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kraghen21's review against another edition
4.0
A series of interconnected vignettes from the viewpoint of a nameless character, a young man in mid-20th century Poland who subsequently emigrates to the United States.
The entire book consists of scenes or tableaux of few pages, often grim or outright disturbing.
A few of them will linger in the mind:
- A young woman being penetrated by a dog with colored ribbons tied around its member, while a village of peasants watches on.
- An intellectual relishing in the peace & quiet of public restrooms, is found hung from one such lavatory stall.
- A traumatized rape victim is conceded by the main character to a herd of intoxicated brutes, out of spite, fully aware of their intentions.
The book is written in a dry, terse style, which often underpins the cruel nature of these scenes quite effectively. The main character is looking on at savagery - and sometimes participating - seemingly indifferent, and this apathy makes the reading experience all the more disturbing.
My favorite part of the book is a childhood memory, of boys trapping butterflies in glass jars, only to suffocate them with the residual gas of burning matchsticks held underneath.
A quite potent image, and a microcosm of the whole work, in which beauty will subside to the cruel whims of man.
The first 2/3 of the book is set in an unnamed Eastern European country (it is Poland though) and is the most vivid, disturbing, and memorable part of the book.
The last third is the emigration to the United States, and the quality diminishes markedly. Even if the contrast between the rural (feudal) peasant country in Poland and the Capitalist forces of the US is interesting on paper, it falls a bit flat, and the ending in particular is rushed and quite weak.
Will not recommend this book to many readers. It demands a certain constitution to keep reading through the bleakness, and in particular, the voyeuristic look at violence and depravity. 4 stars.
The entire book consists of scenes or tableaux of few pages, often grim or outright disturbing.
A few of them will linger in the mind:
- A young woman being penetrated by a dog with colored ribbons tied around its member, while a village of peasants watches on.
- An intellectual relishing in the peace & quiet of public restrooms, is found hung from one such lavatory stall.
- A traumatized rape victim is conceded by the main character to a herd of intoxicated brutes, out of spite, fully aware of their intentions.
The book is written in a dry, terse style, which often underpins the cruel nature of these scenes quite effectively. The main character is looking on at savagery - and sometimes participating - seemingly indifferent, and this apathy makes the reading experience all the more disturbing.
My favorite part of the book is a childhood memory, of boys trapping butterflies in glass jars, only to suffocate them with the residual gas of burning matchsticks held underneath.
A quite potent image, and a microcosm of the whole work, in which beauty will subside to the cruel whims of man.
The first 2/3 of the book is set in an unnamed Eastern European country (it is Poland though) and is the most vivid, disturbing, and memorable part of the book.
The last third is the emigration to the United States, and the quality diminishes markedly. Even if the contrast between the rural (feudal) peasant country in Poland and the Capitalist forces of the US is interesting on paper, it falls a bit flat, and the ending in particular is rushed and quite weak.
Will not recommend this book to many readers. It demands a certain constitution to keep reading through the bleakness, and in particular, the voyeuristic look at violence and depravity. 4 stars.
icanread17's review against another edition
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Sexual assault, War, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Torture, Blood, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Misogyny, Classism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, and Rape
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.
rocketiza's review against another edition
3.0
Meh. Well written, but I never really felt invested in it.
aaronlindsey's review against another edition
4.0
An interesting, often disturbing novel. It’s more like loosely connected short stories. Some of what I just read will be in my mind for years to come.
ayetomp's review against another edition
2.0
Kind of one of the most uninspiring books I’ve read. Major TW: sexual violence against women
gmalboeuf's review against another edition
3.0
A very refreshing breakaway from the usual books I read. The vignette form is definitely a highlight of this influential book, however, I found it very disengaging. I loved the words themselves but struggled to stay engaged with the narrative as a whole.
trve_zach's review against another edition
There’s something interesting about the way the narrative unfurls here, but it mostly feels frivolous and edgy for its own sake. Not recommended.
pbobrit's review against another edition
2.0
Firstly, the Kindle edition could have done with a copy editor's review, there were a number of glaring typos in the text.
This book is definitely of its time, it won the National Book Award in the late 1960s, but reading it now it is difficult to see what set it apart from other writing of the time. The text feels Henry Miller-ish in parts, and even by the time it was publish I'm sure some of the content would still have been seen to be shocking (although nothing more outlandish than things W. Burroughs wrote), but these days it seems pretty tame.
It was a quick read.
This book is definitely of its time, it won the National Book Award in the late 1960s, but reading it now it is difficult to see what set it apart from other writing of the time. The text feels Henry Miller-ish in parts, and even by the time it was publish I'm sure some of the content would still have been seen to be shocking (although nothing more outlandish than things W. Burroughs wrote), but these days it seems pretty tame.
It was a quick read.