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Krakow Melt
Shortlisted for a Lambda Literary Award and Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBT Fiction, the second novel by Daniel Allen Cox ("Shuck")is an infernal fable about sex, politics, and violence, in which a bisexual artist in Krakow, Poland teams up with a budding female pyromaniac as their city prepares for the imminent death of Pope John Paul II.
176 pages, ebook
First published January 10, 2010
3 people are currently reading
106 people want to read
About the author
Daniel Allen Cox
10 books35 followersDaniel Allen Cox's essays appear or are forthcoming in Electric Literature, The Malahat Review, Fourth Genre, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. He is the author of four novels published by Arsenal Pulp Press. Daniel lives in Tiotia:ke/Montréal and is past president of the Quebec Writers' Federation. He is represented by Akin Akinwumi at Willenfield Literary Agency.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
July 8, 2013
I think i had some weird rule where if I stumble across a small press queer novel in the Rockdale library I have to read it. Must remember to change that rule.
If you're going to make your main characters Polish and set your book in Krakow maybe don't make them self-consciously explain everything to a North American audience, it's really unconvincing.
Other languages aren't just colour you can sprinkle through your text for excitement.
If you have an artist as your main character maybe don't make his art so literally connected with a childhood trauma that he is reliving it WITH POPSICLE STICKS.
Using "parkour" as a symbol of radical rebellion against the city is going to date your book really really fast.
Chapters that are solely about Pink Floyd concerts are gonna flip my switch straight from "this kinda stupid book is still enjoyable" to "holy shit who ever thought anyone would wanna read this?"
Why are there so many 5 star reviews of this book? Are North American gays so desperate to read something about "radical queers" that they are happy to read anything set in a more (straightforwardly) homophobic place?
Fuck people using Poland as a symbol for everything Catholic and repressive and quaintly cinematic with it's castles and layers of history.
Experimental fiction is not an excuse to just have random chapters of facts taken from wikipedia.
If you're going to make your main characters Polish and set your book in Krakow maybe don't make them self-consciously explain everything to a North American audience, it's really unconvincing.
Other languages aren't just colour you can sprinkle through your text for excitement.
If you have an artist as your main character maybe don't make his art so literally connected with a childhood trauma that he is reliving it WITH POPSICLE STICKS.
Using "parkour" as a symbol of radical rebellion against the city is going to date your book really really fast.
Chapters that are solely about Pink Floyd concerts are gonna flip my switch straight from "this kinda stupid book is still enjoyable" to "holy shit who ever thought anyone would wanna read this?"
Why are there so many 5 star reviews of this book? Are North American gays so desperate to read something about "radical queers" that they are happy to read anything set in a more (straightforwardly) homophobic place?
Fuck people using Poland as a symbol for everything Catholic and repressive and quaintly cinematic with it's castles and layers of history.
Experimental fiction is not an excuse to just have random chapters of facts taken from wikipedia.
June 20, 2023
A strange, powerful, complex and thrilling novel. Daniel Allen Cox is a talented writer. Who knew so many strands could fuse and prove combustible?
For those drawn to Cox's new memoir I Felt the End Before It Came: Memoirs of a Queer Ex-Jehovah's Witness, also worth exploring is this novel, as well as his first book, Shuck.
For those drawn to Cox's new memoir I Felt the End Before It Came: Memoirs of a Queer Ex-Jehovah's Witness, also worth exploring is this novel, as well as his first book, Shuck.
August 10, 2010
Daniel Allen Cox is one of those perfect authors. Arsenal is small so there is just me working in marketing but he makes my job easier. Who doesn't want to receive weekly marketing updates from their author? What I also like about Daniel is I like his books.
Krakow Melt is a quick read and I found it funny, slightly crazy and also sad. There was one part that just broke my heart, but I'm not going to say. You'll have to read it.
Great buzz for this book and well deserved.
Krakow Melt is a quick read and I found it funny, slightly crazy and also sad. There was one part that just broke my heart, but I'm not going to say. You'll have to read it.
Great buzz for this book and well deserved.
March 20, 2011
This was the Euro Disney of cemeteries, a necropolis. Death is done right in Poland, and I don’t mean that with any disrespect. I mean that angels are sculpted of marble, not granite, tombs are kept clean and accessible, the catacombs and columbariums pristine. Corpse names are written in fonts so sexy they make you want to cum. The architecture of remembrance is not left to lie fallow, not here. The parents of Pope Jan Pawel II were buried here, but that wasn’t why we’d made the trip.
