Pilch’s antic sensibility confirms that he is the compatriot of Witold Gombrowicz, the Polish maestro of absurdist pranks. But readers with a taste for the fermented Irish blarney of Flann O’Brien, Samuel Beckett, and John Kennedy Toole might also savor Pilch.
Pilch’s antic sensibility confirms that he is the compatriot of Witold Gombrowicz, the Polish maestro of absurdist pranks. But readers with a taste for the fermented Irish blarney of Flann O’Brien, Samuel Beckett, and John Kennedy Toole might also savor Pilch.
"...it is the grotesquery of Pilch's buffoonery that makes A Thousand Peaceful Cities such an urbane pleasure."—Steven G. Kellman, Barnes and Nobles Review
"A mind-bending romp by Polish journalist and novelist Jerzy Pilch, miraculously translated by David Frick and published this month by Open Letter."—Anne Kjellberg, Little Star
While the idea of a quixotic assassination attempt as rite of passage seems ridiculous, it offers Pilch — a prize-winning Polish novelist and newspaper columnist — a way to get at the absurdity of politics, the unbridgeable gap between public and private life."—David L. Ulin, Los Angeles Times
"Jerzy Pilch, author of The Mighty Angel, has written a moving, bittersweet meditation on family, responsibility, and the passage of time."—Rebecca Oppenheimer, Howard County Times
"...the unruly, wonderfully erudite, and hilariously surreal product of a boisterous imagination set loose."—Valentina Zanca, Words Without Borders
"[Pilch] slashes mercilessly at the holy of holiest of his own nation. He ridicules its virtues and its shortcomings; he spares neither hero nor villain."—Sally Boss, The Sarmatian Review
"With his latest, Pilch masterfully negotiates sentiment with a clear-eyed vision of his autobiographical narrator’s shortcomings and disappointments, suggesting a Dubliners set in Krakow."—Publishers Weekly (starred)
