The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Painted Bird
Book Review: In defense of Kozinski
Summary: 5 Stars
OK, I admit, I should have been older than 14 years old when I first read this novel... it is more graphic than your average WWII book or movie. This novel is an unusual perspective on the holocaust. There are no factories full of jewish labor slaves, no ghettoes, no concentration camps. Instead, there is a small child, seperated from his parents in time of war, lost in the countryside of rural central Europe. In the course of the novel, we discover how the social chaos brought about by WWII plays itself out among common peasants in the countryside as they are reduced to the lowest behaviors imaginable in the absence of peace, stability, clear governance, and a socially agreed-upon sense of right and wrong. And the victim (or victims) is the child who witnesses (and lives with) this state of violence. In response to the review title "More lies about Jerzy", I find it shallow and naive of the reviewer to call this book gratuitous violence invented for entertainment simply because the events depicted are not truly autobiographical. It is a novel. Last time I checked, novelists seem to make stories up on a regular basis. No need to discount the value of the narrative because of its condition as fictional. As for the suggestion that Jerzy did not write this book, I wouldn't be surprised if he had help smoothing his prose into readable English. Kozinski is not a native speaker of English. In fact, he learned the language as an adult. So he needed help with the language... who cares? The plot, characterization, and overall design of the book bear the creative mark that no proof reader or ghost writer could put on a narrative. I don't doubt that this is Jerzy Kozinski telling this story, and the spirit of the narrative, the pain the child feels (he is so traumatized by his experiences that he becomes mute and needs to undergo therapy as an adult to recover his ability to speak) is an expression of WWII as Kozinski experienced it. We don't need to know if Kozinski is the boy in the narrative. The knowledge that Kozinski could identify and describe this violence in a way that actually upsets you and makes you angry is enough for me. Kozinski has written an excellent novel about WWII and its aftermath, which, unlike Schindler's List, doesn't make you feel warm and cozy about how all the good people triumphed in the end... this novel will leave you with the lasting impression that there is no end-of-story resolution/redemption for those affected by war.
Book Review: It's no Black Swan...
Summary: 3 Stars
Personally, I am a fan of stories, tales, and movies that beat you over the head and send you spiraling down into a horrible black hole or straight to hell - but there has to be more to it than that. I got a kick out of a lot of the brutally violent or "disturbing" parts - only the best of them - but often felt unaffected and felt that Kosinski's descriptions were often too subtle and quick to really make the scenarios very effective. Most of it brushed by me as pulp to be pulp, and in such a boring, repetitive setting - it leaves me wanting something more.
I didn't sense much progression, or in this case, decomposition. Only the same thing over and over: go to the next village, learn of a new religion, belief system, or way of life - get used to it, then get abused. Then when you can't stand it anymore, leave and run to the next village - and repeat cycle. Sure, there was a subtle sense of his hope disintegrating eventually, but it was very much in the shadows. Towards the beginning of the 2nd half of the book, I started to see hints of what could take the story in a brilliant direction - but found that by the next chapter, he had abandoned the ideas and fallen back into the repetitive cycle.
Basically, there wasn't much memorable besides some of the pulpiest moments, picturing a helpless little boy running through the woods with nowhere to go, and maybe the depressing idealism/reality behind the ending. It kept me entertained. The pace wasn't horrible. But for some reason I can't fathom sitting down to write such a repetitive story in the first place. If it were effective in making you feel more claustrophobic and depressed as you read on, then it would make sense - but unfortunately it doesn't have that effect. It just feels...flatlined. Still worth reading, but by no means a masterpiece of any kind.
Book Review: Kosinski: Man and Myth
Summary: 5 Stars
One of my favorites because it has "disturbed" me as few other books have. An unflinching exploration of the depths of human evil with an ironic twist--it is viewed from the unprejudiced eye of a child. Echoes of everything from <Huckleberry Finn> to <The Catcher in the Rye> to <American Psycho> abound in Kosinski's provocative use of first person point of view. I use this book with my World Lit. students, who never cease to be "blown away" by it. Significant as "literature" despite the common but fallacious criticism that Kosinski didn't himself experience what he depicts in this book. But of course he didn't--it's FICTION! Best exploration how the 20th century world can be "medieval" that I've ever read. Like walking into a Bosch paintingBook Review: Life can be hell... but how does hell looks to a kid that was born in it?
Summary: 5 Stars
Kosinski is a smart writer that can be really vicious sometimes and let's his imagination go into unforeseen territories. This doesn't make him a "pervert" or a liar by any means. I personally disagree with the reviewers that perceive him like this because of two reasons: (a) his viciousness reveals a side of the human being that exists and it's ok to write about it and (b) "Painted Bird" is not or was never intended to be a true story. This is a Kosinski novel in which events unfold in an imaginative crude way: the way of Kosinski's imagination.
The reader is submerged and swollen into a way of life that is hell to the reader's eye. However, this life is the only thing that this little kid has. This kid was practically born in hell but when you are so young you don't know better; you don't know the alternatives so hell becomes normal and its unusual events become intriguing but not disturbing.
The kid doesn't live in total agony. He is surprised by the world as he admires and appreciates natural medicine, birds, trees, fire, and summers. He is also surprised by people as he constantly attempts to interpret what is behind the extreme and sometimes appalling behavior of the human being.
Konsisky aims at the reader becoming the kid. He wants the reader to familiarize with the perversity of the human being. This is not a story about degradation, racism, or war; it is a story about living in an atrocious but natural world where you are the observer mostly (a rejected observer) and not the participant. And as the rejected observer, you make your own realizations about things, people, and circumstances using your imagination... and a child's imagination can be extremely creative.
Book Review: Lone Pole on the Run From the Gun
Summary: 5 Stars
This book might not be for you. Jerzy paints some wondrous pictures. Some people will say they're gross, offensive. Probably; but in my opinion The Painted Bird is probably the greatest single journey made by an unlikely hero (next to Cozzen's Castaway, and Greene's Power and the Glory). Sometimes artwork isn't the easiest thing to swallow, but mouthfuls like this are definetly nutritious.