An Advertisement for Toothpaste

by Ryszard Kapuściński

'Like rotting stakes in a forest clearing'

The great journalist of conflict in the Third World finds an even stranger and more exotic society in his own home of post-War Poland

Penguin Modern: fifty new books celebrating the pioneering spirit of the iconic Penguin Modern Classics series, with each one offering a concentrated hit of its contemporary, international flavour. Here are authors ranging from Kathy Acker to James Baldwin, Truman Capote to Stanislaw Lem and George Orwell to Shirley Jackson; essays radical and inspiring; poems moving and disturbing; stories surreal and fabulous; taking us from the deep South to modern Japan, New York's underground scene to the farthest reaches of outer space.

Genres: Nonfiction, Short Stories, Classics, Poland, Modern Classics, Essays, Polish Literature

53 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

Ryszard Kapuściński debuted as a poet in Dziś i jutro at the age of 17 and has been a journalist, writer, and publicist. In 1964 he was appointed to the Polish Press Agency and began traveling around the developing world and reporting on wars, coups and revolutions in Asia, the Americas, and Europe; he lived through twenty-seven revolutions and coups, was jailed forty times, and survived four death sentences. During some of this time he also worked for the Polish Secret Service, although little is known of his role.

See also Ryszard Kapuściński Prize

Reviews

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was looking at the books in this "Penguin Modern" series when I saw it included a selection from Ryszard Kapuściński, whose writing I have always found entertaining. I read the book in English translation.

This work consists of 4 short essays which, taken together, only come to about 50 pages. All 4 can be read in less than an hour. In the UK the Kindle download cost £0.99. Unusually for Kapuściński, these reports feature life in Poland, rather than in other countries.

The title essay describes a village hall dance in a very poor, very rural part of Poland. I’m not sure when it was set – maybe the 1960s?

Living as I do in rural Scotland, I’m familiar with the village hall dance. There was a fair bit in here that I could identify with, especially where he describes the boys going outside the hall between dances in order to gulp down quantities of local hooch (although in 21st century Scotland, the girls are as likely as not to join in). Kapuściński portrays the local people as hard and unsentimental, even cruel in one case. It’s not unknown amongst very poor people.

In the next report, Danka, a sculptor arrives in a small town in NE Poland to carve a new effigy for the local church. He brings his attractive girlfriend, who sunbathes wearing a bikini and who attracts great hostility from the local matrons. I guess this is about the age-old clash of cultures that arises when a stranger with a modern outlook comes to live in a place where conservative social attitudes still prevail.

The Taking of Elżbieta features two desperately poor parents who basically work themselves up to death’s door to give their daughter a better life. They are immensely proud when she qualifies as a teacher, then horrified when she leaves the profession and becomes a nun. Children rarely want what their parents want for them.

In the last story, The Stiff, an 18-year-old man dies in a mining accident. None of the other miners know him as he had only recently arrived from another district. Enquiries reveal his only relative is his father, a disabled widower unable to collect the body. What to do about a funeral?

In my own home area we have old walking paths known as “coffin roads” - routes between old communities and the nearest consecrated burial ground, which could be a considerable distance away. In olden times the men of a village would carry a deceased person along the “coffin road”, an arduous task. In this last report, Kapuściński and a group of miners are forced by circumstance to create their own “coffin road”.

Stories of life and death in communist-ruled Poland, but maybe not that different from stories elsewhere.

[Jacob Sebæk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hitherto, I knew Ryszard Kapuściński only for his documentary tales from Africa.
Seeing him tell stories from his homeland through a reporter’s eyes is a new and delightful experience.
The things you take for granted, every day occurrences you see but do not observe are painfully clear to you if you have spent some time abroad.

Village life
A dance in the village, the game of natural selection – is the boy mating material, will he move to a bigger city or stay in the farm land., will I be the chosen one.
The boys going outside, sharing the content of a bottle of dubious moonshine, drinking themselves silly or brave.
And why would we brush out teeth, nobody does that in this part of the country.
Besides toothpaste is awfully expensive.
“The need” has come over us, grandmother must move to the retirement home to make room for grandson and his wife.

Worth a statue
When a craftsman comes into a village and proposes to carve a figure of the holy virgin for the local church.
And he is modelling it after his extra-terrestrially hot and skanky girlfriend who is not the least bit shy.
Especially the female churchgoers are not happy about this.

God´s Daughter
Danka´s parents suffered and saved every Zloty they could lay their hands on to bring Danka through school and get her a proper education. Now she is a school teacher and can provide for herself and with a little luck she will prosper in her job, get married, bring home grandchildren and even be able to see to the parents´ needs in their old age.
But Danka is not drawn to men or children, she prefers God and enters into a nunnery. No prayers and no desperate letters or messengers can bring her back to the outside world even when her father is dying.

