher: E-BOOKOWO Będzin 2014 Translated by Nina Wagner E-BOOK |
Any kind of conflicts – military or
between people – is very often incongruous. We usually find out about it only
after some time when we cool down and begin to make their analysis. Marcin
Brzostowski describes these senseless and illogical causes of conflicts in a
rather unusual way in his novel titled “Sweet Bomb Silly”. The title of the
book indicates that while reading it can be very explosive. If you want to see
whether it is true, you have to read this book. The storyline does not give
readers a clear answer to the questions about some of the issues. It is up to
each individual reader to decide how they will be perceived by the readers. In
my opinion this is one of those clever books which are not so easily forgotten
and which encourage the readers to reflect.
I have already found out several
times that the volume of the book – in the traditional version or as an e-book
– is not evidence of its quality. Because after all you can write a story using
hundreds pages and really write about anything. You can also create a short
story with a deep and meaningful moral which will be in the memory of the
readers for a long time. Marcin Brzostowski chose the second option and created
an original story where the main character is… a bomb. The air force S6-X02
series bomb called “Silly” is not as silly as her name could indicate. This is
a very resolute and curious bomb which loses her best friend in quite dramatic
circumstances. Silly’s best friend was a K8-0 series hand grenade. Both Silly
and her companion were brought to life in the Bombs and Grenades Factory ltd.
in Czernievo. Since their “birth” they are soldiers, and their purpose is to
participate in the armed conflicted. Silly orphaned by the friend is the first
year group soldier of the intelligent army of mass destruction.
The bomb works almost as a man. She
has hands, feet, eyes and of course her own unique brain and even feels hungry
like any normal person. But this is not only the fighting hunger. Silly is
extremely proud of its destination. The bomb considers herself a soldier who
sooner or later will be killed in the battle. If you want to imagine Silly, you
can identify the bomb with a classic cartoon character. Although our Silly is a
soldier, she does not really know much about the war. Her knowledge is based
only on what the bomb learned during the training. Certainly Silly does not see
what is happening in the army between people who command it. Silly cannot
understand many things, but the lack of knowledge is not troublesome for her.
The bomb asks a lot of different questions. At a certain moment our sweet Silly
is implicated in the showdown between the two opposing armies that try to fight
each other. How does our resolute bomb behave in this situation? Does she come
out unscathed from this conflict?
Now I should write the standard
sentence that most readers repeat: “Generally I do not read e-books, but
this time I like it very much.” Yes, that’s right. I do not read e-books as
often as I would like to read, but not because of their poor quality or
something, but because of the lack of the e-book reader. However, I am sure
that the quality of e-books is not worse than the quality of traditional paper
books. I think that it is high time we began to overturn this stereotype and
stop thinking that e-books are much more worse than paper books. Nowadays many
respected authors also publish their novels both as traditional books and
electronic ones.
Talking about “Sweet Bomb Silly”, as
I mentioned above, I think that Marcin Brzostowski created a really original
fictional story. While reading any book I pay special attention not only to the
technical side, but first of all to the uniqueness of the idea and the storyline.
And what can I say? I like our Silly. The bomb really gives the impression of a
much more wiser than people who command the army. She sees many issues
completely different than people do it. While reading this book we can smile
from time to time, but under the sense of humour the author hides the bitter truth
about the people and their doings, and generally about the world around us.
Many issues taken by people do not make sense to only satisfy their own
ambitions or to fulfill some ridiculous desires. This kind of absurdity about
making various decisions accompanies by the reader practically during the whole time of
the book reading.
Marcin Brzostowski’s
book is by no means strictly a war novel as some of the readers may think. In
my opinion this book is a rather science fiction novel with the elements of psychology.
I think that anyone who would like to read this small volume of the novel will
not be disappointed and first of all from the very first pages will feel
sympathy for the main character. Because it is really impossible not to like
Silly.
