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5.0étoiles sur 5
inscrutable silence of Stone . . ., Mai 31 2004
translated from the Polish to English by Bill JohnstonThis slim volume, filled with vivid imagery and metaphor held, for me, a poetic inspiration on nearly every page. It is about the birth, growth and decay of a city, or all cities. At the same time, less about some unnamed city as about human idealism and dreams -- resignation and denial -- and finally the eureka of realization and understanding or the epiphanies a person can eventually reach. Hauntingly entwined in the whole story is the inscrutable silence of Stone . . . hence the title. On one level the symbolic language and imagery might be enjoyed for the art of writing itself, but on various other levels, it might be speaking of politics, religion, faith, doubt and disillusionment. It is a beautiful book. I was about to cite some lines, but no single quotation seems adequate outside the whole. However, since I've been thinking this labor day weekend about loved ones gone, and some that are suffering, I will share a tiny passage that I liked about "returning home." ". . . Drowning sailors do not remember which port they are headed for. Relinquishing unrealistic goals, they give themselves entirely to the waves and know relief. One way or another all of them -- including those who have already come to rest on the bottom -- will return safely home." Here one might substitute the "waves" for "God." The book can probably be read by most people in a single sitting, though I took time reading it and putting it down and reading more later, savoring the whole vision. I forgot to mention that, given the author's home country, much of it was probably an evaluation commentary or critique) of the dream and ultimate failure of the communist system imposed on Poland and other central and Eastern European countries and communities.
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