The Painted Bird [Paperback]

 

 

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It's been several years since reading this novel,but what I can say is that for the most part it was the title that helped define the book for me.Yes,it's a story about a young parentless Jewish boy that roams Eastern Europe during the second World War and does contain graphic depictions of somewhat gory scenes,but all to a purpose.The young boy is speechless and all throughout the story is encountering a variety of situations that is incomprehensible for someone his age,but still he struggles to define what surrounds him.The title in itself is very important for it is represented in the story.The youth encounters a bird catcher that uses the ploy of painting a bird of one species to capture that of a different species,which after discovering it's a painted bird pecks it to death.To me it was a metaphor for how the jewish population attempted to adapt to the harsh surroundings of the time period,but inevitably were sacrificed.Kosinski presents a complex portrayal of cruelty which unfortunately must be admitted as being a portion of the modern world where a holocaust has numbed us to the nuances of man's inhumanity.Kosinski's novel works on a variety of levels,but to me it is mainly addressing the question of identity and how one becomes defined by experiences.The novel is as complex as is the personality of Kosinski,who has written under several pseudonyms.The "Painted Bird" is a novel with very vivid descriptions that has a psychological hue to it that is unforgettable after reading!It can only help to broaden one's mental horizon and get a glimpse into another man's soul,be it ever so dark and brooding!

`The Painted Bird' was first published by Jerzy Kosiñski in 1965, and revised in 1976. It is a fictional account of the personal experiences of a boy aged six who could be Jewish or might be a Gypsy taking refuge in Eastern Europe during World War II. It is a fictional account filled with hate for Polish peasantry and packed with excruciating, horrifying detail of rape, murder, bestiality and torture.

'The Painted Bird' depicts a journey through a very brutal and brutalising hell. There are no safe places, really, for this boy. He may have escaped with his life but he can never escape his experiences.

There are good reasons to not like this book: it is not, as has been thought, an autobiographical account of Kosiñski's own experiences. Additionally it relies on the proximity of the Holocaust to intensify its own horror; it demonises Polish peasantry as both cruel and backward; and it wallows in violence. But for all of that, it has its own haunting power.

I've first read this novel at least 20 years ago and recently revisited it. I do not like the graphic, seemingly unending violence. The point is made and reiterated: man's inhumanity to man takes many forms and vulnerability is often relative rather than absolute. Did Kosiñski really regard the world as being beyond redemption? Is that the question he was posing in this novel? Is that why he committed suicide in 1991? Did he write this novel to give voice to his own despair as a consequence of the events of World War II? For me this novel raises far more questions than it answers. And some of those questions about the author and his intent colour the way I read this novel. I cannot `hate' it: it is far too well written for that. I cannot `love' it: it is far too ugly and there are far too many questions unanswered. Instead, I `like' it in an uneasy sort of way because it makes me wonder about the world.

I won't need to read it again.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Polish Jewish writer Jerzy Kosinski was anathema for Poland's old communist rulers. His fault was to have shown in his famous novel Painted Bird that not all Poles were keen to help Jews during the Holocaust. As you will read below, his life story is a matter of controversy itself. Little JerzyLewinkopf was born in 1933 in Poland--the year Hitler came to power--to a Jewish family.

As father Moses Lewinkopf felt the threat waiting for them, he changed their surname into a more Polish-like one, Kosinski. At this point, we have two different stories in hand. The first, and the widely known one is goes on like this: They sent Jerzy away to one of their closest friends in order to escape the war. Then, he lived almost the same story we know from the Painted Bird. Throughout the war, he wandered from village to village and one day he lost his speech. Years later, in a skiing accident he regained it. This version of the story bears a perfect similarity to the Jewish kid in the book that brought Kosinski universal fame.

The Painted Bird is a tale of a young boy, presumed to be Jewish or a Gypsy, who is abandoned by his parents during World War II and begins a nomadic life of solitude as he moves or is moved from many Slavic villages. Each time he thinks he has found a place of safety, he is then subjected to prejudice, abuse and experiences that leave him near to death from the actions of the occupants. This treatment stems from his background and the subsequent fear held by the villagers that harbouring anyone who may be a Gypsy or Jew will lead to reprisals from the occupying German army.

