The Hermit of 69th Street: The Working Papers of Norbert Kosky

by Jerzy Kosiński

Explores the life of Norbert Kosky, a fifty-five-year-old Holocaust survivor, immigrant to America, and successful but tortured writer in search of spiritual order and freedom

Genres: Fiction, Polish Literature, Literary Fiction, Novels, 20th Century

529 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Kosiński was born Josef Lewinkopf to Jewish parents in Łódź, Poland. As a child during World War II, he lived in central Poland under a false identity his father gave him to use, Jerzy Kosiński. A Roman Catholic priest issued him a forged baptismal certificate. The Kosiński family survived the Holocaust thanks to local villagers, who offered assistance to Jewish Poles often at great personal risk (the penalty for assisting Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland was death). Kosiński's father received help not only from Polish town leaders and churchmen, but also from individuals such as Marianna Pasiowa, a member of the Polish underground network helping Jews to evade capture. The family lived openly in Dąbrowa Rzeczycka near Stalowa Wola, and attended church in nearby Wola Rzeczycka, obtaining support from villagers in Kępa Rzeczycka. They were sheltered temporarily by a Catholic family in Rzeczyca Okrągła. The young Jerzy even served as an altar boy in a local church.

After World War II, Kosiński remained with his parents in Poland, moved to Jelenia Góra, and earned degrees in history and political science at the University of Łódź. He worked as an assistant in Institute of History and Sociology at the Polish Academy of Sciences. In 1957, he emigrated to the United States, creating a fake foundation which supposedly sponsored him; he later claimed that the letters from eminent Polish communist authorities guaranteeing his loyal return, which were needed for anyone leaving the communist country at that time, had all been forged by him.

After taking odd jobs to get by, such as driving a truck, Kosiński graduated from Columbia University, and in 1965 he became an American citizen. He received grants from Guggenheim Fellowship in 1967, Ford Foundation in 1968, and the American Academy in 1970, which allowed him to write a political non-fiction book, opening new doors of opportunity. In the States he became a lecturer at Yale, Princeton, Davenport University, and Wesleyan.

In 1962 Kosiński married Mary Hayward Weir who was 10 years his senior. They were divorced in 1966. Weir died in 1968 from brain cancer. Kosiński was left nothing in her will. He later fictionalized this marriage in his novel Blind Date speaking of Weir under pseudonym Mary-Jane Kirkland. Kosiński went on to marry Katherina "Kiki" von Fraunhofer, a marketing consultant and descendant of Bavarian aristocracy. They met in 1968.

Kosiński suffered from multiple illnesses towards the end of his life, and was under attack from journalists who alleged he was a plagiarist. By the time he reached his late 50s, Kosiński was suffering from an irregular heartbeat as well as severe physical and nervous exhaustion. Kosiński committed suicide on May 3, 1991, by taking a fatal dose of barbiturates. His parting suicide note read: "I am going to put myself to sleep now for a bit longer than usual. Call it Eternity".

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 1 out of 5]

It took me 20 years to get around to this book. I wish I'd waited another 20, because I might be dead by then. When the book was first published, the reviews seemed (I thought then) unduly harsh and ill-considered, in the tradition of Philistines refusing to accept ground-breaking methods of self-expression (as with Stravinsky's "Rite Of Spring," the Impressionists, etc.) ... but "Hermit" is as unreadable as they made it out to be. A real letdown, as I admire Kosinski above all other 1970s novelists.

[Stuart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Virtually unreadable, but I'm giving it 5 stars as the most audacious literary feat in history, and for its multiple rewritings, even as the author chose death.

[J.R. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This isn't a book you'll want to take to the beach. In fact, unless you're a writer fascinated with the process of creation, you might want to pass on it all together.
This was Kosinski's last book--written in the wake of charges of plagiarism and characterization as a habitual liar--penned before his suicide.
It can't really be considered a novel. Kosinski called it an "auto-fiction," a thinly disguised attempt to explain the motivation behind his writing and life. Chuck full of quotatations, footnotes and anecdotes--many amusing and some enlightening--I found it worth the trial but the first 100 pages of 527 page book were tough going.

