The Eighth Day of the Week (European Classics) [Paperback]

Marek Hlasko (Author), Norbert Guterman (Translator)

Book Description

Series: European Classics | Publication Date: May 25, 1994

The author's first novel, originally published in Poland in 1956, translated into 15 languages and made into a film. It gave voice to the disenchantment of the younger generation growing up under Communism and tells of two young people searching for somewhere to consummate their love.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“This smooth reading translation introduces the English-speaking world to the writing of one of present-day Poland's most talented and talked about young authors. . . . Apart from its purely literary merits, the book's content presents illuminating insights into the social and personal problems that beset the Poles.”–Library Journal --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Polish

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Product Details

• Paperback: 123 pages
• Publisher: Northwestern University Press (May 25, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810111195
• ISBN-13: 978-0810111196
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,311,532 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Warsaw, the gray gray city, October 17, 1999

By 

"vparobek" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Eighth Day of the Week (European Classics) (Paperback)

Without knowing much about Polish writer Marek Hlasko, a reader of this novel could pretty much guess that he was born and raised under the gray curtain of Stalinism. Throughout this short novel that covers a 3-day period in rainy cold Warsaw, we glean nothing but despair and cynicism every step of the way. The story begins with the two main characters arguing on the banks of the Vistula on a "filthy day in May," a telling-enough detail: can anyone ever recall the month of May being described as "filthy?" (Perhaps it is in a figurative sense for anyone bred under Soviet communism: their month of May opened with the traditional May Day celebrations). Our heroine, Agnieszka, is arguing with her boyfriend Piotr because he wants to make love with her for the first time right then and there on the riverbank since "there is no place on earth for lovers to go." Both Agnies and Piotr live in overcrowded tenements in true commmunist fashion, rubbing elbows with dispirted people everywhere. Agnies' mother is a bitter, hateful invalid, her father a prematurely aging man already focused on his own death. Her younger brother, Grzegorz, is also prematurely old and a defeated, cynical idealist. Her old brother, Zawadzki, is one of the few persons in the story holding onto any hope and keeps plugging away daily at his job as a laborer and says "I want to believe in people." Agnies herself is jaded yet hopeful. She still believes in love & romance, is at odds with her home environment and keeps studying away for a degree in philosphy at university. What she craves most of all, she tells Piotr, is "peace and quiet." We seem to get to know Piotr the least. We know that he was in the armed forces and served time in prison for some type of political "crime." The thread of the story shows how each character looks forward to Sunday, the 7th day of the week, for one reason for another. Agnies' father is to go on a much-anticipated fishing trip; Grzegorz's girlfriend is to give her decision whether to accept his proposal of marriage and Zawadzki anticipates a visit to his fiance on that day as well. True to the cynicism thru-out the story, nothing comes through on Sunday for any of them. Sunday dawns a sleeting, cold day no good for fishing or trips to see girlfriends. Perhaps the title of the book stems from these characters' desperate need for yet one more day in the week to achieve what they so desire? Sunday turns out to be a horrendous day--you must read what happens to everyone! When Monday morning finally dawns, and everyone falls back into their routine, gray existences. Piotr and Angies part ways, true to his earlier conviction that "This is the 90th century. If Romeo and Juliet lived in Warsaw in 1956, they would never have met." Probably the sum of 8th Day can be read in Grzegorz's "Cynicism is the sole morality" but check out the last line in the book where Agnies' father is standing at the front door and remarks "I wish it were Sunday." Translator Guterman did an upstanding job with this work, preserving the dozens of philosophical gems Hlasko packs onto every page.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars No illusions, but still alive, August 7, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Eighth Day of the Week (European Classics) (Paperback)

Poland in the 60's.Characters drawned as with no illusions, a boy always drunken not to remember the present and the lack of love and understanding, his sister the only one who has sparkles of faith in the possibilities of humane changes, but at the end breaks down. On the background the system, the lack of morality that becames going over morality and only a try in surviving, no hope in joy. Everything seems to collapse, but at last Poland will remain the same, forever, for only humane beings will fall in dust, the spirit of the country'll remain the same, stifling and atrophying. The country survives because feeds on his inhabithans, on their blood and hopes.Hlasko recreates the disillusion himself lived, and died too early to realize that was right in his prophecy.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars So much promise ..., July 18, 2000

By 

M. J. Smith (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Eighth Day of the Week (European Classics) (Paperback)

I am curious if the author titled this book "The Eighth Day" based on the Catholic/Christian reference to Sunday as the eighth day, the day of recreation. Be that as it may, the book has many merits - e.g. the way it makes the oppressive atmosphere tangible "only with difficulty could she get the damp air into her lungs". The atmosphere is filled with disappointment, drunkeness, violence, self-pity and self-loathing. A few pages into the novel, I fully expected it to be good, maybe very good.

Unfortunately, as the main character Agnieszka breaks in her own way, the plot fails ... there has not been sufficient psychological change to motivate the change in behavior.

As an anti-Communist piece of Polish literature, the book is interesting; as a universal piece of humanity under repression it fails. I suspect, however, that the author's talent may have (or will) produced better works.