Dressing in black to visit a cemetery is cliché, but when the purpose of your visit is to candle-bomb the place, it’s just practical. Stealth is prime in such situations.
***
Incendiary is an easy word to toss around with any book that strives to make a political or social statement, that features protagonists who seek to dismantle the oppression of a religious belief structure, a regime, or most destructive of all, an idea. The idea that one way of living is right, and another is wrong. Amoral. To be judged and deemed as something less than human—less than respectable. With Krakow Melt, incendiary is of critical merit, not only because of the social strata that Cox paints with a gasoline-soaked brush, but because of the methods by which his heroes tackle that which would deny them their basic human rights—to be as free, socially and sexually, as they want to be.
Cox’s protagonist, Radek, is a bisexual artist living in Poland in 2005, where he practices parkour and firebombs popsicle-stick sculptures of cities—the consummation of cultural norms through the ultimate means of destructive expression. Together with Dorota, a literature student who finds herself absorbed by what Radek’s radicalism represents, they explore one another and attempt to define for themselves where their desires fit in a predominantly homophobic culture that would seek to destroy them rather than understand them.
Radek’s passion for fire and the equalizing power it represents comes from his interest in the art of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, who in their careers together have wrapped the Reichstag in a woven polypropylene fabric, created a 39.4 kilometre fence out of white nylon that ran through the hills of Marin and Sonoma counties, and generally altered the topographical face of the earth for their art. With Dorota at his side, he continues to question ways in which, through fire and by vaulting past the crumbling edifices of a Poland entrenched in fear and homophobia, his art can make any sort of difference.
At a lean 151 pages, Krakow Melt is, in its own way, an incendiary device—a book of ideas and the allure of destruction as a means to bring order and balance to a society. To, quite literally in some cases, level the playing field. Cox writes with a pace he expects his characters to match, never lingering on any one thing for far too long. And when violence, vulgarity and brutality are employed in the service of the narrative, it is done with the same speed, the same sense of shock and surprise that the story has been structured upon, mashed together and unfortunately bereft of sincere depth. Radek and Dorota are surface artists, composed of ideas that burn, and burn quickly, but without the tertiary layers of skin that one would hope to discover once the ashes have been brushed away. Then again, in a book this svelte, packed with anger and condemnation for such anachronistic ideals, maybe the surface is all that needs to burn—because maybe there aren’t any more layers to the world than that.
You’re afraid or you're not.
You understand or you want to run away, cry foul, shout that the way others are living their lives isn’t what you think is right and they need to be judged for their sins.
Krakow Melt is a firebomb of Cox’s own creation, one that burns and burns brightly for its duration, yet holds back in the end, refraining from peeling away the blackened and charred flesh and showing us just how deep the horror show goes.
Dressing in black to visit a cemetery is cliché, but when the purpose of your visit is to candle-bomb the place, it’s just practical. Stealth is prime in such situations.
***
Incendiary is an easy word to toss around with any book that strives to make a political or social statement, that features protagonists who seek to dismantle the oppression of a religious belief structure, a regime, or most destructive of all, an idea. The idea that one way of living is right, and another is wrong. Amoral. To be judged and deemed as something less than human—less than respectable. With Krakow Melt, incendiary is of critical merit, not only because of the social strata that Cox paints with a gasoline-soaked brush, but because of the methods by which his heroes tackle that which would deny them their basic human rights—to be as free, socially and sexually, as they want to be.
Cox’s protagonist, Radek, is a bisexual artist living in Poland in 2005, where he practices parkour and firebombs popsicle-stick sculptures of cities—the consummation of cultural norms through the ultimate means of destructive expression. Together with Dorota, a literature student who finds herself absorbed by what Radek’s radicalism represents, they explore one another and attempt to define for themselves where their desires fit in a predominantly homophobic culture that would seek to destroy them rather than understand them.
Radek’s passion for fire and the equalizing power it represents comes from his interest in the art of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, who in their careers together have wrapped the Reichstag in a woven polypropylene fabric, created a 39.4 kilometre fence out of white nylon that ran through the hills of Marin and Sonoma counties, and generally altered the topographical face of the earth for their art. With Dorota at his side, he continues to question ways in which, through fire and by vaulting past the crumbling edifices of a Poland entrenched in fear and homophobia, his art can make any sort of difference.
