ナイケ文学賞（Nagroda Literacka 'Nike'）
The Mighty Angel
アルコール依存の語り手を中心に、断酒治療の現場と幻覚めいた自己演出が絡み合う小説。悲惨さと滑稽さが紙一重で、酩酊の文体がそのまま人物像をかたちづくる。
作品情報
酔いの底から、言葉だけが異様に冴えわたる。
断酒治療の共同生活を舞台に、依存と欲望、滑稽さと破滅が、Pilch らしい冗舌な文体で押し寄せる。強い語り口とブラックユーモアが際立つ受賞作。
レビュー要約
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読者は、比喩の勢いと不穏なユーモアを高く評価する一方、冗長さや反復を濃すぎると感じることもある。酔態の語りを押し切る力が魅力として語られている。
書籍情報
- 出版社
- Open Letter Books
- 発売日
- 2009-04-15
- ページ数
- 155ページ
- 言語
- 英語
- サイズ
- 14.61 x 1.27 x 22.23 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9781934824085
- ISBN-10
- 1934824089
- 価格
- 3070 JPY
- カテゴリ
- 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.
レビュー
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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.