Download or read book Critical Essays on Jerzy Kosinski written by Barbara Tepa Lupack and published by Twayne Publishers. This book was released on 1998 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Twenty-two reviews and thirteen essays trace the critical reputation of Jerzy Kosinski's literary works. One interview is included.
Download or read book Being There written by Jerzy Kosinski and published by Grove/Atlantic, Inc.. This book was released on 2007-12-01 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A quirky, brilliant novel starring Chauncey Gardiner, an enigmatic man who rises from nowhere to become a media phenomenon—“a fabulous creature of our age” (Newsweek). One of the most beloved novels by the New York Times–bestselling and National Book Award–winning author of The Painted Bird and Pinball, Being There is the story of a mysterious man who finds himself at the center of Wall Street and Washington power—including his role as a policy adviser to the president—despite the fact that no one is quite sure where he comes from, or what he is actually talking about. Nevertheless, Chauncey “Chance” Gardiner is celebrated by the media, and hailed as a visionary, in this satirical masterpiece that became an award-winning film starring Peter Sellers. As wise and timely as ever, Being There is “a tantalizing knuckleball of a book delivered with perfectly timed satirical hops and metaphysical flutters” (Time).
Download or read book Passing By written by Jerzy Kosinski and published by Open Road + Grove/Atlantic. This book was released on 2007-12-01 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of writings offers a revealing and provocative self-portrait of an author whose life was shrouded in enigma. Jerzy Kosinski was one of the most important and original writers of his time. Passing By serves as his legacy. This collection of essays by the late author features pieces about polo and skiing, levitation, the streets of New York, present-day Poland, the Cannes film festival, celebrities, and more. The man who emerges here has a passion for sport, a quirky sense of fun, an idiosyncratic range of acquaintances stretching from Pope John Paul II to Warren Beatty, and an abiding love of secrets, conundrums, and fantasies. But first and foremost, as he demonstrates in major essays on his novels The Painted Bird and Steps, Kosinski is a powerful, incomparable literary artist. “Kosinski’s vibrant, sexy, questioning voice is fully present.” —The Boston Globe
Download or read book Jerzy Kosinski written by James Park Sloan and published by Crossroad Press. This book was released on 2020-08-16 with total page 533 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: He was hailed as one of the world’s great writers and intellectuals, with novels like The Painted Bird and Being There. He was acclaimed as a heroic survivor and witness of the Holocaust. He won high literary awards, made the bestseller lists, taught and lectured in prestigious universities, was feted in high society, and became an intimate of the rich and famous in a jet-set world of glitter and glamour. Then, in an expose that sent shock waves throughout the intellectual community, he was denounced as a C.I.A. tool, a supreme con man, and a literary fraud, igniting a firestorm of controversy that consumed his reputation and culminated in his headline-making suicide. Now this compelling biography cuts to the complex heart of the truth about the man and the myth that was Jerzy Kosinski. In so doing, it unfolds a story of reality and deception as fascinating, as moving, as painfully honest, and as revelatory as the most gripping of novels. With research that extends from the Poland of Kosinki’s birth and early life to scrupulous examinations of every allegation against Kosinski throughout his career, James Park Sloan, who knew Kosinski for twenty years before his death, leaves no stone unturned and no mask intact. The facts of Kosinski’s horrific childhood Holocaust experiences are sorted out from the fictions of The Painted Bird. Sloan traces Kosinski’s years as an emigre student at Columbia; his marriage to an alcoholic American millionairess; his first literary mark with anti-Communist writings; his award-winning novels and the controversy surrounding their authorship; his triumphant climb to success on an increasingly shaky stairway of half-truths; his compulsive sexual adventuring in New York's erotic underground; his relationship with such figures as Norman Mailer, Roman Polanski, Henry Kissinger, and others in the political and cultural limelight; and the Gotterdammerung of his life and reputation when an article in the Village Voice cast all he had done in doubt despite his denials and his circle’s support. A dazzling investigation of the tantalizing mystery of an extraordinary man and the tangled roots of his artistry, enriched by frank and intimate testimonies of Kosinski’s widow, Kiki, his friends and lovers, his editors and “helpers”, his defenders and detractors, Jerzy Kosinski is intriguing biography, equal to its subject.
