My travel on the 38 […] passed by way too many interesting metropolises during the London area one to retrospection was due to the fact clear due to the fact unavoidable. […] Angel Islington into miracle regarding Upper Path and you will my personal memory of the Shine church toward Devonia Street; upcoming Holborn, regarding direct vicinity from which was my personal most crucial towns off functions; Tottenham Judge Highway on the statue from Freddy Mercury and therefore to help you people try a much bigger attraction compared to rocketed skyscraper regarding Heart Section, in accordance with a perspective in order to Oxford Highway which i had strolled along a huge selection of moments seeking certain musical records; West Prevent for the packed Piccadilly Circus lighted because of the advertisements; Hyde Playground, then eventually my personal interest, Victoria Route, where what you began, and you may where what you were to avoid. (284)
Seated on the mentor that is going to incur him family, Tomasz realises ‘just how high a deep failing my stay static in London possess proved is.
What is bad, I realized new pointless vacuum out of my personal expose lifetime whenever i is making England that have nothing and you can back again to Poland – to help you almost nothing’ (285)
In ways, it feel echoes the fresh downwards societal mobility of the Windrush generation, however it nonetheless sells brand new a cure for an urgent spin out of fate. Brand new narrator off ‘Hard Londing’ talks about the newest cool English terraced house from the homebound bus which have a past imagine for the their mind: ‘I’m able to pick such as property you to definitely day’ (Jakubowski 199). Tomasz Plachta, the new eponymous sociopath off Koziarski’s novel, disembarks on coach at last second as he is advised one to good screenplay he had created having a pal keeps started accepted because of the a british Tv channel. The final words away from his story is actually: ‘[N]ews of my personal demise ended up premature’ (Koziarski 287). Ergo, whilst the two messages avoid with strikingly comparable scenes – male protagonists seated from inside the a teacher to Poland and you may musing more its failure – he is suffused that have stubbornness therefore the optimistic expectation off finest moments.
‘This new Guaranteed Island’ (‘Wyspa obiecana’) when Furfling log in you look at the Jacek Ozaist’s London facts shows comparably equivocal. Right here, we are confronted with a beneficial narrator which, despite his experience in a few overseas dialects, even after holding one or two university levels and you will even with years invested within academic associations, is not able to look for a career in the Poland. He ergo reluctantly departs into United kingdom Countries where his first a reaction to London are a mix of admiration and you may nonchalance:
Yet , on top of that, the latest narrator’s other squatters, that equipped their bedroom intelligently that have situations discarded of the affluent Londoners (42-3), have indicated how yet another, comfy lives could be forged regarding the nearby rubble
I don’t know London area and he [we.elizabeth. London] cannot discover myself. Both of us don’t require that. I’m too small having him, and you may he’s as well big for my situation. He’s become right here permanently, I have been here just for several hours. There isn’t any way that he will adapt to me – I need to esteem their will. So, Learn, bring me personally a lesson in daily life. Render me an activate the newest asshole otherwise keep me to their cardio. (26)
The latest ‘lesson’ of one’s ‘Master’ happens to be ambivalent, just like the Ozaist’s facts stays frozen between incapacity and you will success. The new narrator ends up in a squat in which he occupies an effective derelict, ill-smell place disregarding a rubbish stack. This will be an obvious parallel to your dustman-standing produced direct when you look at the Bolec’s text message, that Ozaist’s tale try further emphasised of the protagonist learning Robert McLiam Wilson’s Ripley Bogle (1989), the storyline regarding a homeless guy from inside the London area (43).