On the road
Not really textbook procedure, but a man gotta do what a man gotta do.
When your vehicle breaks down in the middle of nowhere 20 miles from your destination and your cargo is a dead coworker it calls on your imagination.
Wait for a passing car, walk to the next village and find a mechanic? Being resourceful young men, we carry the coffin.
Doesn’t at all look strange to let down the burden, start a campfire and take a rest it is almost like a hike.

[Daren · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short book from the Penguin Modern collection, it consists of four short reportage pieces from Kapuscinski, taken from his book Nobody Leaves. Kapuscinski spent time in the 1960s in his native Poland, which was post-Stalin, but still communist.

The four stories presented here are -

The title story, An Advertisement for Toothpaste - in which "the reporter" visits a village dance and watches the dynamic of the youths - "There are fifteen girls in the village and only four boys."

Danka which reports the aftermath of village women attacking an attractive girl. We learn who she is, and why she was in the village, living in the Sextons cottage with a sculptor, at the suggestion of Father Michal.

The Taking of Elzbieta - the story of Elzbieta, whose parents scrimped and saved to educate her to become a teacher, and why she gave it away, turned to God and became a nun.

The Stiff - in which "the reporter" become a pall bearer for a man who dies in the mines, and must be repatriated to his village by other miners.

Its unclear how good a selection these were from the original book. They are all slightly odd, and perhaps they were the 'odd' stories from the book, or perhaps they were selected around a theme of the choices people make. They were entertaining, in the short term way a short story is.

3.5 stars, rounded down.

[Lisa (NY) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in post WWII Poland, these essays feel more like short stories. Each piece describes (in heavily descriptive prose) a slice of daily life in rural Poland. Interesting snapshots but the style was too embellished for me.

Penguin Modern Classics
#1 - Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, Jr.
#2 - Television Was a Baby Crawling Toward That Deathchamber by Allen Ginsberg
#3 - The Breakthrough by Daphne Du Maurier
#4 - The Custard Heart by Dorothy Parker
#5 - Three Japanese Short Stories (3 authors)
#6 - The Veiled Woman by Anais Nin
#7 - Notes on Nationalism by George Orwell
#8 - Food by Gertrude Stein
#9 - The Three Electroknights by Stanislaw Lem
#10 - The Great Hunger by Patrick Kavanagh
#11 - The Legend of the Sleepers by Danilo Kis
#12 - The Black Ball by Ralph Ellison
#13 - Till September Petronella by Jean Rhys
#14 - Investigations of a Dog by Franz Kafka
#15 - Daydream and Drunkenness of a Young Lady by Clarice Lispector
#16 - An Advertisement for Toothpaste by Ryszard Kapuscinski

[Michael Percy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ryszard Kapuściński was born in Belarus and grew up in Poland. He is regarded as one of the greatest journalists of the twentieth century for his coverage of revolutions and coups in places including Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. In the 1950s, he began working for the Polish Press Agency (PAP), a communist state-run news service. It is interesting that, since Kapuściński's death, he has been criticised for "making up" the news he reported in order to perpetuate his legend. Yet Kapuściński believed that poets were best-placed to be journalists, as they knew both style and brevity, and his works of fiction, including novels and short stories, were enough to put him in the running for the Nobel Prize in Literature. This book of four stories covers the lives of the poor in Poland. The stories include: An Advertisement for Toothpaste, Danka, The Taking of Elżbieta, and The Stiff. In very few words, Kapuściński's short stories bring to life the subtitle of the work these stories are drawn from: Nobody Leaves: Impressions of Poland, which were only translated into English in 2017. To borrow from various other critics, Kapuściński's style is most notably "sympathetic" to the people he writes about. The biography published by Artur Domoslawski after Kapuściński's death provides the most "plausible" critique, not so much of his work, but of his ability to tell a story while being somewhat liberal with the facts. But on reading these four stories, I have an image of life in the poorer parts of Poland. The reader can see the church in the shadow of the commune, one can feel the strange place of Poland as a country of white people who were, in effect, colonised by whiter people, and apparently Kapuściński used this to his advantage when travelling through revolutionary/post-colonial Africa to give him access (and escape) from places no other white person could. To come back to Poland, and the focus of these four short stories, I can picture it in my mind as if it had been painted for me, but written in a minimalist style that provides sufficient structure for me to draw the rest. Not like Hemingway's icebergs, for there is sufficient meat on the literary bones, but in such a short space as to indicate the extent of Kapuściński's genius. I expect to return to Kapuściński's work again soon, and I can only hope his books are nearly as good as these short stories. These, as far as I can tell, are all regarded as "travel writing" (a genre I enjoy). The recent emergence of Kapuściński's "lost" (i.e. untranslated) works in English leaves me wondering how much literary brilliance is left waiting to be discovered throughout the world. It also makes me wonder where we would be without books such as this accessible Penguin series of translated works. Kapuściński was fluent in several languages and witnessed much of the undoing of colonialism and communism. It is little wonder that his work is so good, and one can only imagine how his experience of the world shaped his craft. And rather than be envious, I must admit to feeling pleased that I can experience his travels in the safety and comfort of my own home, for surely such a life was hard work. I like to think that Kapuściński's "magical journalism" comes from the magic he sought through his living, and that some of his magic rubs off on those who are fortunate enough to read his works.

