Who Was David Weiser? - Hardcover

Pawel Huelle

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0151962944 ISBN 13: 9780151962945

Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers, 1992

Synopsis

Four classmates in Gdansk in 1957 swear to keep secret the events that took place in a hollow behind the nearby firing range one mysterious afternoon

About this title

Reviews

This strange, almost hypnotic but ultimately unsatisfying novel by a Polish literature professor examines the summer of 1957 in Gdansk. Looking back from the present day, the narrator, Heller, describes how he and his friends, then 11-year-olds, grew involved with a mysterious classmate, the eponymous Weiser. A Jew, Weiser seems possessed of magical powers, and the boys fall under his sway, eventually becoming unwitting accomplices to his inexplicable disappearance. In a ruminative narrative--filled with repetitions which become almost musical in structure, asides, false starts, flash forwards and flashbacks--Huelle offers a hard-nosed, Polish version of magical realism. A small boy, for example, entrances a panther in the local zoo, levitates himself and sets off surreal explosions. Rumbling in the background are the political upheavals of 1970 and 1980, events that will kill a central character. The novel is on its surest footing in its merciless delineation of a sadistic teacher, and in a spirited series of digressions involving an escaped lunatic. But the denouement, regrettably, leaves many questions unanswered, including the one posed by the title.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Author-journalist-professor Huelle makes an auspicious debut with this highly creative first novel, originally published in 1987 in his native Poland. Reaching into his memory, seeking help futilely from childhood friends, the novel's protagonist aims to discover what really happened to David Weiser 30 years ago during the summer of 1957 in Gdansk. Does his memory serve him well when he recalls feats of levitation and spectacular explosions, Jew-baiting, and thousands of dead fish, or is it playing tricks on him? The novel unfolds with stories nested in stories while the author makes intriguing use of fictive time, interweaving past, present, and future. The novel, well translated here, is an imaginative tour de force by one of Poland's most prominent contemporary writers. Essential for libraries whose patrons are interested in European fiction.
- Olivia Opello, Onondaga Cty. P.L., Syracuse, N.Y.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0151962944
• ISBN 13: 9780151962945
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304