Jadwiga's Crossing

[hollister]

Jaga,
I am glad you are reading the book. At several points in the book the author writes about a traditional Polish story - the one that I can recall at this moment is about the legend of the origin of the star over the manger at christmas. It was a lovely story and very evocative - did you hear the same story as a child? Are the stories about in the book familar to you?

H

[Jaga]

Holly,

I do not remember this story specifically, I will pay attention to some of these stories, maybe to use it in the review article also. Did not have any time to look at the book very recently.

[Jaga]

I just read another fragment of the book with the story of Jesus giving life to the birds made of clay. I remember this story from my childhood but I am not sure that I heard this version. I guess, this was just a story of Jesus giving life to clay birds!

By the way, I just read through the fragment about Maria who died giving still birth. I think, the description of this sad event was written very interestingly. I had tears in my eyes when I read it!

[Jaga]

I finally read the whole book. I think for me the book became more interesting as it progressed. In the beginning I had a hard time to focus on it, but the last one third of the book I read in one weekend although this is not extremely easy reading.

these extra stories told to children are interesting but I did not hear any of them before. They may be local to a certain region of Poland.

Do you know how much true/documentary is in this book and how much fiction?

[gardenmoma]

Jaga,

Glad you had a chance to finish this book...if one has an active imagination, it is a difficult book to read.

In answer to your question about how much is true/documentary...several of us wondered the same thing and here is my ealier reply"

From a previous post by Hollister
Quote:
I wondered at several points that if Jadwiga herself was writing the book and not a grandson & great grandson - how she would have told the story.


Most of you probably picked up on this...but...There is mention in the postscript of the story that it was based on letters between Jadwiga and fellow passengers on the Fredricka. Also, tells what happens with many of the people in the book, especially Jadwiga and Paul's family.

GM

[Jaga]

GM,

I agree, the book is not easy but it gives people more idea how people travel/immigrate in that times. I saw these poscript messages in the afternote. Richard Lutz does not write specifically how Jadwiga and Paul are related to his family, I just wrote him the e-mail asking.

Richard also wrote earlier that his father chose some names for characters present there

[gardenmoma]

Will be interesting to hear what, if anything, he has to say about these relationships.

GM

[Jaga]

I am so glad that Richard responded so quick. He told me that he is checking the e-mail every hour, so if you have any questions you can also e-mail him:

from Richard (Dick) Lutz:

All the characters in the novel are real in the sense that they and their stories are based on people my father knew when he was a child and young man, or on people whose stories he heard and/or read in letters. In Dunkirk, New York, in the early 1900's (my father was born in 1903), there were substantial Polish communities, and there were plenty of stories to be heard, many repeated often and, of course, there were the variations that creep in when stories are passed among the people in a community. (There are still four Polish clubs in Dunkirk, and two Polish Catholic churches.)
In many cases, characters have been melded and blended -- and that's the case with Jadiwga Wdowiak Adamik and Paul Adamik. The nature of their realtionship is representative of a dichotomy in America's Polish community in the post-Civil War period, when the orientation of some was to an eventual return to a free Poland, and America was seen as something temporary for them. Others, like Jadwiga, intended from the start to become Americans and had little thought of a permanent return to Poland -- even while retaining a deep interest in the future of the homeland.
Jadwiga's baby, Helena, could be my grandmother -- my father's mother. Much family history is lost, but she was born either aboard ship or very shortly after arrival in America.
The stories that comprise Paul's and Jadwiga's life are stories that were carried from the Old Country to the new -- the varied reasons for migrating, the doubts, the differences of long-term intent, the concerns about leaving one's loved ones behind. Customs were retained. Dyngus Day is observed even today in Dunkirk.
The story must be considered fiction, of course. With this much remove from the events, it falls to an author to find or invent the details that thread together the diverse stories. We know that there were some very difficult crossings, but this composite story is a blend of many stories and, at the same time, a selection of those that my father and I felt could best convey something we felt had never been conveyed -- the travel... the hardships and troubles of the actual migration.
So many stories of Poland are of the nobility (James Conroyd Martin's wonderful books are the current pre-eiminent example). And so many stories of migration skip over the actual travel in order to get to the story of settlement in (and usually success in) America. That's why the story of Jadwiga and Paul and Jozef Dominiak's family is the stuff of two books rather than one. The peasant Poles who made the decision to migrate were engaged in a great leap of faith: Faith that they could make the journey, faith that God would see them through, and faith and confidence that, in a strange and new land with new customs and strange challenges, they could be successful.
I believe that this is one important reason why America is a great country. The fearful never left. Those who made the decision to become Americans did it because of the great faith they had in themselves and in the protection of God. They were entrepreneurial, adventurous, determined, confident. They created the American character and attitude of can-do -- absolutely can do -- that is the dominant image of Americans around the world. Simply put, at the time of Paul and Jadwiga's crossing, America was getting the very best people to fulfill the American destiny as envisioned by the Founding Mothers and Fathers. Paul and Jadwiga represent the continuing renewal of the American spirit by the continuing arrival of people determined to find a better life and make a better life for their offspring. That was Jadwiga's vision -- that her child would be part of the new energy of America rather than the old dissonances of a beleagured Poland.
Are they real? Yes, as real as you and I and our privileged lives in America. They were the foundation, the beginning, the seed.

[Jaga]

Holly and all,

I think it was Holly asking about some of the stories from the book. Frankly, I did not hear this version (with Polish tilt) stories before so I asked Dick. Here is what he responded:


Jaga,
I found these in 1983 in research at the Polish Insittute of Arts & Sciences here in NYC (see acknowledgment of Krystyna Baron on Acknowledgments page). I found many others, too, but couldn't include them... perhaps they'll be in the sequel if I can find them in the research materials, which are now 26 years old!