Tales of Grabowski: Transformations Escape & Other Stories

by John Auerbach

Tales of Grabowski includes two novellas, Transformations and escape, which tell the story of David Gordon, a young Jew, who transforms himself into Wladyslaw Grabowski, a Polish stoker in the German merchant marine. Auerbach balances the internal tensions between Gordon's desire to fight for revenge and Grabowski's desperate need for survival.

320 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2003

Reviews

[laurenpie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Both brilliant and irritating

Wish I had known, before reading, that these stories were a blend of fiction and non-fiction... I'll call it "enhanced autobiography." I may have been a bit more forgiving regarding the writing style. It's my understanding that "Transformations Parts 1 and 2" are basically the author's actual life story (with literary enhancement only in the small details), and he did lead a very interesting life.

The writing style, though dated, would have been okay, except for the habitual and extremely clumsy foreshadowing: repeatedly jumping straight into the middle of conversations or scenarios meant to be undecipherable to the reader until the plodding, backtracked explanation a few pages later.

I was also put-off by the constant name-dropping in the first tale, Transformations Part 1... the non-stop references to philosophers. I'm sure that anyone who has studied philosophy would have appreciated that first tale much more than I did... for the uninitiated, it was not at all pleasant to slog through.

Transformations Part 2 was much more interesting for me... as were the author's true-life journalings included at the end of the collection... "The Anatomy and Death of a Dream" and "Episodes in Autobiography."

I thought the entire psychological ploy of putting David Gordon to death, and creating Grabowski in his place was brilliant. My favorite element of Transformations was the purposeful and forced artifice within Grabowski's character... limiting his humanity, making him a shallow and hard shell... it seemed the only way to make his determined and sacrificial courage possible.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Utterly riveting. John Auerbach is referred to as "one of the great, yet unknown writers of the twentieth century." Truer words have never been spoken. An extraordinary man who, thankfully, decided he'd do some writing. The world is better off for it, of that I am certain.

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two novellas, several short-stories- excellant bed-time reading