Customer Reviews

Homo Poeticus: Essays and Interviews

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This is an interesting collection of essays, interviews, and commentaries, which has been well put together by Susan Sontag. The advice to young writers section is particularly amusing as are Kis's thoughts on his self-chosen exile. I recommend reading the Tomb of Boris Davidovitch before hand because much of the book deals with the controversy Kis faced over that novel, as well as his break from the Belgrade literati.

Kis was a brilliant writer, but as these essays show, completely apolitical. He did not have time for nationalists, internationalists, communists, capitalists any of it, which is why perhaps he went to France to live the quiet life of a University Professor.

Considering that she claims to be a friend of Kis and actually put this work together, it is shameful that Sontag insists on putting a political spin on this collection. She actually claims that the 'gingerbread heart of nationalism' section ranks along with, she claims, Andric's Letter from 1920 as early warnings against Serbian Nationalism. As someone who has translated Andric's story, I can tell you that Ms. Sontag should consider re-reading. The Andric story makes the case that Bosnia is a land of ethnic hatred, ready to explode at anytime, which it obviously did. There is no mention of Serbian aggression or nationalism. Nor does Kis ever pay tribute to any idealized multi-cultural Bosnia, Sontag's cause celebre throughtout the early 90's and repeated in the introduction. Enough politics, however.

Read this work because it tells us a great deal about a wonderful literary stylist, who knew and loved literature. The fact that others would try to co-opt Kis to champion their political philosophies is embarrassing. The book speaks for itself.

I discovered Danilo Kis rather recently, starting with the wonderful Tomb for Boris Davidovich, followed by the great Garden, Ashes and by the Encyclopedia of the Dead. Well, also by half of the unreadable Hourglass. I thought I knew the elements of DK's world, but not what made him tick.

This volume of essays was put together posthumously (he died at 54 in 89, of cancer) by S.Sontag, selected from a larger edition of volumes which were not translated to English. It seems Kis is better present in French, which seems logical, considering he lived his last years in France as a teacher. These essays close the gap for me to a large extent. We meet the man. He explains himself. He has the right wavelength for me.

The first part of the collection is about Kis's fight back against the critical storm that blew at home over the Tomb. Sontag selected essays from a volume called Anatomy Lesson, where Kis talks about the components of his work and mind. For me, the backbone is the text on nationalism. K had grown up in the part of the world where Hungarians, Serbs, Croats, Bosniaks, Montenegrins, Jews etc lived closely together, and all developed their own national pride, their particular language, their special religion.
Nationalism is collective paranoia, born out of envy and fear. It is the loss of individual consciousness, the ideology of banality. It is kitsch. The relativity of all national myths is his main subject.He rants against all particularities. He was a wonderful polemicist. One is tempted to see him in the vicinity of Thomas Bernhard.

The other two parts of the collection contain essays (a.o. on Borges, de Sade, Flaubert, Nabokov...) and interviews.
There is a string of thoughts about the culture of 'Central Europe', of the left-overs of what Musil called Kakania, ie the former Austrian-Hungarian Empire. If you wish the second backbone of this unusual vertebrate. Nationalism in this context is in first place particularism, the differentiation from all others who share the space. (In some nationalisms, there are phases when they are not splitist, but assemblist: like in the Germany after Napoleon and before the Reich was rebuilt by Bismarck; like in the US during the debates over states rights versus nation. Not to forget China at present.)
If you don't understand Europe, this book is helpful.

A recurrent theme for K is his 'family calamity', ie what did it mean for him to be half Jewish. (The term Familienunglueck is taken from Heine, who could never be quite serious about anything. That's why I like him so much.)

The book also helped me understand why I could not like the Hourglass. It is meant to be a nouveau roman . That explains it sufficiently. I never liked any nouveau roman .

I read Danilo Kis' books " Tomb for Boris Davidovich", "Hourglass" and "Encyclopedia of the Dead". The glory and greatness of this eastern European writer can be comprehended fully only after understanding Kis on the personal level. ""Homo Poeticus" does just that: writer pours his soul to the world by revealing his influences (literary and personal), - and brings reader closer to the great writers of this century such as: Nabokov, Flaubert, Borges, Marquis de Sade...Kis even wrote an essay on the Serbian painter Velickovic. I always respected Danilo Kis' fictional works. Collection of Danilo Kis' essays and interviews made me even more fond of him as a person - and his work. Book's editor, Ms. Susan Sontag, wrote emotionally powerful introduction. Her selection of the work published on this non-fiction masterpiece is absolutely wonderful.

Kis is a giant of world literature. This book of biographical pieces, interviews, and essays by Kis allow the reader to see some of the inner workings of that fine mind. His early death was a great loss to literature. What he has achieved, however, will live on forever. I've read A TOMB FOR BORIS DAVIDOVICH perhaps five times, and I'm looking forward to reading it again, and again.