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kxiong5's review against another edition
challenging
funny
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5
Rating the translation, not the book itself, which I’m hoping to reread in a different translation:
Some odd cross between Catch-22 and Waiting for Godot and The Seven Madmen by Roberto Arlt and every Male Modernism Ever (though clearly much less serious about the idea of masculinity and violence and more so nervous about emasculationTM) and somehow also Baudelaire in the Painter of Modern Life (though the style…gets to be a lot in this translation, I’ve heard the Danuta __ translation is significantly more legible)
This novel also puts the “trans” in “transatlantyk” and “homo” in “homonationalism” (not homonationalism in the traditional sense but gay sex metaphors via encounters with money being “thrust” and also a father / son / gay guy cruising triangulation power struggle over who’s drinking to who, who must fire shots at whom, who must let someone else fire shots at whom, who gets feminized / becomes a woman and what it’s used to represent (gender fluidity = the exile experience??? Love it) all wrapped up in a critique of how everyone be sucking Polish National Identity’s dick…in the shadow of a war so big it cannot help but terrify in the background of the savage laughter) absolutely bonkers
And also: modernism as daddy issues and male sexual impotency projected onto nation states, and then played to its furthest extreme in this novel. I will not expand on this. It’s glorious
And the ending: where “boombam” becomes a dance, bullets firing, windows breaking, laughter shaking, Poland falling to the Germans, all in one, the way Chen Li’s 宾 poem works too (in this funny but deeply disturbing moment where you don’t know if someone is dying beneath the fearsome and shaking shots of laughter…)
Planning to reread this in its newer translation to see how much better it is :)
study modernist use of motion and direction //speed and cadence (speeding up and slowing down)
Reading speed /cadence on subways, etc
Some odd cross between Catch-22 and Waiting for Godot and The Seven Madmen by Roberto Arlt and every Male Modernism Ever (though clearly much less serious about the idea of masculinity and violence and more so nervous about emasculationTM) and somehow also Baudelaire in the Painter of Modern Life (though the style…gets to be a lot in this translation, I’ve heard the Danuta __ translation is significantly more legible)
This novel also puts the “trans” in “transatlantyk” and “homo” in “homonationalism” (not homonationalism in the traditional sense but gay sex metaphors via encounters with money being “thrust” and also a father / son / gay guy cruising triangulation power struggle over who’s drinking to who, who must fire shots at whom, who must let someone else fire shots at whom, who gets feminized / becomes a woman and what it’s used to represent (gender fluidity = the exile experience??? Love it) all wrapped up in a critique of how everyone be sucking Polish National Identity’s dick…in the shadow of a war so big it cannot help but terrify in the background of the savage laughter) absolutely bonkers
And also: modernism as daddy issues and male sexual impotency projected onto nation states, and then played to its furthest extreme in this novel. I will not expand on this. It’s glorious
And the ending: where “boombam” becomes a dance, bullets firing, windows breaking, laughter shaking, Poland falling to the Germans, all in one, the way Chen Li’s 宾 poem works too (in this funny but deeply disturbing moment where you don’t know if someone is dying beneath the fearsome and shaking shots of laughter…)
Planning to reread this in its newer translation to see how much better it is :)
study modernist use of motion and direction //speed and cadence (speeding up and slowing down)
Reading speed /cadence on subways, etc
kamilfff's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
0.25
pinktivarion's review against another edition
challenging
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
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