Strawberry Wine

Andrzej Stasiuk - "Tales of Galicia"

Today I'll tell you about Magic. Not the wizard-kind of magic, but neither the magic we can find in our daily life. Although the last one would be closer. I'll take you for a trip to place that doesn't exist... or is it?
I've read "Tales..." so long ago, that I'm not even sure what it was about. Therefore my report might be a little bit blurry. Like something that happened long time ago, in a different life, by accident and all that's left is an impression.
Stasiuk is one of my favourite modern polish writers. No, he is my favourite, although our relationship is a little bit complicated. But like with most of my beloved ones, I meet him in that time of my life when everything was new and exciting - and so were his two books, "How I became a writer" and "Thru the river" (both not translated to English - sorry :P). I'd love to read them again... maybe one day ;)
But after that came "Babadag". I tried, I really did. But I'm afraid that I lost. At least for now. Some books are better to be left till they grow, like wines, to the moment when they'll gain perfect combination of tastes.
"Tales of Galicia" isn't a big heavy book. It's a grimoire that contain pure, primary(?) magic, that can be found only in the Mountains. It's very light, so are the words in it. They slip from the pages like mist in the morning. You can sense with your nose the scent of refreshing mountain air and all you want is the Time to stop. No wonder Stasiuk moved there from a big city and now tries to enchant us to do the same.
But what about main plot? Is there any story line, some of you may ask? Or should you just sniff this book? Well, there is. Sometimes. It appears, than disappears, and deceives us so we won't stop reading. It suddenly became clear at the very end just to let us with aposiopesis. I could say that the book is actually a collection of heard stories, impressions and descriptions between which someone cunningly hide pices of a story, and it's only up to us if we find them.
There's last thing I need to add - the movie adaptation - "Strawberry Wine" by Dariusz Jabłoński. Surprisingly, I watched it before I read the book. And probably for the best, because the movie is in a way a good addition to the story. I didn't loose anything from the lecture, but I've already knew the plot, so I could focus on the magic made by Stasiuk ;)

"In this case the date was uncertain. It wasn't noted anywhere, as if two used here calendars, Gregorian and Julian, abolished themselves, placing events in non adjective Time.
The remains of crashed shingle lie in the grass. Nails that stick out from it have rare, square intersection. They where, conceivable, forged, one by one, in some gypsy's forge, or here, during the nailing of the overlay.
Therefore, this non adjective Time is tempting. The need of order, name, consequence and cause concerns also imagination. This is where all the make-up stories are invented, the ones that we start to believe in after awhile. Porhaps imagination and faith can't exist without each other because they have common factor - they don't need to be proven."

(The quote translated fully by me ;P)

Ernest's second approach.

I've never been into Hemingway, but I must admit, he's god damn right!

"In going where you have to go, and doing what you have to do, and seeing what you have to see, you dull and blunt the instrument you write with. But I would rather have it bent and dulled and know I had to put it on the grindstone again and hammer it into shape and put a whet stone to it,and know that I had something to write about, than to haveit bright and shining and nothing to say, or smooth and well oiled in the closet, but unused."

...and that's where the forty-nine stories begin.

Vacation with vampires

Lumley Brian - "Necroscope"

Every summer vacation remind me about my visit to Italy 10 years ago. I was a 13-year-old girl, who ate every book she got her hands on. But "Necroscope" wasn't just another dish in my menu. It was so delicious, that I swallowed each volume in a few days. Until I got to the 6th one, because the rest of them started to look like written only for money. They just got bigger and less engrossing.
What is "Necroscope" about? Actually, about everything. We have love stories, family tragedy, paranormal occurrences, sixth and seventh senses (or even more ;)), secret services, Cold War, vampires and other monsters... sex (ideal story for 13 years old girl) and for dessert - a dead mathematician, who is the best mentor for the main character. Oh, and of course Harry Keogh, the Necroscope himself. All this put into one make a really good, but convoluted story. Actually, it's convoluted enough, that nobody dared to make a movie based on the saga. I think I wouldn't watch it anyway, because nobody would make Harry so handsome as he is in my head.
I'm glad that when I was young, "Twilight" didn't exist. I can at least be proud that my first fictional object of worship was the intelligent, handsome, wise and sensitive Harry Keogh, not, let me say it straight, pattypan squash(haha, it's so funny in english, in polish this vegetable is called "patison"). I mean, Edward C., pitiful, shiny in the sun(oh please, that was to much for me) pseudo vampire, that looked like he had constipation.
Maybe some of you want to know why I dislike Stephenie Meyer and her "Twilight" so much. (If you don't want to know, just go to the next paragraph) First, I think that she made vampires into teddy bears perfect for mass pop culture. Second, I read a few books in my life, better and worse, but I've never seen so much wish-wash in one book. I hardly got through the first volume, second - I've slept through almost all of it, waking for the last 50 pages of not very consistent action. I don't know how this kind of crap became a bestseller. I guess today money and good advertising is more important than talent.
So remember: vampires are not teddy bears that can be cuddled and hugged. All their charm was that they were terrifying and scary. Don't take them that away. Let's protect their right to be monsters! Throw "Twilight" away and read books about vampires of real flesh and blood.
I recommend "Necroscope". For summer, for lonely afternoons, rain and storms... And may this saga suck you to the last drop ^^

Genesis

Don't know where I'm going, not sure what I wan't, but I have a dream to have my own bookstore, with good, mostly forgotten, or known only by connoisseurs books. It will be a place, where time is not allowed to enter, where You can sit in a comfortable armchair or sofa, order Your favorite coffee or tea, take of Your shoes and sit all day.
But right now sitting and doing nothing wont help me realize this dream. So I started this blog, first in polish, now  I'll try to do my best to translate all posts in English. Hope You'll like it and maybe one day we will meet at my bookstore :)