The Street of Crocodiles in Reading with Style

Jun 29, 2010 Elizabeth (Alaska) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: europe-other, 5-star-reads, mid-20th-century

There are two introductions to this edition. One is by the translator Celine Wieniewska, and the other by Jerzy Ficowski, who must have written the introduction to the original. I don't recall in which, but one of them says this is a novel - and it is, of sorts. It is collection of inter-connected stories, a novel in the same way, perhaps, that Olive Kitteridge is a novel. Please do not mistake me: that inter-connectedness the only thing the two titles have in common. These stories are all told There are two introductions to this edition. One is by the translator Celine Wieniewska, and the other by Jerzy Ficowski, who must have written the introduction to the original. I don't recall in which, but one of them says this is a novel - and it is, of sorts. It is collection of inter-connected stories, a novel in the same way, perhaps, that Olive Kitteridge is a novel. Please do not mistake me: that inter-connectedness the only thing the two titles have in common. These stories are all told in the first person about his family - mostly his father.

Several of these stories could be called fantasy, but not in the more contemporary sense. Schulz takes us on flights of his imagination in a fantastical way. Conjecture easily changes into certainty, the obvious into illusion; possibilities materialize. Myth stalks the streets of Drogobych, turning ragamuffins playing tiddleywinks into enchanted soothsayers who read the future in the cracks of a wall, or transforming a shopkeeper into a prophet or a goblin. (From the introduction by Jerzy Ficowski.)

This is filled with such beautiful language! I read in another review somewhere an analogy that one could not read much at a time because it would be like sitting down to a 7-course meal of rich chocolate. I could quote from nearly every page, but here are two examples, from two different stories.

I heard my father's voice during the intermissions in these prophetic tirades. I heard the windows shake from the powerful growl of the swollen lips, mixed with the explosions of entreaties, laments, and threats uttered by Father.

At the time of the shortest, sleepy winter days, edged on both sides with the furry dusk of mornings and evenings, when the city reached out deeper and deeper into the labyrinth of winter nights, and was shaken reluctantly into consciousness by the short dawn, my father was already lost, sold and surrendered to the other sphere.

This later quote is the opening line of the story "Cinnamon Shops". This was the title of the collection when it first appeared. I don't know why it was changed for the English language collection, which are the same stories. I also liked "Tailors Dummies" which apparently is really a series of three stories. A third favorite is "The Gale" where Schulz truly lets his imagination run free. There were a couple of stories I could easily have skipped, though I didn't.

I spent a bit over a month with this. I needed to intersperse my reading of the stories with my other reading. I think doing it that way made me appreciate this short volume that much more. ...more

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