Another Beauty [Paperback]

Adam Zagajewski (Author), Clare Cavanagh (Translator), Susan Sontag (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 22, 2002

This brilliant memoir is Adam Zagajewski's recollection of 1960s and 1970s communist Poland, where he was a fledgling writer, student of philosophy, and vocal dissident at the university in Krakow, Poland's most beautiful and ancient city.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"What would the great, innocent artists of the past, Giotto or van Eyk, Proust or Apollinaire, have done if some spiteful demon had set them down in our flawed and tawdry world, warped by so-called Totalitarianism?... And what if they had been transported to a wealthy nation, free, but indifferent--what would they have said?" Coming of age in communist Poland in the 1960s and '70s, and living now in Paris and Houston, Adam Zagajewski writes of his experiences on both sides of this political and economic divide. More deeply, however, his prose memoir probes and explores the questions that art must always face: How do we stay spiritually alive in an oppressive culture? How do we keep burning?

"Reality expanded in the hands of the past's great artists," he writes. "It became enticing and mysterious, plumed like the wings of a hawk." So too with Zagajewski, both in his poetry (see especially Mysticism for Beginners and Canvas) and in many of the entries here. At times a simple paragraph in length, at other times ranging across a few pages, each section is both self-contained and a part of the whole. While apparently random--Another Beauty has no chapters, and no clear chronology--the brief passages each function as one facet on the diamond of the whole.

This poet refuses easy irony. "Our task is far too serious for us to mind the fickle temper of the times," he writes. "We, things, are reality's roots, we are the pillars of being. We've got no use for young literary critics with their irony." Irony can be cheap, whether in Poland in the 1960s or in America in the new millennium. Zagajewski doesn't waste his time, or ours, with it. Instead he tends to reality. He knows he can't answer the big questions, but he also knows that those are the ones that matter. --Doug Thorpe --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

The life of Eastern European communist dissidents, workers and intellectuals may already seem like ancient history to a younger generation speeding into the 21st century. But there's still a lot to be learned by listening to the voices of those who grew to maturity in communist Europe. One of the most eloquent among those voices is Zagajewski (Canvas, etc.), a major contemporary Polish poet. He offers a memoir suffused with the atmosphere of Poland in the 1960s and '70s, when he was a student and fledgling writer in Krakow. More like a series of poetic fragments than a continuous prose narrative, the various sections of the memoir include melancholy and tender tributes to the city of Krakow ("It was a matter of pride," he writes "to belong to such a city"); memories of the pre-communist world the city harkened back to; his study of philosophy and psychology, stunted by ideological restrictions at a communist-run university; and his membership in the emerging opposition movement. These stories are mixed with philosophical ruminations on various pieces of classical music, life's "wholeness," the nature of poetry, and literary and cultural figures of the period. Given that few readers will be familiar with these figures, however, this edition would have benefited from footnotes and biographical information. Subtle and intellectual (perhaps a bit too much so at times), Zagajewski's memoir will find its largest audience among readers who are already familiar with his Polish setting. (Aug.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: University of Georgia Press (February 22, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0820324108
• ISBN-13: 978-0820324104
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,008,543 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a poet's account, May 16, 2006

By 

Aleksandra Nita-Lazar (MD, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Another Beauty (Paperback)

The autobiographical thoughts (Zagajewski himself does not like describing this volume as "memoirs") collected in "Another Beauty" are truly delightful. I am not sure if they can make a reader who never experienced life in the Communist system understand it (hardly anything could...), but at least they make a valuable source and can explain a lot of its mechanisms and difficulties of people living in Poland then. Probably this was not the main purpose of this tome (which appeared in Poland at the end of the 1990s) anyway...

The memories of the author's student life in Krakow (which seems similar to the Krakow I know, although I was always there only as a tourist and much later) are mixed with thoughts on music, poetry, people and life, and with short images of the surrounding world, all written in a subtle yet sharp manner, which reminds the reader that Zagajewski is a poet. His metaphors and vision of the world are fresh and original. While reading, I was tempted to write down many sentences as they are universal and wise.

Adam Zagajewski is one of the most important contemporary Polish poets, and although he is erudite, being a philosopher, a writer and a man of great personal culture (a representative of Polish intelligentsia, a class, which hopefully is not extinct yet), he is also very modest and critical towards himself. His prose is full of subtle irony and humor.

"Another Beauty" is a pleasure to read, and, although I have read the original, I am sure that Claire Cavanagh's translation (she is also a translator of many of Zagajewski's poems) does it justice.