The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I was prompted to reread this book by my enjoyment of Cynthia Ozick's "Messiah of Stockholm, in which the main character believes he is Bruno Schulz' son. It was much bettr than I had remembered.

My favorite stories ere: Mr. Charles, Cinnamon Shops, Street of Crocodiles, Cockroaches, and Night of the Great Season.

The storis often begin with a rambling sentence that evokes a time of year and a place, hovering between fantasy and family memoir. The most prominent characters ae the father who sounds both insane and magical and the servant/employee Adela. No one speaks.

The best passages are dreams or dreamlike descriptions in which the physical setting is distorted and comes alive, like in paintings by Van Gogh.

from Cinnamon Shops p. 85
"His sense of smell and his hearing sharpened extraordinarily and one could see from the expression of his tense silent face that through the intermediary of these two senses he remained in permanent contact with the unseen world of mouseholes, dark corners, chimney vents, and dusty spaces under the floor."

from Mr. Charles p. 84
"... he stood, hat in hand, feeling rather embarrassed that even at the last moment he could not find a word which would dispel that hostile silence; he then walked toward the door slowly, resignedly, handing his head, while someone else, someone forever turning his back, walked at the same pace in the opposite direction into the depths of the mirror, through the row of empty rooms which did not exist."



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