The Painted Bird

by Jerzy Kosinski

Overview

Jerzy Kosinski's mythic, master-work of a shattered post-War Europe.

Originally published in 1965, The Painted Bird established Jerzy Kosinski as a major literary figure. Kosinski's story follows a dark-haired, olive-skinned boy, abandoned by his parents during World War II, as he wanders alone from one village to another, sometimes hounded and tortured, only rarely sheltered and cared for. Through the juxtaposition of adolescence and the most brutal of adult experiences, Kosinski sums up a Bosch-like world of harrowing excess where senseless violence and untempered hatred are the norm. Through sparse prose and vivid imagery, Kosinski's novel is a story of mythic proportion, even more relevant to today's society than it was upon its original publication.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802134226
Publisher:	Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Publication date:	08/09/1995
Series:	Kosinski, Jerzy
Edition description:	2nd ed.
Pages:	234
Sales rank:	77,851
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x (d)
Lexile:	980L (what's this?)
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

JERZY KOSIŃSKI 1933-1991 was a Polish-American novelist, best known for the novels The Painted Bird (1965) and Being There (1971), which was made into a film. Kosinski has received numerous awards, including the American Academy of Arts and Letters award in Literature, the National Book Award, the Best Screenplay of the Year Award, and the American Civil Liberties Union First Amendment Award.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

One of the best. . . . Written with deep sincerity and sensitivity.”—Elie Wiesel, The New York Times Book Review

“A powerful blow on the mind because it is so carefully kept within the margins of probability and fact.”—Arthur Miller

“Of all the remarkable fiction that emerged from World War II, nothing stands higher than Jerzy Kosinski’s The Painted Bird. A magnificent work of art, and a celebration of the individual will. No one who reads it will be unmoved by it. The Painted Bird enriches our literature and our lives.”—Jonathan Yardley, The Miami Herald

“Extraordinary . . . literally staggering . . . one of the most powerful books I have ever read.”—Richard Kluger, Harper’s Magazine

Editorial Reviews

“One of the best. . . . Written with deep sincerity and sensitivity.”—Elie Wiesel, The New York Times Book Review

“A powerful blow on the mind because it is so carefully kept within the margins of probability and fact.”—Arthur Miller

“Of all the remarkable fiction that emerged from World War II, nothing stands higher than Jerzy Kosinski’s The Painted Bird. A magnificent work of art, and a celebration of the individual will. No one who reads it will be unmoved by it. The Painted Bird enriches our literature and our lives.”—Jonathan Yardley, The Miami Herald

“Extraordinary . . . literally staggering . . . one of the most powerful books I have ever read.”—Richard Kluger, Harper’s Magazine

From the Publisher

"One of the best... Written with deep sincerity and sensitivity." -- The New York Times Book Review

Elie Wiesel

"Extraordinary...literally staggering...one of the most powerful books I have ever read." -- Harper's Magazine

Richard Kluger

"Of all the remarkable fiction that emerged from World War II, nothing stands higher than Jerzy Kosinski's The Painted Bird. A magnificent work of art, and a celebration of the individual will. No one who reads it will forget it; no one who reads it will be unmoved by it. ThePainted Bird enriches our literature andour lives." -- The Miami Herald

Jonathan Yardley

One of the best. . . . Written with deep sincerity and sensitivity.”
—Elie Wiesel, The New York Times Book Review

Harper's Magazine - Richard Kluger

Of all the remarkable fiction that emerged from World War II, nothing stands higher than Jerzy Kosiński’s The Painted Bird. A magnificent work of art and a celebration of the individual will. No one who reads it will forget it; no one who reads it will be unmoved by it.”
—John Yardley, The Miami Herald

New York Times Book Review - Elie Wiesel

Of all the remarkable fiction that emerged from World War II, nothing stands higher than Jerzy Kosiński’s The Painted Bird. A magnificent work of art and a celebration of the individual will. No one who reads it will forget it; no one who reads it will be unmoved by it.”
—John Yardley, The Miami Herald

Miami Herald - Jonathan Yardley

Extraordinary . . . literally staggering . . . one of the most powerful books I have ever read.”
—Richard Kluger, Harper’s Magazine
— Richard Kluger

Harper's Magazine

One of the best. . . . Written with deep sincerity and sensitivity.”
—Elie Wiesel, The New York Times Book Review
— Elie Wiesel

New York Times Book Review

Of all the remarkable fiction that emerged from World War II, nothing stands higher than Jerzy Kosiński’s The Painted Bird. A magnificent work of art and a celebration of the individual will. No one who reads it will forget it; no one who reads it will be unmoved by it.”
—John Yardley, The Miami Herald
— Jonathan Yardley

Miami Herald

The painted bird of the title refers to a garishly painted creature cruelly released to rejoin its flock. The flock, confused by its artificial coloring, rejects the bird and sends it plummeting to its death. The young protagonist who observed this incident uses it as a metaphor for his own life as he wanders, rejected and mistreated, from village to village in Poland during WWII. In the afterword, written by the author in 1976, Kosinski notes that the book itself became a kind of painted bird, banned in Poland, lambasted by critics for its focus on human brutality, and disputed as to its true authorship. Now 45 years after its publication, this audiobook soars above those controversies and deserves—actually, it demands—one’s undivided attention. In a soft Polish accent narrator Fred Berman spins this tale with a storyteller's intimacy, uninterrupted by character voicings. (There’s no dialogue.) The production poignantly and beautifully captures Kosinski's dark, melancholy landscape. R.W.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

JUNE 2010 - AudioFile