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ravuri's review against another edition
2.0
I'm not sure what to make of this book. The perverted sexuality/violence didn't ring any of my bells as it did for some others (notably DFW). It's not that I'm bothered with the themes (which will turn off a bunch of readers), but I had the same reaction reading this as I had for 2666 and Blood Meridian*, which is, maybe it's intellectually stimulating for some people, but not for me.
Reading some other goodreads reviews, I noticed that the people who enjoyed this book liked being forced to reconcile the ego/superego revulsion of and the id arousal by scenes from the book. I get that, but, the subject matter, no matter how terrible it may be, is ultimately prosaic.
* This is not to say that the violence in 2666 and BM is the same as Steps, that.
Reading some other goodreads reviews, I noticed that the people who enjoyed this book liked being forced to reconcile the ego/superego revulsion of and the id arousal by scenes from the book. I get that, but, the subject matter, no matter how terrible it may be, is ultimately prosaic.
* This is not to say that the violence in 2666 and BM is the same as Steps, that.
raynecloudd's review against another edition
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
I love Kosinski’s writing but this book is gruesome and overall degrading. I understand it’s nature, but it felt almost painful to read as there weren’t many redeeming qualities to the character or plot. The two stars is for the writing style and the consistent pace.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment
It’s gruesome and graphicghost_name's review against another edition
2.0
Interesting vignettes at times. Just not a style I particularly like. Funny and poignant a few times:
"Because you know me only in a certain way. And because our relationship is based on your acceptance of what I have been with you."
(on the topic of prostitutes) "When I leave her, the awareness of what has happened leaves with me: that awareness is mine, not hers."
"Because you know me only in a certain way. And because our relationship is based on your acceptance of what I have been with you."
(on the topic of prostitutes) "When I leave her, the awareness of what has happened leaves with me: that awareness is mine, not hers."
rupertowen's review against another edition
3.0
Being familiar with Kosinski to some degree, having read Being There and Cockpit (many years ago, wasn't taken to it greatly), I found Steps to be a simple prose progression of what the book's summary highlights, that being the oppressor and oppressed, in various timeless and geographically void communities. What I like about Jerzy's work is his sometimes absurd narrative explications on character motivation such as in one moment a character happens to be talking to a Detective Agency who suggests following him in order to reveal how their services work, this of course ties in neatly with the rest of the story which I wont reveal - as much as I sometimes say aloud in my head "Really Jerzy, are you seriously expecting me to swallow that", it seems to be an idiosyncrasy he has when blending motives into the story arch.
The perversions are well dispersed amongst quite whimsical tales of stand over tactics and tall tales. Jerzy had a personal interest in 'underground' kink apparently and I enjoy the way he integrates the ideas into seemingly anecdotal accounts of life as lived by certain unnamed communities. There is nothing in this novel that is sensational, it is all dutiful 'anti-erotica' as I call it, and a term borrowed from the forward to Alfred Jarry's 'Visits of love'. Anti-erotica is where the kink and ritual takes over the sexual and the moral, the lasciviousness becomes more stylised - the perversion becomes pragmatic and allows for other ideas to be fleshed out so to speak.
Well, I quite liked it, and am not entirely sure what else of Jerzy Kosinski I would like to read but so far I think Being There and Steps are decent pieces of writing.
The perversions are well dispersed amongst quite whimsical tales of stand over tactics and tall tales. Jerzy had a personal interest in 'underground' kink apparently and I enjoy the way he integrates the ideas into seemingly anecdotal accounts of life as lived by certain unnamed communities. There is nothing in this novel that is sensational, it is all dutiful 'anti-erotica' as I call it, and a term borrowed from the forward to Alfred Jarry's 'Visits of love'. Anti-erotica is where the kink and ritual takes over the sexual and the moral, the lasciviousness becomes more stylised - the perversion becomes pragmatic and allows for other ideas to be fleshed out so to speak.
Well, I quite liked it, and am not entirely sure what else of Jerzy Kosinski I would like to read but so far I think Being There and Steps are decent pieces of writing.
ameliasbooks's review against another edition
2.0
Disturbing and weird. And every trigger warning available is needed.
mattleesharp's review against another edition
4.0
Yes, this book is very sexually charged, but I'm not quite ready to declare it just some jerk-off screed that erupted from a man trapped in a too repressed era of writing. There's a lot more going on.
I found myself pretty regularly thinking back to Brief Interviews and Metropole while reading this collection of kind of related vignettes. The first because this book is without reservation focused on a pretty "bad" person, someone manipulative and insecure. The I of this book is so distant from all of the action, I sometimes forgot it was written in first person. There is this interesting conversation going on between the action and the language (and going on particularly in all of some sex-heavy italic dialogue breaks) of this book that says something about how people reconcile their inability to really make a stand for something with their desire to be heroic.
That conversation is expanded upon in the many scenes where the main character is literally unable to communicate with the people around him. Many scenes take place in countries where no one knows the language of the main character and, much like in Metropole, it leads to this desperate desire to just connect with someone no matter what about. But unlike in that book, Kosinski gives us a payoff. His main character is in sudden poverty and stranded on a foreign beach and finds himself so grateful for an apple from a pair of strangers that the entire scene becomes an orgy a page later. A scene with a bartender who doesn't speak his language leads to knowing prods from patrons eager to indulge.
In some ways this is an interesting anti-feminist piece. All of its women are helpless objects meant to either sexually satisfy the main character or hinder him from discovering himself as a whole person. But I don't think that's gratuitous for some pornographic or self indulgent reason. I think it serves to illuminate a very real crisis--the terrible understanding that sometimes we cannot even convince ourselves that there is something more to us than our actions.
I found myself pretty regularly thinking back to Brief Interviews and Metropole while reading this collection of kind of related vignettes. The first because this book is without reservation focused on a pretty "bad" person, someone manipulative and insecure. The I of this book is so distant from all of the action, I sometimes forgot it was written in first person. There is this interesting conversation going on between the action and the language (and going on particularly in all of some sex-heavy italic dialogue breaks) of this book that says something about how people reconcile their inability to really make a stand for something with their desire to be heroic.
That conversation is expanded upon in the many scenes where the main character is literally unable to communicate with the people around him. Many scenes take place in countries where no one knows the language of the main character and, much like in Metropole, it leads to this desperate desire to just connect with someone no matter what about. But unlike in that book, Kosinski gives us a payoff. His main character is in sudden poverty and stranded on a foreign beach and finds himself so grateful for an apple from a pair of strangers that the entire scene becomes an orgy a page later. A scene with a bartender who doesn't speak his language leads to knowing prods from patrons eager to indulge.
In some ways this is an interesting anti-feminist piece. All of its women are helpless objects meant to either sexually satisfy the main character or hinder him from discovering himself as a whole person. But I don't think that's gratuitous for some pornographic or self indulgent reason. I think it serves to illuminate a very real crisis--the terrible understanding that sometimes we cannot even convince ourselves that there is something more to us than our actions.
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