A Tomb for Boris Davidovich
by Danilo Kiš (1976)
A Tomb for Boris Davidovich consists of seven different yet casually interlinked short stories about revolutionaries, mostly centering around the Russian Revolution and its blind Stalinist totalitarianism that arbitrarily consumes its children. In its loose labyrinth of characters, loose deeds, occurences and details artfully described, readers find shadows of Borgesian influence. While the literary polemic with Borges is unmistakably deliberate with his faux documentary style (particularly A Universal History of Iniquity), Kiš’ lyrical mastery is all the more remarkably powerful in his detached yet delicate constructions of the grim subjects.
He dreamed about that happy day when, through the thick lenses of his glasses, he would see his town from the bird’s-eye view of departure and for the last time, as one looks through a magnifying glass at dried-out and absurd yellow butterflies from one’s school collection: with sadness and disgust.
Particularly noticeable in Kiš’ prose is his rich and scintillating use of metaphors — the father figure disappearing like “a blot of ink” (in this pervasive father figure throughout his fiction — especially in Garden, Ashes, one is reminded of Kafka, and perhaps even more so, of Bruno Schulz). While in the novella “A Tomb for Boris Davidovich”, readers will find another (disputably much more complex and superior) version of Rubashov, set in parallel to the story of David Neumann, a Jew facing the Inquisition in “Dogs and Books”.
If anything could spoil the worth of this book, I find the introduction by Joseph Brodsky interesting and well-written, but the same cannot be said to the snooty self-righteous afterword by Vollman. Otherwise, definitely a remarkable collection. Highly recommended.
Tags:20th-century, Communism, Eastern-Europe, fiction, historical-fiction, Hungarian-Literature, Jewish-Literature, politics, post-war-fiction, Russia & USSR, Russian-Revolution, Serbo-Croatian, short stories, Yugoslavia
Eastern/Central Europe, fiction, Kiš, Danilo, Recommended, Russia & USSR, short stories
October 30, 2007 @ 4:36 am | 4 Comments
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November 11th, 2007at 4:20 pm(#)
[...] the delicate multitude and vicissitude of human life, perhaps with less faux vérité style than A Tomb for Boris Davidovich, yet with the same finely-crafted prose, subtle ironies and detachment that is both powerful and [...]
September 16th, 2008at 1:18 am(#)
Yang ini kayaknya menarik juga ya? Setelah baca Carver-Wolff-Cortazar rasanya agak susah cari kumpulan cerpen yang nendang. Masih mencari.
April 21st, 2010at 12:49 am(#)
[...] the delicate multitude and vicissitude of human life, perhaps with less faux vérité style than A Tomb for Boris Davidovich, yet with the same finely-crafted prose, subtle ironies and detachment that is both powerful and [...]
December 12th, 2010at 12:54 am(#)
[...] the delicate multitude and vicissitude of human life, perhaps with less faux vérité style than A Tomb for Boris Davidovich, yet with the same finely-crafted prose, subtle ironies and detachment that is both powerful and [...]