"I'm not on good terms with the present day," Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky
once mused, "but posterity loves me." Virtually unknown during his
lifetime and unpublishable under Stalin, he now draws comparisons to
Beckett, Borges, Gogol, and Swift. This book presents three tales that
encapsulate Krzhizhanovsky's gift for creating philosophical, satirical,
and lyrical phantasmagorias.
"Stravaging 'Strange'" details the darkly comic adventures of an
apprentice magus: lovesick, he imbibes a magic tincture to reduce
himself to the size of a dust mote, the better to observe the young lady
in question. He stumbles across a talkative king of hearts, a gallant
flea, a coven of vindictive house imps, and his romantic rival along the
way to a cinematic dénouement. "Catastrophe" wryly parodies Kant's
philosophy: An old sage decides to extract the essence from all things
and beings in a ruthless attempt to understand reality--and chaos
ensues. "Material for a Life of Gorgis Katafalaki," set in Berlin,
Paris, London, and Moscow, recounts the absurd trials of an otherworldly
outsider of uncertain nationality and unfixed profession with boundless
curiosity but scant means.
This book also includes excerpts from Krzhizhanovsky's
notebooks--aphoristic glimpses of his worldview, moods, humor, and
writing methods--and reminiscences of Krzhizhanovsky by his lifelong
companion, Anna Bovshek, beginning with their first meeting in Kiev in
1920 and ending with his death in Moscow in 1950.
