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)
