Synopses & Reviews
Although Witold Gombrowiczs unique, idiosyncratic writings include a three-volume Diary, this voluminous document offers few facts about his early life in Poland before his books were banned there and he went into voluntary exile. Polish Memories—a series of autobiographical sketches Gombrowicz composed for Radio Free Europe during his years in Argentina in the late 1950s—fills the gap in our knowledge.
Written in a straightforward way without his famous linguistic inventions, the book presents an engaging account of Gombrowiczs childhood, youth, literary beginnings, and fellow writers in interwar Poland and reveals how these experiences and individuals shaped his seemingly outlandish concepts about the self, culture, art, and society. In addition, the book helps readers understand the numerous autobiographical allusions in his fiction and brings a new level of understanding and appreciation to his life and work.
Review
"A useful companion to Gombrowicz's much more complex Diary, elucidating some of his more confounding ideas and locating them in their social and historical context. The book will serve as an introduction to an assemblage of major and minor literary figures, who jointly created the creative atmosphere of those interwar years."—Jaroslaw Anders, author of Eastern European Literature in the Twentieth Century
About the Author
Witold Gombrowicz is the author of Ferdydurke, Trans-Atlantyk, Pornografia, and Cosmos, the first two available from Yale University Press. These, along with his plays and the three-volume Diary, have been translated into more than thirty languages.