At a lean 151 pages, Krakow Melt is, in its own way, an incendiary device—a book of ideas and the allure of destruction as a means to bring order and balance to a society. To, quite literally in some cases, level the playing field. Cox writes with a pace he expects his characters to match, never lingering on any one thing for far too long. And when violence, vulgarity and brutality are employed in the service of the narrative, it is done with the same speed, the same sense of shock and surprise that the story has been structured upon, mashed together and unfortunately bereft of sincere depth. Radek and Dorota are surface artists, composed of ideas that burn, and burn quickly, but without the tertiary layers of skin that one would hope to discover once the ashes have been brushed away. Then again, in a book this svelte, packed with anger and condemnation for such anachronistic ideals, maybe the surface is all that needs to burn—because maybe there aren’t any more layers to the world than that.
You’re afraid or you're not.
You understand or you want to run away, cry foul, shout that the way others are living their lives isn’t what you think is right and they need to be judged for their sins.
Krakow Melt is a firebomb of Cox’s own creation, one that burns and burns brightly for its duration, yet holds back in the end, refraining from peeling away the blackened and charred flesh and showing us just how deep the horror show goes.
April 10, 2011
Lambda Literary Award Finalist
Krakow Melt (Arsenal Pulp Press), by Daniel Allen Cox, follows the life of Radek, a Polish artist whose struggle against homophobia throughout the novel descends like a vector into destruction and pyromania. The book opens in Nowa Huta, a suburb outside Krakow, Poland.
It’s 2005, a year after the country has been brought under the fold of the European Union. Poland finds itself grappling with a fledgling queer rights movement on the one hand, and the death of Pope John Paul II—which ignites a homophobic backlash—on the other. The strain threatens to tear society apart.
Read more
Krakow Melt (Arsenal Pulp Press), by Daniel Allen Cox, follows the life of Radek, a Polish artist whose struggle against homophobia throughout the novel descends like a vector into destruction and pyromania. The book opens in Nowa Huta, a suburb outside Krakow, Poland.
It’s 2005, a year after the country has been brought under the fold of the European Union. Poland finds itself grappling with a fledgling queer rights movement on the one hand, and the death of Pope John Paul II—which ignites a homophobic backlash—on the other. The strain threatens to tear society apart.
Read more
October 24, 2010
Krakow Melt by Daniel Allen Cox
Final Verdict: 3.5 out of 4.0
YTD: 55
Plot/Story:
4 – Plot/Story is interesting/believable and impactful.
Krakow Melt is a bizarre rendering of the tension over the Gay Rights movement in Poland, 2005. This movement was one of the branches of the Solidarnosc which helped to bring down the Berlin Wall in 1989. The main character, Radek, is a homosexual artist with a particular connection with the power and seduction of fire. He has an affair with a woman, which is little based of sexual attraction (from either Radek or Dorota), but largely based on the desire for complete freedom, which is expressed through subversion of the “norms.” Since Radek is a gay man, the most subversive act he can enact is to become sexually involved with a woman. They both have a mutual appreciation for the regenerative powers of fire, as well – their stance is that the most courageous artists are the ones who create art which will be intentionally destroyed. In the end, Dorota turns out to be the truly courageous one, outlasting and out fighting Radek, with a cry of “he’s not afraid to have sex with me [a woman] so why would he be afraid of you [to the queer-hating thugs]” she seals Radek’s fate, without his consent. The depictions of the gay parade, where both the crowds and the police (who Radek describes as his heroes) turn on them – throwing feces, clubs, fists, and other detritus at the gay freedom marches, whose “war cry” is simply: do not be afraid of us. Also, the interwoven political realities and the impact that the death of Poland’s native Pope has on the people allows for a great sense of social import to the period, and gives the reader multiple insights into the happenings of this eastern European nation of which many readers may not be aware (this reader certainly learned a few things).
Read the full review at: http://www.roofbeamreader.net
Final Verdict: 3.5 out of 4.0
YTD: 55
Plot/Story:
4 – Plot/Story is interesting/believable and impactful.
Krakow Melt is a bizarre rendering of the tension over the Gay Rights movement in Poland, 2005. This movement was one of the branches of the Solidarnosc which helped to bring down the Berlin Wall in 1989. The main character, Radek, is a homosexual artist with a particular connection with the power and seduction of fire. He has an affair with a woman, which is little based of sexual attraction (from either Radek or Dorota), but largely based on the desire for complete freedom, which is expressed through subversion of the “norms.” Since Radek is a gay man, the most subversive act he can enact is to become sexually involved with a woman. They both have a mutual appreciation for the regenerative powers of fire, as well – their stance is that the most courageous artists are the ones who create art which will be intentionally destroyed. In the end, Dorota turns out to be the truly courageous one, outlasting and out fighting Radek, with a cry of “he’s not afraid to have sex with me [a woman] so why would he be afraid of you [to the queer-hating thugs]” she seals Radek’s fate, without his consent. The depictions of the gay parade, where both the crowds and the police (who Radek describes as his heroes) turn on them – throwing feces, clubs, fists, and other detritus at the gay freedom marches, whose “war cry” is simply: do not be afraid of us. Also, the interwoven political realities and the impact that the death of Poland’s native Pope has on the people allows for a great sense of social import to the period, and gives the reader multiple insights into the happenings of this eastern European nation of which many readers may not be aware (this reader certainly learned a few things).
Read the full review at: http://www.roofbeamreader.net
August 20, 2011
Krakow Melt is a darker, more moving book than I expected going in. As other reviewers have pointed out, the narrative is disjointed, and it feels like it's going to be one of those fun, edgy books that evaporates an hour after you finish it. "I appear to be made of school, not neologisms," a character says, fearing she won't write anything worthwhile, and while that makes me laugh in sympathy, it also expresses my own ambivalence about the book.
Daniel Allen Cox does a great job of creating an original voice: Radek, the Polish narrator, who struggles with having to write in a foreign language. Through Radek, Cox paints a convincing portrait of this intensely homophobic, socially backward, former communist country. Ads for tampons are scraped off billboards when the Pope is dying, "as if feminine hygiene was deemed too vile a subject to acknowledge at such a 'holy' time."
I especially liked Radek's refusal to embrace the standard pieties of old-fashioned gay liberation, as when, during a protest march, a gay elephant is used as a mascot with the legend "Because God made me this way." Radek complains, "Why couldn't [the elephant] simply fuck other males because he wanted to? Why did he need permission from above?" A timely sentiment in the age of Lady Gaga.
But even as Radek and Dorota, the woman who befriends him, combine art and fire in a form of protest, I was not prepared for the way the mood darkened later in the story.
I've given Krakow Melt five stars because I thought it was "amazing," as the Goodreads rating system works. It's not the best book I ever read, but it's original, outrageous, angry, and well-written--everything I most admire in a book. Cox, like his narrator, Radek, doesn't look at things the way most other people do, and the fate he writes for his character is the usual one for rebels.
Daniel Allen Cox does a great job of creating an original voice: Radek, the Polish narrator, who struggles with having to write in a foreign language. Through Radek, Cox paints a convincing portrait of this intensely homophobic, socially backward, former communist country. Ads for tampons are scraped off billboards when the Pope is dying, "as if feminine hygiene was deemed too vile a subject to acknowledge at such a 'holy' time."
I especially liked Radek's refusal to embrace the standard pieties of old-fashioned gay liberation, as when, during a protest march, a gay elephant is used as a mascot with the legend "Because God made me this way." Radek complains, "Why couldn't [the elephant] simply fuck other males because he wanted to? Why did he need permission from above?" A timely sentiment in the age of Lady Gaga.
But even as Radek and Dorota, the woman who befriends him, combine art and fire in a form of protest, I was not prepared for the way the mood darkened later in the story.
I've given Krakow Melt five stars because I thought it was "amazing," as the Goodreads rating system works. It's not the best book I ever read, but it's original, outrageous, angry, and well-written--everything I most admire in a book. Cox, like his narrator, Radek, doesn't look at things the way most other people do, and the fate he writes for his character is the usual one for rebels.
February 2, 2011
Radek, a gay artist who practices parkour, is fascinated by fire. His art primarily centers around building small scale models of cities which burned and then lighting them on fire. Living in Krakow, Poland, Radek struggles with the homophobia of his country. He meets Dorota, a literature student, and the two explore their city and protest its injustices.
The book is strange, make no mistake. The plot is relatively meandering without a clear central conflict to guide the action. The narrative itself is broken up by letters from Radek to Dorota and vice versa, as well as political and historical discussions. There is even some notes on elephant sex.
Despite the relatively disjointed nature, by the end, the reader has a picture of the time the book covers, and the reader has been confronted with some serious issues: homophobia, friendship, sex, and love, and the universality of destruction and rebirth.
One big annoyance to me was the character of Dorota. She seemed to be created more as a perfect companion for Radek than a personality in her own right. This becomes glaringly clear at the end of the book, which I won't spoil for you, but which caused me to do a bit of an eyeroll.
The book is strange, make no mistake. The plot is relatively meandering without a clear central conflict to guide the action. The narrative itself is broken up by letters from Radek to Dorota and vice versa, as well as political and historical discussions. There is even some notes on elephant sex.