Download or read book Oral Pleasure written by Jerzy Kosinski and published by Open Road + Grove/Atlantic. This book was released on 2012-12-04 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “[This] new collection of Jerzy Kosinski’s interviews and speeches reveals an Everyman who worked on his own terms . . . A most welcome body of texts that elucidates a rather mysterious persona.” —Tablet Oral Pleasure: Kosinski as Storyteller is a collection of interviews, lectures, and transcriptions of media appearances from the legendary literary figure, Jerzy Kosinski. Compiled by his late widow, Kiki, most of the pieces here are published for the first time. These texts bring sharper focus to the themes in his works, making this strikingly erratic individual more accessible. They provide an uncensored portrait of the writer plagued by scandal, whose authenticity was challenged by fierce accusations of plagiarism regarding his seminal novel, The Painted Bird—suspicion that shadowed his career. Oral Pleasure reveals Kosinski as a truly genuine, gifted man of letters. The material covers different aspects of Kosinski’s eventful life, from his thoughts on Poland and the Holocaust to his experiences with acting and television. He expounds on the difficulties of writing under a totalitarian government and the importance of freedom of speech. He discusses the fine line between fiction and autobiography, the prominent role sex played in his writing and life, the philosophical importance of violence in his novels, and his controversial statements on Jewish identity. This collection offers new insight into Kosinski’s renowned work, portraying a brilliant storyteller behind the public figure. “Containing more than 60 documents from Kosinski’s career, the book flows like a conversation . . . thanks to the strength of Kosinski’s voice, [it is] coherent and recognizably whole. . . . Even without prior knowledge of his work, Kosinski rewards those willing to engage with his stories.” —Publishers Weekly
Download or read book Pinball written by Jerzy Kosinski and published by Open Road + Grove/Atlantic. This book was released on 2007-12-01 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the twisted mind of Jerzy Kosinski, a novel of kink and consequences set in the turbulent world of 1970s rock music excess. Jerzy Kosinski’s bestselling novel Pinball, which he wrote for George Harrison, is a rock ‘n’ roll mystery centered on a superstar named Goddard who has, despite his success, managed to keep his identity a secret, even from his closest friends. But a beautiful young woman, obsessed with finding Goddard, stalks him relentlessly, driven by a secret goal that justifies all means. Ricocheting with humor and bursting with erotic intensity, Pinball is a game as intricate, unpredictable, suspenseful, and complex as life. “Pinball is classic Kosinski.” —Chicago Tribune “Kosinski has created a suspenseful, readable, and unsentimental tale that showcases his love for and knowledge of music and examines the nature of fame and success and the frightening alienation and violence it often spawns.” —Library Journal
Download or read book The Devil Tree written by Jerzy Kosinski and published by Open Road + Grove/Atlantic. This book was released on 2007-12-01 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kosinski’s classic, acclaimed as “an impressive novel . . . should confirm [his] position as one of our most significant writers” (Newsweek). A searing novel from a writer of international stature, The Devil Tree is a tale that combines the existential emptiness of Camus’s The Stranger with the universe of international playboys, violence, and murder of Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley. Jonathan Whalen’s life has been determined from the start by the immense fortune of his father, a steel tycoon. Whalen’s childlike delight in power and status mask a greater need, a desire to feel life intensely, through drugs, violence, sex, and attempts at meaningful connection with other people—whether lovers or the memory of his dead parents. But the physical is all that feels real to him, and as he embarks on a journey to Africa with his godparents, Whalen’s embrace of amoral thrill accelerates toward ultimate fulfillment. “Savage . . . [Whalen is] a foolproof, timeless American character.” —Cosmopolitan
Download or read book The Painted Bird written by Jerzy Kosinski and published by Grove/Atlantic, Inc.. This book was released on 2007-12-01 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The classic novel of a boy’s struggle for survival in WWII Poland, from the National Book Award–winning author of Steps and Being There. “In 1939, a six-year-old boy is sent by his anti-Nazi parents to a remote village in Poland where they believe he will be safe. Things happen, however, and the boy is left to roam the Polish countryside. . . . To the blond, blue-eyed peasants in this part of the country, the swarthy, dark-eyed boy who speaks the dialect of the educated class is either Jew, gypsy, vampire, or devil. They fear him and they fear what the Germans will do to them if he is found among them. So he must keep moving. In doing so, over a period of years, he observes every conceivable variation on the theme of horror” (Kirkus Reviews). Originally published in 1965, The Painted Bird established Jerzy Kosinski as a major literary figure. With sparse prose and vivid imagery, it is a story of mythic proportion and timeless human relevance. “One of the best . . . Written with deep sincerity and sensitivity.” —Elie Wiesel, The New York Times Book Review “Of all the remarkable fiction that emerged from World Wat II, nothing stands higher than Jerzy Kosinski’s The Painted Bird. A magnificent work of art, and a celebration of the individual will. No one who reads it will forget it; no one who reads it will be unmoved by it. The Painted Bird enriches our literature and our lives.” —Jonathan Yardley, The Miami Herald “Extraordinary . . . Literally staggering . . . One of the most powerful books I have ever read.” —Richard Kluger, Harper’s Magazine “One of our most significant writers.” —Newsweek
