Salonica World Lit: BTBA 2011 First Look-Jerzy Pilch's A Thousand Peaceful Cities

BTBA 2011 First Look-Jerzy Pilch's A Thousand Peaceful Cities

Best Translated Book Award 2011

Jerzy Pilch~Poland

"The invention of stories about oneself is the duty and irresistible temptation of the true man. The made-up story is the song of his life and death. The story of the loser, the invented story of the loser, is the sign of the winner."

Poland's Jerzy Pilch made me fall in lust with his talent when I read his novel, The Mighty Angel (translated first in English but originally written after A Thousand Peaceful Cities). I anticipated this work to be just as strong and sardonic. A Thousand Peaceful Cities farms some of the same ground he traversed in The Mighty Angel, by creating another esoteric character whose plight is that of gifted alcoholic. Whereas Mighty Angel's main character is an alcoholic named Jerzy(ahem),A Thousand Peaceful Cities is narrated by a coming-of-age boy, Jerzyk(ahem, ahem), and his experience with his father and his father's best friend, Mr. Traba(aforementioned alcoholic). Little Jerzy's father, a retired postal worker, and Mr. Traba, a failed Lutheran clergyman, spend their days drinking and debating the politics of 1963 in post-Stalinist Poland. Although this novel has the incisive and farcical humor of his other effort, The Mighty Angel, it is overshadowed by the verbosity of some of the characters. Mr. Traba, convinced that his death is near, decides that his final service to mankind is to assassinate Wladyslaw Gomulka, the acting head of state who resides in Warsaw. Traba is all too aware of his alcoholism and explains to a local Commandant why it is urgent that they act on this plan:

"One general and seven particular reasons," retorted Mr. Traba, and he began to count on his fingers. "First, cirrhosis of the liver; second, a bursting pancreas; third, severe inefficiency of the kidneys; fourth, a weakening heart; fifth, stomach ulcers; sixth, delirium tremors; seventh, and the simplest, choking on my own vomit. These are seven good reasons, not subject to falsification, each of which individually, and all of them together, are identically effective, and all of them," Mr. Traba raised his index finger decisively in the air, "are already prepared. The seven beasts are already in readiness, seven chimeras already lie waiting to jump. Yes," he bellowed suddenly, "the seven pillars of my death have already been erected!"

This is typical Traba whirling dervish of a diatribe, that at times grow longer and more fevered with their own pathos and the reader pleads for reprieve. As vibrant a character as Traba is, his own blustery booze fueled grandiosity works against the wonderful voice of the teenage narrator who practices his dream to be a writer by writing down swatches of conversation and impressions. His voice counters Traba with its plaintive youth:

The parchment map of the sky slowly took on life. Streams of deep blue air flowed across it Golden sand poured from the planets. Within the large constellations you could hear music. awoke in the middle of the night, and in the dark, gropingly, I recorded the word "occupation" in my notebook--in a moment someone would whisper it in the depths of the sleeping house.

There is a minor cast of humorous and odd characters that enter into the story, somehow involved in the trio's plot to kill First Secretary Gomulka, and sometimes their stays are too short--as in 'the angel of my first love'--who meets Jerzyk one night and tells him what she knows of him:

"In the depths of your green eyes, Jerzyk, you loafer, I can clearly see the land of laziness. I can see the golden hills where you will bask I can see the sofas of your many-honored snoozes. I can see the heaps of notebooks you will cover with writing. I can see a thousand peaceful cities where you will live from day to day, a thousand peaceful white cities of phlegmatic architecture and friendly climate. Torrid heat reigns from early morning. A streetcar, open on both sides, is making its way in green pastures. Oh, how sweet it will be, Jerzyk, to live in the heart of that life that is slowly waking bu always nodding off again before the final awakening."

But overall, Jerzyk drags the plot along with fluid, captivating prose despite the bloated speeches of Traba which serve to provide comedic grist. I much preferred the distilled simplicity of The Mighty Angel, but A Thousand Peaceful Cities is a farce of nature(sorry) that few writers could pull off, much less a farce set in post-Stalinist Poland while giving the reader a few things to laugh and cry about. I will say that I can only imagine the difficulty translating Pilch's different pitches of humor without sacrificing the narrative through line and David Frick's efforts are commendable. Pilch entertains, even if he falls too often under the spell of Traba's bombastic alcoholic rants.

A Thousand Peaceful Cities
By Jerzy Pilch
Translated by David Frick
Open Letter
Paperback, 143 pp.
ISBN: 9781924824276
$!4.95

Other works by Jerzy Pilch: