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Summary: Thanks, Mr. High!!!
Review: This is quite possibly the most amazing book I've ever read. I read it, at the suggestion of my high school English teacher, during my senior year in high school after having spent the previous year living abroad in Warsaw, Poland. Kosinski's descriptions of, among other topics, the scenary (flora) of Poland's countryside is amazingly accurate & I could EASILY imagine myself within the Woods of Poland as the young gypsy. Upon reading this I went on to other Kosinski novels, such as PINBALL, but the lessons of THE PAINTED BIRD have become a part of my soul. Thanks, Mr. High... (By the way, some of the original syntax and language in this novel can be attributed to the fact that it was written in English by a native speaker of Polish! -- It smacks of "Slavic Style"...)
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Summary: Masterful, a fantastic work.
Review: This book is so amazing it's hard to sum up its qualities in a few lines. It is enormously powerful and at the same time it is artful and accessable. The prose flows so smoothly and is so steeped in metaphor and artfulness that is almost like poetry. And yet, this book takes a wide range of very difficult subjects head on and deals with them in their entire spectrum, from the largest to the smallest points.This is a book that I would recommend to anyone, it is so fantastic, it is almost life altering.
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Summary: life altering read...
Review: Plainly and simply...The Painted Bird changed my view of life. Never has there been a work (written, electronic etc...) that exposes the inherent reality and brutality of racism in nature. An absolute must read!
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Summary: A masterpiece of Sociological fiction.
Review: When I first started reading this novel, I was trying to figure out what Kozinski was getting at by including so much violence. But then I saw that the boy's journey mirrors our own journey as we grow up, what sociologists call the process of socialization. As the boy moved from on character to another, he himself started to become a painted bird. We can see how we are only what society shapes us to be; whether we will be "good" or "bad" totally depends on the way we were socialized.
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Summary: This is the adventures of a gypsy boy in war torn europe.
Review: I found certain parts of this book offensive and just plain out nasty. It was, however, a worth while read. Please let me know what you thought.
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Summary: Masterpiece!
Review: This is one fantastic read. Amazingly for such a short novel you will feel like you've just finished reading a epic when your done. A dark sweeping saga with strong and effective characters.
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Summary: a haunting memoir of a young boy's homeward journey
Review: Written from the viewpoint of a gypsy child in post-war eastern europe, this book is largely autobiographical. It will leave you with much to think about...
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Summary: One of the best books I've ever read.
Review: The Painted Bird is a brutal, beautiful masterpiece. Kosinki's poetic words paint an incredibly vivid portrait in the minds of its readers that is truly indelible. I feel privileged to be one who has read it.
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Summary: harrowing, disturbing, brilliant
Review: I have just finished this masterpiece and need a day or two to let it sink in befor starting another book. My polish girlfriend brought this book recently because she wasn't allowed to read it when she was younger....i can understand this not just from the extreme/ultra violence but also due to the portrayal of the people that populated that part of europe at the time. Medieval has been mentioned but also so very narrow minded. This book is FICTION but it is fiction that you know must surely have happened!!! Jerzy's style of writing is excellent and draws you into the story so elegantly and simply.....a masterpiece up there with Primo Levis work
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Summary: shocking and beautiful
Review: For the first time in my life, I've come across a work of fiction that really upset me even as it entertained. The cruelty to which Kosinski's youthful narrator is subjected as he roams the countryside in search of shelter is enough to make you want to put the book down; however, the elegant prose keeps you riveted, and the plight of the boy becomes your own. The Grove Press edition is quite handsome, and comes with a nice Afterward, written by Kosinski in 1976, in which he describes how various Eastern European governments tried to position The Painted Bird as the work of an Americanized evil-doer -- an enemy of the peasant class he was trying to help. Read this book and you'll see why it lives on as a shockingly graphic representation of how Adolph Hitler's twisted vision destroyed lives.
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