 | Noir sur Blanc
Warszawa 2003
vol. I
240 pages
ISBN 83-7392-015-3
Hardcover |
|
Sławomir MrożekVaria – Life and Other Situations
About the author
Essential reading for fans of Sławomir Mrożek or for anyone interested in him as a person.
On the face of it Sławomir Mrożek’s Varia – Life and Other Situations is, true to the dictionary definition of ”varia”, a rag-bag including the following items thrown in at random:
- a satirical poem about bureaucracy at the time of the thaw, still and forever topical;
- some articles from the 1950s, plus a speech addressed to Mikołaj Rej and delivered by the author (if I remember correctly) at Nagłowice for the 400th anniversary of the birth of the father of Polish literature;
- a lengthy and comprehensive ”My Curriculum Vitae” written in 1988 for the Contemporary Authors Autobiography Series;
- some autobiographical snapshots published in the 1980s in the Paris-based periodical Kultura and Zeszyty Literackie;
- three short essays on the author’s attitude to the word ”socialism”, to censorship and to Jerzy Andrzejewski’s Ashes and Diamonds;
- memoirs of his late friends Leopold Tyrmand and Adam Tarn, and sketches on his feelings about some writers he did not know personally, Witold Gombrowicz and Franz Kafka;- short texts of various different genres whose common theme is Mrożek’s life after leaving Poland.
It’s incredible, but all together these items form a taut and interesting whole, presenting a wide range of aspects of Mrożek’s life from his childhood and his youthful involvement in communism, via personal matters such as his liberation from the Polish communist regime and his sufferings as an émigré, to his attitudes to art and sport. Here we find sincerity, but no showing off. ”I’ve always tried,” as Mrożek said in a conversation with Jerzy Koenig that is included here, ”to make sure not too much was ever known about me.” Now he is revealing himself – for him, a great deal even – but he knows when he wants to stop.
In the chapter called ”My Curriculum Vitae”, without any intellectual subterfuge he describes his own ideological seduction: ”At the age of twenty I was ready to accept any ideological suggestion without looking it in the mouth, as long as it was revolutionary”. Now he can look back on his role with no illusions, and is brave enough to say: ”Writers and artists were given privileges, and that was how the moral decay set in. I was accepted into that special club for favourites. We weren’t given aeroplanes, but we were undoubtedly the darlings of the regime.”
After leaving Poland in 1963 Mrożek wanted to set a precedent as ”the Polish writer living abroad at his own expense, outside the control of the Polish state”. The pieces included in Varia superbly illustrate all sorts of intellectual, emotional and life-related ups and downs that he experienced on the thorny road to setting that precedent. One might think a writer who is so focused on himself, so profoundly able to analyse his own path in life and his own choices (ultimately egotism in that profession is nothing new) wouldn’t have enough concern or patience for others. But here we have a surprise. His memoir of Leopold Tyrmand, one of the best I have ever read, is shrewd, intelligent and heartfelt.
Joanna Szczęsna
Back |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
There are more than 28,000 publishers registered in Poland. However, the market is highly concentrated. The 200 largest publishing firms still hold almost 98 per cent of it. More »
|
|
|
|
