Nike Literary Award (Nagroda Literacka 'Nike')
The Mighty Angel
A novel about alcoholism and recovery that folds delirium, dark humor, and self-mythologizing into the voice of its narrator. The result is both satirical and unsettling.
Work Information
From the bottom of a bottle, language becomes strangely lucid.
Set in a rehab community, it drives addiction, desire, comedy, and collapse forward in Pilch's expansive prose. The result is a prize-winning novel marked by a fierce voice and black humor.
Review Summaries
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Readers often praise the force of the metaphors and the uneasy humor, while some find the repetitions and length excessive. Its willingness to push a drunken voice all the way through is part of the appeal.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Open Letter Books
- Published
- 2009-04-15
- Pages
- 155 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 14.61 x 1.27 x 22.23 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9781934824085
- ISBN-10
- 1934824089
- Price
- 3070 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Literature & Fiction/Literary
"Pilch's prose is masterful, and the bulk of The Mighty Angel evokes the same numb, floating sensation as a bottle of Zloldkowa Gorzka." L Magazine The Mighty Angel concerns the alcoholic misadventures of a writer named Jerzy. Eighteen times he's woken up in rehab. Eighteen times he's been releaseda sober and, more or less, healthy manafter treatment at the hands of the stern therapist Moses Alias I Alcohol. And eighteen times he's stopped off at the liquor store on the way home, to pick up the supplies that are necessary to help him face his return to a ruined apartment. While he's in rehab, Jerzy collects the stories of his fellow alcoholicsDon Juan the Rib, The Most Wanted Terrorist in the World, the Sugar King, the Queen of Kent, the Hero of Socialist Laborin an effort to tell the universal, and particular, story of the alcoholic, and to discover the motivations and drives that underlie the alcoholic's behavior. A simultaneously tragic, comic, and touching novel, The Mighty Angel displays Pilch's caustic humor, ferocious intelligence, and unparalleled mastery of storytelling. Jerzy Pilch is one of Poland's most important contemporary writers and journalists. In addition to his long-running satirical newspaper column, Pilch has published several novels, and has been nominated for Poland's prestigious NIKE Literary Award four times; he finally won the Award in 2001 for The Mighty Angel . His novels have been translated into numerous languages. Bill Johnston is Director of the Polish Studies Center at Indiana University and has translated works by Witold Gombrowicz, Magdalena Tulli, Wieslaw Mysliwski, and others. He won the Best Translated Book Award in 2012 and the inaugural Found in Translation Award in 2008.
Jerzy Pilch is one of Poland's most important contemporary writers and journalists. In addition to his long-running satirical newspaper column, Pilch has published several novels, and has been nominated for Poland's prestigious NIKE Literary Award four times; he finally won the Award in 2001 for The Mighty Angel . His novels have been translated into numerous languages. Bill Johnston is Director of the Polish Studies Center at Indiana University and has translated works by Witold Gombrowicz, Magdalena Tulli, Wieslaw Mysliwski, and others. He won the Best Translated Book Award in 2012 and the inaugural Found in Translation Award in 2008.
Reviews
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Five Stars
Great book and speedy service
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Splendidly sad-funny novel
Just finished this novel by by Polish writer Jerzy Pilch. It's the second book of his I've read (A Thousand Peaceful Cities was the other one) and he's really splendid. Very funny and painful stuff about the urge to innoculate oneself against the disappointments of post-Communist life with large quantities of cheap vodka, the difficulty of connecting to other people (especially through an alcoholic haze) and a vivid portrait of the kind of dreamers and losers who survived the Communist period through sheer dumb luck. He has a rather nice line of tongue-in-cheek magical realism that punctures its own potential for pomposity, and more than a little of kind of absurdist humor that thrived during the post-war years (Vaclav Havel, RIP). Major kudos to Open Letter books for making Pilch's work available in the States in English.