Fado (Polish Literature Series) [Paperback]

Andrzej Stasiuk (Author), Bill Johnston (Translator)

Book Description

Series: Polish Literature Series | Publication Date: September 8, 2009

Inspired by Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, Andrzej Stasiuk, Poland’s most accomplished living prose writer, takes readers into the “forgotten Europe.”

In this delightful collection of essays—by turns wry and reflective, wistful and witty—contemporary Polish writer Andrzej Stasiuk turns his attention to the villages and small towns of Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Albania, and of course his native Poland. Stasiuk travels to places no tourist would think of visiting, and in his characteristically lyrical prose, lays out his own unique and challenging perspective on the fascinating, unknown heart of Central Europe. He reminds us of the area’s extraordinarily rich cultural and ethnic makeup, explores its literature, and shows how its history is inscribed permanently in its landscapes. Above all, he describes with fascination how past, present, and future co-exist and intertwine along the highways and back roads of the region.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Stasiuk is . . . an accomplished stylist with an eye for the telling detail that brings characters and situations to life. . . . I caught a flavor of Hamsun, Sartre, Genet and Kafka in Stasiuk’s scalpel-like but evocative writing. (Irvine Welsh - The New York Times )

Readers find this author’s rough-and-ready tales of the Wild East so convincing that in the German-speaking countries he is now the best-known among contemporary Polish writers. (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung )

Starred Review. Stasiuk’s style of travel writing takes readers, in beautifully descriptive prose, to far and often remote corners of Eastern Europe. He is an alluring writer; the opening line of ‘Highway,’ the first essay in the collection—‘Best of all is night in a foreign country’—is a siren song guaranteeing the book will not be put down until the last page has been read. (Booklist )

[T]he book was so good it filled me with a strong desire to spend more time in the car parks of obscure provincial Polish towns. But it also filled me with an unexpected, new yearning. (Daniel Kalder - The Guardian Books Blog )

Stasiuk writes eloquently and with penetrating insight about the effect of the collapse of communism on the people of Central and Eastern Europe, particularly the young... (Carmelo Militano - PopMatters )

[A] delicate, deeply-shadowed book of travels through the culturally blurred hinterlands of the former Eastern Bloc. (J.W. McCormack - Bookslut )

He gives us a true dispatch from Eastern Europe with the heart of a bohemian. (Monica Carter - Salonica World Lit )

[H]e writes a slow, meditative prose that allows him to perceive the ancient rhythms under this constant change. (Daniel Trilling - New Statesman )

Fado is a must read for all. (Agnieszka Macoch - Cosmopolitan Review )

About the Author

Andrzej Stasiuk has received numerous awards for his work, including the Nike, Poland’s most prestigious literary prize, for his 2004 collection of essays Traveling to Babadag. His 1999 novel Nine was recently published in English to great critical acclaim. Stasiuk also runs a publishing house, specializing in Central and Eastern European prose.

Bill Johnston is the leading translator of Polish literature in the United States. His translation of Tadeusz Różewicz’s new poems won the 2008 Found in Translation Award and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Poetry Award.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Dalkey Archive (September 8, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1564785599
• ISBN-13: 978-1564785596
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #526,661 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Past and Present Collide (beautifully!), July 13, 2010

By 

Amy Henry (Nipomo, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Fado (Polish Literature Series) (Paperback)

Translated by Bill Johnston.

Winner of the Vilenica International Literary Prize

My final impression, closing this book, was that Andrzej Stasiuk loves people. His essay collection, Fado, demonstrates this as he examines the peoples of the former Yugoslavia and the other regions that form Central Europe. In all, he writes with obvious affection for the human condition surviving in a complicated place and time. He quietly observes people and their activities: from children playing games, the routines of the working man, the women washing their steps, and the teenagers pining for escape to the West. This is not a travel journal, told by a curious visitor. Stasiuk resides there and his impressions are that much more knowledgeable and profound.


It begins with a road trip, a car driving at night in the rain. It starts out as almost a romance with the land, and he reflects on the dark houses he passes, and how no matter what ethnic heritage a person has, they are all the same when asleep in their beds. A map is essential to reading this, as he goes to a variety of cities and recounts what he sees as well as historical details and anecdotal stories from each individual place.


Much of his writing discusses the changes from Communism to newer political states, some still in their infancy (Slovakia). The past is complicated in Central Europe, and progress is equally difficult. Of Montenegro, he writes:

"Everything that was, becomes rejected in the name of a modernity that assumes the nature of a fiction, an illusion, a devilish apparition. To a greater or lesser extent this applies to all postcommunist countries. But it's only in Montenegro that it can all be observed within the space of ten miles."

This battle between old traditions and new identities is a continual subject, but it remains fascinating because each town he visits handles the conflict differently. He talks about the emptiness that is felt in places, where modernization has left many without a purpose. Yet he uses almost poetic words to describe these impressions:

Of Pogradec, "Pool has taken over the town. That noble game, combining geometrical abstraction with kinetics, allows a person to forget the everyday. The men circled the tables like they were hypnotized. They moved back, moved forward, judged distances, stepped on tiptoe and held their breath as if afraid that the moving spheres would change direction and the cosmic harmony of the game would be disturbed." It's not difficult to see the underlying correlation with the region in finding their place in history after the divisions of Russia and Yugoslavia.




In Levoka, he observes the local police, who group together in anticipation of a rebellion by Gypsy residents. The violence never occurs, but the image of the bored policemen, playing with their police dog and throwing snowballs, reveals a truism of the place: "Brute force, tedium, and play were combined in perfect proportions, but instinct told you that any one of these three elements could take over at any moment, and for no particular reason."




In another essay he writes about the changing of the face of paper currency throughout Russia and the Slavic states. In earlier years, the images featured working men and women in simple settings. The implied meaning being hard work garnered money. Then as years passed, the illustrations became more abstract and conceptual, until they evolved into paper faces of famous heroes. There was a political meaning behind each image, and Stasiuk shows how the meaning of money changed too. Change occurred yet again, during difficult economic times, to another theme: "the patrons of this inflationary series were of course artists and writers. In my part of the world, when times are uncertain we usually turn to culture, since it's a domain whose failures are not so glaring..."


Stasiuk's ability to combine history with contemporary issues is amazing because it's so readable, never dry or boring. He doesn't get off track trying to make a political statement or place blame, and at times it's difficult to even guess his position in the controversial matters he discusses. He never judges the people or even presumes to suggest a solution. An especially fascinating scene was played out at the end of the day in Rasinari, when the cows, oxen, and goats returned from grazing loose into the village, all on their own.

"This daily parade was like a holiday. The whole village came out of its homes onto the road and watched the passage of the livestock. Children, old women in headscarves, men in small groups smoking cigarettes-everyone watched as the animals unerringly found their way to their own farms and stood by the gate waiting to be let in. This ritual had been repeated for centuries and everything in it was self-evident, complete, and in its own way perfect."

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful. Well written., December 22, 2010

By 

Timothymark76 - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Fado (Polish Literature Series) (Paperback)

I read FADO while traveling through central Europe recently and this book made for an excellent travel companion! An interesting and insightful series of essays. I have gained new perspective and appreciation for places I have visited and places I hope to visit soon. I also came away with a broader understanding of the people and culture of central Europe.