A Chip Shop in Poznan: My Unlikely Year in Poland

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I couldn't help but cringe every moment the romance interest was mentioned by the author (a lot); and I can only hope the author got permission from the romance interest to publish her name and their interactions. I really didn't like the writing (or much care for the author as a result) and almost stopped reading it about 40ish pages in. A fascinating book […] We should know more than we do about Poland, a nation with which we have had centuries of interaction.

There are also times when reading this you wonder should Ben be left leave the country considering the daft and dangerous situations he manages to find himself in. A sincere, mischievious and hilariously funny journal of strange and absolutely normal encounters that made me wish to visit Poland, even though I'm Polish. An engaging romp through Polish culture, with a resonant political message of the importance of interacting with other cultures and preserving our ties with Europe. The premise is brilliant - do to the Eastern Europeans what they do to the Brits - come over legally and work hard at the jobs we don't want.To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. There is a tradition that an extra place is set at the Christmas Eve dinner for needy strangers, although no one knew of an occasion when someone actually turned up.

Maybe it's my liberal snowflake beliefs but I feel like there should've been a greater discussion of privilege in a novel about immigrants, status quo and persona.This, along with more extreme examples (bringing beer into a nunnery, trespassing into conferences, and using his friend's favourite things as ashtrays), paints the author in a bad light no matter how fondly you look upon him. I've lived in Poland for the last twelve years, and so having a chance to compare my own experiences to those enjoyed by Ben Aitken meant that this was a diverting, enjoyable read. Despite being an immigrant, the author, being a presumably straight white man, gets away with a lot of behaviour that I just know, most minorities could never even think about eg. also, being polish myself, some facts and translations were not correct and i found it weirdly frustrating - was it that hard to double or triple check with one or two of the 700k poles living in the uk during the edit?

Even though I fully agree with him on these points a book like this is not the platform to share your political views and other convictions (do not feed bread to the ducks people, do not! He had a more-or-less girlfriend, Anita (she did not reciprocate his feelings for her), who asks him why he has come to Poland.Ben Aitkin did his homework and was well-versed in historical facts but this is not a history book but one trying to figure out what made the locals as they were. This is one of those engaging rambling, waffling, flaneur-ish books that is deceptively meaningful, quietly passionate. This is something I think everyone should take into account when forming their critique of this book, and I would like to start by thanking the author for giving us a view into his time and experiences in Poland.

i have bought the book sold on the seemingly interesting concept of ‘reverse migration’ of a brit to poland, however this entire book has just screamed ‘privilege’ to me.I don’t want to be rude about this book, because I am not convinced that the author is really ok, and someone should probably check in on him. In accordance with The Post Office, the last recommended date for Christmas posting is 18th December (2nd Class) and 20th December (First class). The book is presented in diary format, though the text has clearly been polished so that it reads well, and it's easy to gauge your progress through his year just by looking at each date stamp.