![]() ![]() Strange, grotesque, impressionistic portraits of family, friends, and neighbors from the perspective of a boy whose father has gone to "take the waters." Quite a dark conclusion, and not an August we would want to share. THE STREET OF CROCODILES (****+ overall for this book) There's a little Kafka here, a little Poe, but mostly a lot of Schulz. Reading them one after another is perhaps detrimental to their enjoyment-however, the links between the stories, and some of the meaning, would be missed if you don't. At times, in the second set of stories, there is almost too much awareness in the narrative of the artificiality of it all, which detracts from the effect, but for the most part, each of these stories is an escape into a rather lonely mind exploring a world of its own creation. ![]() It is hard to characterize Schulz's writing, but in placing one of these stories in their collection, THE WEIRD, Jeff and Ann Vandermeer certainly provide one viable definition. ![]() Even commonplace events morph into fantastical occurrences. Very little in these stories can be taken literally. They are concerned with the slipperiness of time, the weather and seasons, human imperfection, and limitless imagining. Schulz, a Polish Jew, published only the two volumes of fiction collected here before his shooting by a Gestapo soldier in 1942. ![]()
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