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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Kosiński's The Painted Bird is a grotesquely mesmerizing book.
Though it is inarguably filled with haunting, unforgettable images, images which sear the mind and haunt the soul, it is ultimately the voice of the narrator, or lack thereof, that carries the story along its Hellish, Boschian descent into True Chaos.
While reading the novel, I found myself having to pause and digest the young boy's numerous encounters with various peasants. Though these encounters range from frightening to horrific, consisting of the consumption of balled feces, live burial, numerous beatings and nonchalent encounters with beastiality, most if not all of the encounters felt 'Real'. There's something in the writing that not only suggest but practically imposes the sense of a True, Documented encounter with all that is Surreal and Terrible in the human condition.
While the novel may not have been entirely inspired by Kosiński's actual experiences during the war, there was quite a bit of controversy about this back in the day, there's no denying the depicted scenes seem to capture a fundamental, though hate-filled Truth about human nature.
Maybe I'm an optimistic pessimist but I think Kosiński got a lot of hate in the latter half of his life for writing this and I think while he may certainly have been misleading, it doesn't take away from the sheer shock value of the novel. Say what you will but it will shock even the more die hard gore hounds..
I don't think I've ever been more surprised and bewildered by the content of a book.
It's definitely not for everyone but it is certainly an experience and one I will continue to process or digest in the coming weeks.
While it's hard to pinpoint what it is that makes this novel feel and inhabit a reality of sorts, but there is anger and hate and resentment dripping on every page.
Though it is inarguably filled with haunting, unforgettable images, images which sear the mind and haunt the soul, it is ultimately the voice of the narrator, or lack thereof, that carries the story along its Hellish, Boschian descent into True Chaos.
While reading the novel, I found myself having to pause and digest the young boy's numerous encounters with various peasants. Though these encounters range from frightening to horrific, consisting of the consumption of balled feces, live burial, numerous beatings and nonchalent encounters with beastiality, most if not all of the encounters felt 'Real'. There's something in the writing that not only suggest but practically imposes the sense of a True, Documented encounter with all that is Surreal and Terrible in the human condition.
While the novel may not have been entirely inspired by Kosiński's actual experiences during the war, there was quite a bit of controversy about this back in the day, there's no denying the depicted scenes seem to capture a fundamental, though hate-filled Truth about human nature.
Maybe I'm an optimistic pessimist but I think Kosiński got a lot of hate in the latter half of his life for writing this and I think while he may certainly have been misleading, it doesn't take away from the sheer shock value of the novel. Say what you will but it will shock even the more die hard gore hounds..
I don't think I've ever been more surprised and bewildered by the content of a book.
It's definitely not for everyone but it is certainly an experience and one I will continue to process or digest in the coming weeks.
While it's hard to pinpoint what it is that makes this novel feel and inhabit a reality of sorts, but there is anger and hate and resentment dripping on every page.
dark
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Rape, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
This book should probably be covered with trigger warnings, caveats, and apologies, shooing away any reader without a strong constitution and a significant critical distance. It was gross, it was gratuitous, it was honestly brutal, and reading it in public I found myself grimacing in pain and looking around to make sure no one was reading over my shoulder. That said, I don't recall ever feeling like Kosinski was on the wrong side of his foul episodes - he never indulged in victim blaming, or even implied that anyone deserved the pain that came to them. I found myself comparing the book to Grass's "Tin Drum", and it came out very favorably - Kosinski's unnamed protagonist is much more empathetic than Grass's Oskar, and while Kosinski's depictions are gut-wrenchingly graphic, he never implies, as Grass disgustingly does, that rape is something lonely women enjoy. It may not have all of "Drum"'s supposed symbolic portent, but "The Painted Bird" communicates far more about the human experience and the cruelty so many of us are capable of. But please, STAY AWAY if you are in any state of emotional vulnerability.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
emotional
sad
This is, I would say, a book that will haunt you for the rest of your life. The degree of violence present in it is often appalling. It is also pessimistic, terrifying and yet so poetic and symbolic. It has a resemblance to The Notebook Trilogy by Agota Kristof. Along with the events in the narrator’s childhood amidst the war, there is a slow and painful moral deconstruction that ends up in the most genuine and naïve dialectical materialism. A world without God in which man is the only possibility of either redemption or destruction.