Janusz Rudnicki

The Death of the Czech Dog

Excerpt

Now and then I ask myself what it is that continues to draw me to Janusz Rudnicki’s work, when for years on end he has gone on writing in just the same way (mainly in a satirical vein) about exactly the same thing (largely about himself), though I’m not really all that fond of repetitive books… In my case, the main attraction is not so much his exquisite style, though he undoubtedly knows how to turn a phrase, is quite at ease in all sorts of registers of the Polish language and has an artful way of mixing sophisticated metaphors and crude expressions. Instead, what I like best is that he knows how to use the basic elements of his writing (satire, irony, humour, detachment and provocation) to create perfectly structured texts where every T is neatly crossed. To put it another way, there are no superfluous words or sentences, no waffle, as confirmed by his new collection of vignettes and short stories, The Death of the Czech Dog. The book is in two parts, entitled “First Texts” and “Second Texts”, and this division marks Rudnicki’s two main areas of interest, as revealed in earlier books – firstly, he reworks his own experiences as a “Pole abroad”, suspended somewhere between Germany and Poland, into satirical, sometimes iconoclastic stories, and secondly he provides his own special commentary on tales about famous literary or cultural figures and their works in unique biographical and inter-textual alternative versions. In the first part he once again quarrels with Poland and Germany (in the title story, for example) and makes fun of all sorts of national vices, while not sparing himself the mockery, ironically dubbing himself “the greatest Polish writer still alive”. Though to my mind the second half of the book is far more interesting, including a fabulous story about the weaknesses and eccentricities of Hans Christian Andersen (“Andersen, Andersen”), and another one debunking the myth of the Writer, about some famous authors who are past-masters at swindling people out of loans they will never repay (“The Book of Complaints and Grievances”). In his texts Rudnicki spares no one and nothing. Is he an iconoclast? Or a provocateur? Both, but above all he is a writer who has an occasional go at giving literature an airing and posing his readers some uncomfortable questions.

Robert Ostaszewski

Janusz Rudnicki (born 1956) is a political émigré who has lived in Hamburg since 1983, although he regularly publishes in Poland. "The Death of the Czech Dog" is his seventh volume of fiction.