Download or read book Steps written by Jerzy Kosinski and published by . This book was released on 1982 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I en række karakteristiske episoder skildres nutidsmenneskets situation i et ubarmhjertigt samfund
Download or read book Blind Date written by Jerzy Kosinski and published by Open Road + Grove/Atlantic. This book was released on 2007-12-01 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A spectacular and erotically charged psychological novel from the acclaimed author of Being There and The Painted Bird. George Levanter is an idea man, a small investor, an international playboy, and a ruthless dealmaker whose life is delivered in a series of scorching encounters, each more incredible than the last. From Moscow to Paris, from a Manhattan skyscraper to a California mass murder, Blind Date is a dizzying vision of life among the beautiful people and the thrill-seekers that shows Jerzy Kosinski at the height of his power. “Kosinki’s vitality and inventiveness are as irresistible as ever.” —Time
Download or read book Conversations with Jerzy Kosinski written by Jerzy Kosinski and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 1993 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Collections of interviews with notable modern writers
Download or read book Jerzy Kosinski written by Agnieszka Salska and published by Wydawn. Uniwersytetu Odzkiego. This book was released on 1997 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Cosmos written by Witold Gombrowicz and published by Grove/Atlantic, Inc.. This book was released on 2011-11-01 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A “creatively captivating and intellectually challenging” existential mystery from the great Polish author—“sly, funny, and . . . lovingly translated” (The New York Times). Winner of the 1967 International Prize for Literature Milan Kundera called Witold Gombrowicz “one of the great novelists of our century.” Now his most famous novel, Cosmos, is available in a critically acclaimed translation by the award-winning translator Danuta Borchardt. Cosmos is a metaphysical noir thriller narrated by Witold, a seedy, pathetic, and witty student, who is charming and appalling by turns. In need of a quiet place to study, Witold and his melancholy friend Fuks head to a boarding house in the mountains. Along the way, they discover a dead bird hanging from a string. Is this a strange but meaningless occurrence or is it the first clue to a sinister mystery? As the young men become embroiled in the Chekhovian travails of the family that runs the boarding house, Grombrowicz creates a gripping narrative where the reader questions who is sane and who is safe. “Probably the most important 20th-century novelist most Western readers have never heard of.” —Benjamin Paloff, Words Without Borders
Download or read book Oracle Night written by Paul Auster and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2009-04-28 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published: New York: Henry Holt, 2003.
Download or read book The New Southern Gentleman written by Jim Booth and published by Watchmaker Publishing. This book was released on 2002 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Daniel Randolph Deal is a Southern aristocrat, having the required bloodline, but little of the nobility. A man resistant to the folly of ethics, he prefers a selective, self-indulgent morality. He is a confessed hedonist, albeit responsibly so."--Back cover
Download or read book Other People written by Martin Amis and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2010-03-31 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: She wakes in an emergency room in a London hospital, to a voice that tells her: "You're on your own now. Take care. Be good." She has no knowledge of her name, her past, or even her species. It takes her a while to realize that she is human -- and that the beings who threaten, befriend, and violate her are other people. Some of whom seem to know all about her. In this eerie, blackly funny, and sometimes disorienting novel, Martin Amis gives us a mystery that is as ambitious as it is intriguing, an investigation of a young woman's violent extinction that also traces her construction of a new and oddly innocent self.
Download or read book Languages of Truth written by Salman Rushdie and published by Random House. This book was released on 2021-05-25 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Newly collected, revised, and expanded nonfiction from the first two decades of the twenty-first century—including many texts never previously in print—by the Booker Prize–winning, internationally bestselling author Longlisted for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay Salman Rushdie is celebrated as “a master of perpetual storytelling” (The New Yorker), illuminating truths about our society and culture through his gorgeous, often searing prose. Now, in his latest collection of nonfiction, he brings together insightful and inspiring essays, criticism, and speeches that focus on his relationship with the written word and solidify his place as one of the most original thinkers of our time. Gathering pieces written between 2003 and 2020, Languages of Truth chronicles Rushdie’s intellectual engagement with a period of momentous cultural shifts. Immersing the reader in a wide variety of subjects, he delves into the nature of storytelling as a human need, and what emerges is, in myriad ways, a love letter to literature itself. Rushdie explores what the work of authors from Shakespeare and Cervantes to Samuel Beckett, Eudora Welty, and Toni Morrison mean to him, whether on the page or in person. He delves deep into the nature of “truth,” revels in the vibrant malleability of language and the creative lines that can join art and life, and looks anew at migration, multiculturalism, and censorship. Enlivened on every page by Rushdie’s signature wit and dazzling voice, Languages of Truth offers the author’s most piercingly analytical views yet on the evolution of literature and culture even as he takes us on an exhilarating tour of his own exuberant and fearless imagination.