In the first several chapters of the novel the little protagonist is firmly convinced that demons and devils are part of the tangible, physical world. He actually sees them. They are not mythological imaginings confined to a fuzzy spiritual world. They are real, and he believes the villagers insistence that he is possessed by them. Even their dogs seem to believe in this credo, chasing, biting, and barking at him as if a viciousness towards dark-haired boys is programmed into their genetic makeup. The text of the villagers behavior reads like a gruesome car accident on the side of the road at which one cannot help but crane one's neck. It is both repulsive and compelling; one reads in a state of disbelief and horror. The cruelty, moreover, isn't limited to Jews and Gypsies. Anyone getting in the way is targeted. A stirring example of this phenomenon is when the protagonist

witnesses a jealous miller gouging out the eyes of his wife's object of lust, an otherwise harmless 14-year-old plowboy whose only sin was gawking and leering at a woman's bosom:

"And with a rapid movement such as women used to gouge out the rotten spots while peeling potatoes, he plunged the spoon into one of the boy's eyes and twisted it. The eye sprang out of his face like a yolk from a broken egg and rolled down the miller's hand onto the floor. The plowboy howled and shrieked, but the miller's hold kept him pinned against the wall. Then the blood-covered spoon plunged into the other eye, which sprang out even faster. For a moment the eye rested on the boy's cheek as if uncertain what to do next; then it finally tumbled down his shirt onto the floor."

One of the key aspects of this is that Kosinski is writing about a wholly adult subject from the perspective of one who is barely out of early childhood, therefore as the narrative develops each understated naivete is ripped away to reveal the harrowing truth lying just below the surface.

In The Painted Bird, Jerzy Kosinski tells of the wanderings of a young boy during World War II. The boy, six years old, becomes the object of brutality and prejudice, all of which stems from a combination of peasant superstition and Nazi hatred.

This book answers many question about the human soul and is a great experiment with the human psyche. You can find there some absolutely horrifying graphic, disgusting shows of man's brutality but you almost becomed numbed by reading it. By the time you hit the scene with the invaders at the end who rape and torture the women, it doesn't even seem as bad as half of the other stuff. Some claim his only masterpiece was the Painted Bird while others that Being There is the real work of genius.

...I have no intention to come to a point that he was a liar or not; or wheter he Painted Bird was his auto-biography or not; but as far as I am concerned, the controversy about his life story only serves to make him more mysterious, delirious, and insidiousinteresting. This is one of these books you'll never forget!!

Sonia

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1.0 out of 5 stars Fraud - fantasy passed off as history
This book is mostly lies, and I don't mean the subtle kind common in such works - I mean flat out fabrications and inventions. It isn't worth a real review. Read more

Published on Jun 20 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars Morally irresponsible to candycoat
There seem to be a lot of people out there who feel that life is all bunnies and flowers, and anything that isn't should be hidden away or candycoated. Read more

Published on May 18 2004 by Anyechka

5.0 out of 5 stars Bizarre, Kafkaesque
After I read Painted Bird, digested it and read it again I was awfully excited about Jerzy Kozinski. Read more

Published on May 12 2004 by Jack Purcell

5.0 out of 5 stars Lone Pole on the Run From the Gun
This book might not be for you. Jerzy paints some wondrous pictures. Some people will say they're gross, offensive. Read more

Published on May 4 2004 by JJJohnnyJohansonJr

5.0 out of 5 stars Unsentimental
It's always irritated me when people talk about the Nazis and the period of the Second World War in general as though they were some kind of abberation, an inhuman evil which is... Read more

Published on Mar 17 2004 by Henry Platte

3.0 out of 5 stars lots of holes
I have to confess, first off, that I didn't read this entire novel. In fact, I stopped at about chapter 6 or 7. I'm an avid reader, and usually don't mind long I.E. Read more

Published on Feb 18 2004 by Michael Sutcliffe

5.0 out of 5 stars A response to Robert J. Crawford
He, Jerzy, did not die because of lies, but because of aging. He hated getting old.

The book, Painted Bird, is exceptional.

Published on Nov 9 2003 by Charlotte A. Glassman

1.0 out of 5 stars I don't believe in book burning, but ...
... if I did, this book might top my list. I made it past the story of the man spooning out another man's eyes and stepping on them, but when I got to the woman having a bottle... Read more

Published on Nov 8 2003 by Joot

1.0 out of 5 stars A Tarantino movie of a book, of interest to psychiatrists
Quite honestly, after the first fifty pages one gets an impression of reading an unknown piece by De Sade; it's absolutely clear that even though the book is written as a memoir,... Read more

Published on Oct 3 2003 by John Doe

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly unforgettable
The word "unforgettable" is one that has been overused to the point where it has become not only a cliche, but inherently hyperbolic. Read more

Published on Aug 30 2003 by Bill R. Moore

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