[Miguel Jiménez · Rating 2 out of 5]

Un libro del que me gusta más bien poco lo que se dice: ideas un tanto complejas del escritor ermitaño mencionado(Norbert Kosky). Porque las palabras que se utilizan son comunes, sin embargo el entretejer y explicar lo deseado resulta confuso. De repente, aparecían situaciones interesantes, así, de la nada. Pero estas eran contadas: regresaba a lo conmplicado. Lo que me gustó mucho fue la construcción del libro; narración de situaciones y enmedio de estas frases celebres para ejemplificar mejor lo que se dice. Porque eso sí, siempre me admiro del efecto que tienen las citas. Creo que no hay nada mejor para representar ideas que una frase célebre.

[Ian · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't quite understand the controversy that underpins this book, namely that Kosinski had blurred the lines between his own life and that of his novels. Was A Farewell to Arms autobiographical? How about Tender Is the Night? And the contemporary critiques of Kosinski's post-modernist approach seem strangely stodgy given the critical embrace of David Foster Wallace and Mark Leyner not ten years later. Still, the book lacks heart/soul and this, not the style, is its main failing. Finally, it is definitely a work fixed in time - you cannot understand this book on a certain level without having lived through the sexual freedom of the '70s and the sexual paranoia of the '80s.

[Okla Elliott · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has moments of utter genius, but it also has whole twenty- to thirty-page sections that could have been cut, since they basically just repeat in less genius fashion the genius sections. Most of Kosinski's novels weigh in at under 300 pages, or even under 200 pages in many cases. I think he over-stretched himself trying to wrote a 550-page novel. All that said, I still advise everyone to read it -- only after they've read STEPS and THE PAINTED BIRD.

[Jill]

I'm not sure I can finish it . . . maybe I'm just not in the mood. But the fact that his "autofictional" protagonist is a raja yogi Kabalist keeps me reading.

At page 211 or so now and I'm shelving it. I just can't take any more Kosinski for now.

[Pedro Menchén · Rating 1 out of 5]

Un rollazo inaguantable que no he podido terminar. Entiendo que Kosinski, el pobre, tuviera tal crisis personal que acabara suicidándose. Debe de ser traumático querer escribir algo bueno y no saber siquiera de qué escribir.

[Brian · Rating 1 out of 5]

Most painful book I have ever read. A struggle to get through from the first word to the last.

[Clement Roorda · Rating 5 out of 5]

In het Nederlands gelezen (de kluizenaar van 69th street) indrukwekkend zowel qua verhaal als constructie

[Jason Miller · Rating 2 out of 5]

Being a fan of Kosinski this was an obvious must read. It was too slow and it never engaged me.

[Laylah]

Baffling, just baffling.

[Montgomery Webster · Rating 1 out of 5]

Story: 2.5 / 10
Characters: 4
Setting: 6
Prose: 5.5

Themes: Autofiction, autobiographical fiction, numerology, safe sex, AIDS, writing, editing, celebrity, fame, exposure

[Jared Malone · Rating 3 out of 5]

I made it to pg. 388 before I had to call it quits on this one.

True enough, there’s no doubt that this is a Kosinski work. It carries much of his writing style and humor.

I would also note that this is basically a horny college English Major’s wet dream. It’s full of puns; word play, tossing sexual connotations in the mix. Not to mention, the citations from other works / writers to reinforce the pun atmosphere on every page.

Overall, it’s really well-written. But the auto-fiction genre is just not for me. I love wholly fiction by Kosinski (though, I’m willing to bet that all of Kosinski’s works contain subtle non-fiction snippets of his own life experience).

Three stars on this one. I hope there are readers out there; stronger than I, who can get through this and give it a much stronger appreciation than I.

[Marc Tiefenthal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ik had van Kozinski De gekleurde vogel en Daar zijn gelezen, vond dit vrij geniale boeken. Ik dacht met De kluizenaar goed thuis te komen. Niet dus. Het boek heeft me verveeld. Ik begrijp best waarom hij het geschreven heeft maar ik hoef het daarom nog niet te lezen. Enfin, het is volbracht, het is uitgelezen; een boek voor schrijvers? Er komen best een paar leuke passages in voor, de woordspelingen vind ik geniaal, het kader (yoga en consoorten) 'goed geplaatst' maar het gehele boek vind ik overbodig.

[Glenn]

Full disclosure: I did not finish the book. I have a theory that this book was the author's "F-You" to the world on his way out of it, perhaps devised to be coherent enough to get published and read by many, but deliberately, torturously, labyrinthine, dense, and frustrating.
I am happy to be talked out of this.

[wo gr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Le puse post its a muchas páginas en donde escribían cosas clever.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

This strange book is Kosinsky's suicide note.