Reviews

The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz

tomususan's review

1.0

Horrible. Just horrible. You don’t know how much i wanted to enjoy this book (due to peer pressure and being Pole myself).

Author tries to prove to you that they know a lot of adjectives and biblical allegories. Plot goes nowhere. Unfortunately, I couldn’t maintain focus throughout reading this book because it was so bad.

Maybe classics of Polish literature are just not for me and I am at peace with that.

booked_mind_'s review against another edition

4.0

niesamowita podróż w przeszłość definiowaną i zakrzywianą przez umysł dziecka; słowa splatają się z emocjami, tworząc fantazyjny obraz wprost z marzeń sennych; dzieło warte przeczytania choćby dla doskonałych opisów przestrzeni korespondujących ze stanem emocjonalnym narratora

r_pawlicka's review against another edition

przeczytane: Sierpień, Nawiedzenie, Traktat o Manekinach, Sklepy Cynamonowe, Ulica Krokodyli
.
zupełnie tego nie zrozumiałam xd dlatego bez oceny

tombomp's review

3.0

Personal 3 stars only because it's such a strongly visual book and I struggle with appreciating written imagery a lot of the time. The book is very dream-like: most stories are a journey from one extremely detailed surreal image of a scene to another, following a dream logic where the ending bears little relation to the start and there's very limited plot. Some of the scenes were very effective for me and stuck in my mind and the overall evocation of a particular city in a particular time is really powerful and realistic even as it's done through fantasy imagery. It's definitely an experience.

In the last story, The Comet, there was a particularly effective short scene where a relative submits to being turned into... a doorbell(?). I'll leave a little quote which struck me.

Uncle functioned excellently. There was no instance of his refusal to obey. Having discarded his complicated personality, in which at one time he had lost himself, he found at last the purity of a uniform and straightforward guiding principle to which he was subjected from now on. At the cost of his complexity, which he could manage only with difficulty, he had now achieved a simple problem-free immortality. Was he happy? One would ask that question in vain. A question like this makes sense only when applied to creatures who are rich in alternative possibilities, so that the actual truth can be contrasted with partly real probabilities and reflect itself in them. But Uncle Edward had no alternatives; the dichotomy "happy/unhappy" did not exist for him because he had been completely integrated. One had to admit to a grudging approval when one saw how punctually, how accurately he was functioning. Even his wife, Aunt Teresa, who followed him to our city, could not stop herself from pressing the button quite often, in order to hear that loud and sonorous sound in which she recognized the former timbre of her husband's voice in moments of irritation.

misialoch's review against another edition

challenging funny mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

charlesxox's review against another edition

inspiring lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

4.0

czytomasz's review against another edition

3.0

Przepięknie napisane, sztuka posługiwania się słowem na najwyższym poziomie. Niestety jednak w większości przypadków jest to sztuka dla sztuki. Tytułowe opowiadanie jest wybitne, reszta na jego tle wypada strasznie blado.

ziemia_do_nany's review against another edition

emotional reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

fourtriplezed's review

4.0

Do Furniture and wallpaper have life? Are they in permanent chaos? Are they subject to the workings of systems and so with that are as entropic as all other systems? Do Demiurges treat tailors dummies no different than empty rooms? Can a man turn into the rubber tube of an enema?
In dementia can wise questions come. Tailors Dummy is a work of genius.

So is Birds. Cinnamon Shops and The Comet come so close.
But I don’t feel much different than I did about Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass. I wrote that that was “ ....a heady mix of the metaphor with childlike fantasy and delirious dreaming that seemingly mixes the authors life memories/observations that cover his childhood through to the fear of old age and all the trials and tribulations in between.” And for me so is this, the more famous of the authors only two surviving books. All very weird and metaphorical that reaches amazing heights and then has me going Huh? What happened there?

mercilala's review against another edition

challenging dark inspiring tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

Hard to understand, with beautiful writing