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"I'm not on good terms with the present day," Sigizmund
Krzhizhanovsky once mused, "but posterity loves me." Virtually
unknown during his lifetime and unpublishable under Stalin, he now
draws comparisons to Beckett, Borges, Gogol, and Swift. This book
presents three tales that encapsulate Krzhizhanovsky's gift for
creating philosophical, satirical, and lyrical phantasmagorias.
"Stravaging 'Strange'" details the darkly comic adventures of an
apprentice magus: lovesick, he imbibes a magic tincture to reduce
himself to the size of a dust mote, the better to observe the young
lady in question. He stumbles across a talkative king of hearts, a
gallant flea, a coven of vindictive house imps, and his romantic
rival along the way to a cinematic denouement. "Catastrophe" wryly
parodies Kant's philosophy: an old sage decides to extract the
essence from all things and beings in a ruthless attempt to
understand reality-and chaos ensues. "Material for a Life of Gorgis
Katafalaki," set in Berlin, Paris, London, and Moscow, recounts the
absurd trials of an otherworldly outsider of uncertain nationality
and unfixed profession with boundless curiosity but scant means.
This book also includes excerpts from Krzhizhanovsky's
notebooks-aphoristic glimpses of his worldview, moods, humor, and
writing methods-and reminiscences of Krzhizhanovsky by his lifelong
companion, Anna Bovshek, beginning with their first meeting in Kiev
in 1920 and ending with his death in Moscow in 1950.
"I'm not on good terms with the present day," Sigizmund
Krzhizhanovsky once mused, "but posterity loves me." Virtually
unknown during his lifetime and unpublishable under Stalin, he now
draws comparisons to Beckett, Borges, Gogol, and Swift. This book
presents three tales that encapsulate Krzhizhanovsky's gift for
creating philosophical, satirical, and lyrical phantasmagorias.
"Stravaging 'Strange'" details the darkly comic adventures of an
apprentice magus: lovesick, he imbibes a magic tincture to reduce
himself to the size of a dust mote, the better to observe the young
lady in question. He stumbles across a talkative king of hearts, a
gallant flea, a coven of vindictive house imps, and his romantic
rival along the way to a cinematic denouement. "Catastrophe" wryly
parodies Kant's philosophy: an old sage decides to extract the
essence from all things and beings in a ruthless attempt to
understand reality-and chaos ensues. "Material for a Life of Gorgis
Katafalaki," set in Berlin, Paris, London, and Moscow, recounts the
absurd trials of an otherworldly outsider of uncertain nationality
and unfixed profession with boundless curiosity but scant means.
This book also includes excerpts from Krzhizhanovsky's
notebooks-aphoristic glimpses of his worldview, moods, humor, and
writing methods-and reminiscences of Krzhizhanovsky by his lifelong
companion, Anna Bovshek, beginning with their first meeting in Kiev
in 1920 and ending with his death in Moscow in 1950.
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