Despite the relatively disjointed nature, by the end, the reader has a picture of the time the book covers, and the reader has been confronted with some serious issues: homophobia, friendship, sex, and love, and the universality of destruction and rebirth.
One big annoyance to me was the character of Dorota. She seemed to be created more as a perfect companion for Radek than a personality in her own right. This becomes glaringly clear at the end of the book, which I won't spoil for you, but which caused me to do a bit of an eyeroll.
August 27, 2016
I'm supposed to be on vacation so I don't want to write a real review, but I have issues. First off, at least use the right spellings, conjugations, and translations of Polish words if you're going to set the book in Poland. Second, if you want to the Solidarność movement to be somewhat important to the story, you should do it justice. Everything regarding the Polish language, culture, and history was lazy and sloppily done. If you just wanted to write about homophobia in Poland, you didn't need to pretend that any of the rest of it was important to your story.
March 24, 2017
2.5* Got this for $3 and glad I hadn't paid more. This is a book about a guy and his life in Poland. To add atmosphere, the author added polish words every few paragraphs, but failed to translate most of these flecks of Polish, so who knew what that sentence was about. A jumble of a story and now I know that Poland is homophobic (or maybe it isn't anymore). A depressing read and annoying about the untranslated polish.
April 23, 2013
I can't even begin to do justice to how brilliant this novel is. Now fewer than 3 times, I said "Fuck You" out loud in a completely empty room because of how perfectly crafted some sentences and passages were. My only complaint is that there wasn't enough of the book--I wanted it to go on and on. GET THIS NOVEL IMMEDIATELY.
October 29, 2010
I finished this book on the same day I read Susan Straight's anecdote about cops and driving in OC with her black ex-husband in the current issue of The Believer and I've been angry all week. Fuck I'm happy I live in Canada.
December 26, 2017
This was a bit of a wild read, and it hasn't all sunk in fully. I'm definitely going to re-read soon, as I think one of the reasons I'm not done processing it is that I went through it too quickly (it's a really short book).
November 9, 2010
Dark and beautiful, in a way that makes the bile rise.
November 9, 2011
finely honed book with fire descriptions beautifully rendered.
September 14, 2010
OMG READ THIS BOOK NOW.
October 19, 2010
Fantastic short novel by Daniel Allex Cox. Makes me want to go pyro.
September 3, 2012
I savoured this book like a glass of whiskey, not wanting it to end but enjoying the burn. What will I do now that I have read all of Canadian author Daniel's books?
The story centres around Radek, a Polish bisexual artist. He has an obession with fire that I could explain further but would ruin the story. There's sex, violence, art and death here, a perfect blend. His story telling is raw, sexual and not always heterosexual. The content may offend some. The imagery regarding protests was brilliant; I was there, could feel the firehose pouring water against the back of my neck.
The author's home burned down in 2007 and this experience can be felt in this story. Unique perspective, I was deeply saddened to let this free spirit and artist go.
Huge contribution to Canadian literature. Bravo!
The story centres around Radek, a Polish bisexual artist. He has an obession with fire that I could explain further but would ruin the story. There's sex, violence, art and death here, a perfect blend. His story telling is raw, sexual and not always heterosexual. The content may offend some. The imagery regarding protests was brilliant; I was there, could feel the firehose pouring water against the back of my neck.
The author's home burned down in 2007 and this experience can be felt in this story. Unique perspective, I was deeply saddened to let this free spirit and artist go.
Huge contribution to Canadian literature. Bravo!
June 29, 2012
My feeling after reading this book is that the author has talent, but wasn't able to fully realize it in this novel. I liked the main characters; felt they were "real" and complex. However, something about the execution of the story didn't sit right with me. I would try to pin it down here, but I'm afraid I would spoil the plot to someone who hasn't read it in the process.
November 25, 2022
Brilliant novel, loved it, particularly in the way it knocked the pieties out of Poland and the Polish Pope. This book deserved its award nominations and although short, is powerful, fun and full of surprises. It is so wonderful to come across a novel that gives such pleasure.
Read it! It's your loss if you don't.
Read it! It's your loss if you don't.
April 12, 2013
This is the second novel by Daniel Allen Cox. It's an infernal fable about sex, politics, and violence, in which a bisexual artist in Krakow, Poland teams up with a budding female pyromaniac as their city prepares for the imminent death of Pope John Paul II.
January 16, 2015
I gave this 3 stars because I don't know if maybe I just had a stroke and didn't understand this or what.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews