Passing By: Selected Essays 1962-1991 - Hardcover

Kosinski, Jerzy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679413898 ISBN 13: 9780679413899

Publisher: Random House, 1992

Synopsis

A collection of essays by the late author of The Painted Bird features pieces about polo and skiing, levitation, the streets of New York, present-day Poland, the Cannes film festival, celebrities, and more.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

This is a collection of writings that answers many questions about the author's book and offers a revealing and provocative self-portrait by an author whose life was shrouded in enigma.

From Publishers Weekly:

According to his widow, Polish emigre novelist Kosinski had been working on this collection of essays, lectures and fragments when he committed suicide in Manhattan in 1991. While the selections would be improved by contextualizing introductions, they portray a man who was impassioned about literature and who saw his role as confronting "life's threatening encounters." He finds inspiration, he writes, from an intertwining of the Polish, Hasidic and American literary traditions, and considers America "the last society which still modifies itself freely." He rails against the "collectivism" nourished by television and radio, and criticizes North American Jews for memorializing the Holocaust but not Jewish achievements. Other essays touch on his experiences learning polo, acting in the film Reds , living in New York City and visiting Poland in the late 1980s. Most interesting are his discussions of the original ideas behind The Painted Bird and the structure of Steps.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0679413898
• ISBN 13: 9780679413899
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256