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Title: The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski ISBN: 0-8021-3422-X Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.21 (76 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Staggering
Comment: This book tells the story (perhaps not entirely factual) of Jerzy Kosinski's flight from the Nazis during World War II. During these years, Kosinski lived in the rural villages of Poland, and his story is a staggering depiction of the peculiar culture of the people he encountered.
The picture of rural Polish culture that Kosinski paints is of a people devoutly Catholic but obsessed with spirits, demons, and Occult rituals. To the peasants he encounters, Kosinski's dark features marked him as an evil Gypsy, and Kosinksi has to strive constantly to avoid death at the hands of superstitious peasants who are hopelessly ignorant and xenophobic. The depth of the stupidity of the peasants Kosinski describes is astonishing, and is rivaled only by Kosinski's rich descriptions of the sex and violence that they practice.
I don't think there's a word of dialogue in this book. So it's all description: description of what Kosinski had to do to stay alive, description of the way Polish men beat their wives and maim their rivals, description of rape, massacre, and unspeakable atrocities. It's ultimately the repeated, graphic images of sex and violence that drive this book. Kosinksi is a master of realism, and his prose never ceases to be gripping, compelling, and disturbing. Each chapter reads like a very short story, so the book really keeps moving. The reader can move quickly from story to story, each rich in characters and haunting images of incredible emotional power.
Kosinski's is one of the most important books to come out of Holocaust literature, and after reading the terrifying experiences that Kosinski describes, you won't find it surprising that he commit suicide years after the war ended.
I feel uncomfortable calling Holocaust literature entertaining, but this book is as captivating as a New York Times bestseller. This is a chilling, staggering account of experiences occupying the border between life and death, sanity and madness. Despite the darkness of the book, a certain vague optimism urges with its glorious ending, which I won't give away, so this book isn't a troubling downer. Throughout its light and dark scenes, 'The Painted Bird' is a tour de force of narrative prowess.
Rating: 5
Summary: the HEART of darkness
Comment: My byline refers not only to the fact that both Conrad and Kosinski were Polish authors writing in English. There are also similarities in Marlowe's journey into the darkness of the Congo and Kosinski's young narrators' voyage through the surreal landscape of wartime Eastern Europe. Both investigate the darker regions of the human psyche. Both are the antithesis of a "picaresque" novel. Both are told from the point-of-view of a relatively innocent narrator, whose original naivete is transformed by the scenes he witnesses into an understanding of the "horror" and a comprehension of man's capacity for evil. I read The Painted Bird over 30 years ago and many of its images still remain vivid in my imagination. I will never forget the couple caught copulating (you'll have to read Kosinski's description yourself - I'm not going to go there) and the boy-narrator's harrowing account of being thrown into a pit of excrement. I'm a bit surprised, having taught high school English myself, that this would be recommended to a young reader, even though I read it when I was about sixteen. It definitely wasn't on my school's list of recommended reading. I don't agree with some reviewers here that the book is pornographic. Far from it. The sex depicted is hardly meant to arouse. Kosinski's later work might have fallen into that category (he did a lot of short-story writing for Playboy and Penthouse), but this is far too brutal a work to be anywhere near titillating. If you would like to take a harrowing walk into the heart of darkness, and are equipped to handle visions of one of the most depraved landscapes you are likely to encounter in literature, then this book's for you.
Rating: 1
Summary: Fraud - fantasy passed off as history
Comment: This book is mostly lies, and I don't mean the subtle kind common in such works - I mean flat out fabrications and inventions. It isn't worth a real review. For G-d's sake, if you must read it, check it out from a library or buy it used.
If you don't believe me, check around, that's what Google is for.
This fraud, Kosinsky, defames all those who suffered in WWII with his shameless gold-digging.
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Title: Steps by Jerzy Kosinski ISBN: 0802135269 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 1997 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Being There by Jerzy Kosinski ISBN: 0802136346 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: 20 September, 1999 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: Blind Date by Jerzy Kosinski ISBN: 0802135544 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Incubus (Ballantine Reader's Circle) by Ann Arensberg ISBN: 0345438167 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 02 May, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Dark Descent by David G. Hartwell ISBN: 0312862172 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 01 February, 1997 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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