Reviews

I've only read The Street of Crocodiles stories from this so far, but I was blown away by the imaginative scope of the writing. I guess you could call it surreal, or impressionistic writing. Dream-like. It's a reminder that there are exceptions to repeated rules to kill off darlings and pare down language to the bare essentials in modern writing. What would these stories be if not for their flights of fancy? It doesn't feel meaningless or purely whimsical to me either, but like another state of consciousness that is just as vital as cold clarity. I can't get over the feeling that something is lost if we can't write or think with such imagination anymore. It feels like a wholly original and dazzling image falls from every page of this book, though you do need to read it with a kind of meditative concentration to order to catch them. Maybe best to read late at night in the haze of summer.

zuza99's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

lazymajou's review against another edition

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3.0

It's well written, but... it's freaking porn... and we have to read it for school.. Can somebody tell me why they make high school students read freaking porn? it's disgusting.
Well, I understand why ppl might like it - in polish at least but it's not a must-read book, I would recommend it only to ppl who like erotics.

drewsstuff's review against another edition

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4.0

This was less a collection of short stories, more an amalgam of fevered dreams. The tales are packed with vivid and disturbing imagery and a palpable sense of claustrophobic trepidation, where the grotesque is normal but nonetheless frightening. The prose is beautiful, strange and demanding, but for all that, these are real stories about real people.
Not (probably) for everyone, but the dark delight of Schulz should not be missed.

myliminality's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

matthewn's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This is as good as writing gets.

stanl's review against another edition

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5.0

This is an extraordinary exercise in language-- and I can only read it in translation. Compared by I. B. Singer to both Proust and Kafka, it is, at times, luminous. What exactly the writing reveals-- I don't know, but it is well worth the ride. It's as if Schulz took the effluence of mysticism and hammered out something to dazzle us yokels. Mesmerizing.

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