I have never heard of Bruno Schulz until I came across this book while browsing the internet during my lunch break. Schulz, as I came to know, was a Polish-Jewish writer and some of his works were lost during the Holocaust. He was killed by a German Nazi in 1942.
The Street of Crocodiles is a collection of short stories centered on Schulz childhood. Stories pre-World War 2 in Poland. It was a fun and at the same time strange read. There were times I found it hard to understand what exactly was going on but it didn’t matter. This is definitely on my list of books to reread.
This is a unique book, as unique as Schulz prose and writing style. Some themes hidden through these stories are finding one’s own purpose, lust and love. I may not be smart enough to understand everything he wrote in this tiny jewel, but it was definitely worth my time and worth reading again.
Quotable Quotes:
“Reality is as thin as paper, and betrays with all its cracks its imitative character.”
“It is strange how interiors reflect their dark turbulent past, how in their stillness bygone history tries to be reenacted, how the same situations repeat themselves with infinite variations, turned upside down and inside out by fruitless dialectic of wallpapers and hangings”
“The days hardened with cold and boredom like last year’s loaves of bread. One began to cut them with blunt knives without appetite, with a lazy indifference.
Rating: 4/5 stars
HappymessHappiness 