W. A. B. Warszawa 2005 121 x 195 236 pages paperback ISBN 83-7414-062-3 Translation rights: W. A. B.
Marek Kochan
The Ballad of the Good Delinquent
Excerpt
According to Marek Kochan, “people like stories from real life”. And that’s the kind of tale he offers his readers in the short stories that make up The Ballad of the Good Delinquent. In his realistic, carefully composed narratives he mainly portrays contemporary Varsovians, focusing on people from very varied social backgrounds. He writes about people working for large companies who are trying to build a career at any cost, some rather sharp-witted bodyguards, the ‘blockies’ –kids from the block – a musician who composes background music for shops, a young academic who is maintained by his wife, and a delinquent who wants to change his own life against all the odds. He presents people who are caught up in a relentless rat race and have lost all sense of reason and moderation, because they are driven by one single principle: “If we don’t go up in the world we’ll fall”. From Kochan’s stories an image of today’s Poland emerges as a country in which it is becoming ever harder for people to find their own place and to fulfil their dreams. However, despite appearances, Kochan’s book is not a gloomy report on contemporary Poland and its people. He makes good use of humour (though this is sometimes a case of laughter through tears), irony and absurdity; he writes about problems and even tragedies with his tongue in his cheek. His jokes and his sense of detachment make his prose stand out among the novels and stories published in recent years.
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