Killing The 2nd Dog & The 8th Day Of The Week

by Marek Hłasko

234 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

One of the most popular Polish writers of the 20th century. Author of numerous short stories and novels. Some of his works were adapted into films. His works were ruled by the idea of an evil dominating over good, inevitable loss of ideas in clash with the reality, as well as with the masculinist point of view. He wrote about protest of a moral nature. In his works he depicted the lives of the lower classes as dominated by hopelessness and cynicism. His characters dream about changes which come out to be vain.
After initial approval of his talent, his nonconformism and critique of communism forced him to leave Poland, and he spent the rest of his life abroad (mainly in Israel, Germany and U.S.A.) He died in Wiesbaden (Germany) in 1969. The circumstances of his death remain unknown. One hypothesis is that he mixed alcohol with sedative drugs.

Reviews

[Jay Slayton-Joslin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't find much to enjoy in here.

[Mark Lisac · Rating 4 out of 5]

A durable novella full of rough cynicism skirting around the edge of despair. The characters seem to spin around the gravitational force of a black hole — but is that black hole the postwar Communism of Eastern Europe in the 1950s, or is it personal failing, and is one tied up with the other? Hlasko was apparently among the badder of many literary bad boys. His writing had a rough-hewn strength. That could come in part from the directness of Slavic language. It also resembles both brutalist architecture and the stripped-down emotional life of a place wrecked by war, privation and betrayals. I read the edition that comes packaged with Killing the Second Dog, which is more personal than political, and may be an even better writing achievement. They make another fine book about disillusionment, Alfred Hayes' "My Face for the World to See," look consciously artistic in comparison.