[Kirsty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Before picking up An Advertisement for Toothpaste, I had not read anything by Ryszard Kapuscinski. The sixteenth Penguin Modern was translated from its original Polish by William R. Brand, and consists of several essays, all of which were written in 1963 and published in 2017. In these essays, states the blurb, 'the great traveller-reporter finds an even stronger and more exotic society in his own home of post-war Poland than in any of the distant lands he has visited.'

An Advertisement for Toothpaste consists of the title essay, as well as 'Danka', 'The Taking of Elzbieta', and 'The Stiff'. I was not sure what to expect in this volume, but found myself really enjoying Kapuscinski's descriptions; in 'Danka', for instance, he describes the way in which he 'went back into the town. I won't give its name, and the reportage will explain why. It lies in the northern part of Bialystok province, and there is no one who has not seen, at least once in their life, one of a hundred little towns like this. There is nothing distinctive about any of them. They put on a drowsy face, damp patches growing with lichens in the furrows of their crumbling walls, and anyone who walks across the town square has the impression that everything is staring at him insistently from under half-closed, motionless eyelids.' Kapuscinski certainly uncovers some interesting things, and meets a whole cast of interesting people along the way. Whilst I found these essays interesting enough to read, it has not sparked in me a desire to read any more of the author's work.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

The name of the late Ryszard Kapuściński was one that vaguely registered with me but until now I’d not read anything by him. I note now that controversy has followed his adoption of what has been dubbed ‘literary reportage’ and ‘magic realist allegory’ but to me, coming fresh to his work via this selection of four pieces, it first resembled the category known as creative nonfiction.

As a genre, creative nonfiction purports to present what’s factual in a literary fashion, and that’s what characterises these journalistic essays. Known as a reporter describing overseas events with first hand experience, Kapuściński instead here turns his attention on his native land, postwar Poland under communism.

Integrating himself in the action he gives the quartet of reports a veneer of actualité but glosses them with the polish of prose poetry. In doing so he, a born storyteller, invites us round his hearth, shapes his narratives into fables or short stories, and infuses them with a surrealism that gives them a fairytale quality.

These tales are all set in rural environments and feature a village dance, a holy statue seen by some as blasphemous, the impact on her parents of a woman becoming a nun, and a group of young men taking a young man’s corpse to his father. In each tale Kapuściński appears as a journalist coming to investigate reports of some incident or other, the reader following him as he goes around making enquiries.

The title piece takes a wry look at a village musical get-together where the girls massively outnumber the boys, with all the possible problems that might arise. But there is a further darkness beyond the night outside: what happens to an older generation displaced from the family home, and why does a vain yearning for modernity and city living result in a lack of dental care and hygiene?

From the start ‘An Advertisement for Toothpaste’ introduced me to a feature of Kapuściński’s trademark style, namely his use of repetition which almost turns his piece into a secular litany. So, phrases like “the saxophonist known throughout the province” and the songs belted out by a singer always described as “scrawny” don’t suggest a paucity of language; instead they are leitmotifs that help draw the strands of narrative together and, along with gentle probings from Kapuściński the reporter, give it a kind of integrity.

‘Danka’ cranks up the melancholic feel of this selection. Danka herself is an artist’s model, brought to a town by a sculptor who, in return for lodging in a sexton’s cottage, is making a stutue of the Virgin Mary. The local women are outraged that the model sunbathes in near nudity in the garden next to the church, but the unfinished statue for which she models — rendered with “details of the highest order” we’re told — is already being venerated: “People come up, kneel, bend their backs.” The wet weather adds to the dampened mood formed when we hear of Danka’s treatment by the women.

Another aspect of Kapuściński’s storytelling is his ability to keep us unsure of the focus of his piece till almost the end, often swapping from one speaker or subject to another without much warning. That’s evident in the third selection, ‘The Taking of Elżbieta’. We move from convent to village, hear of tuberculosis and cardiac problems, learn of screaming and of non-communication; above all, we question whether community exists for the individual or for itself, and how far duty extends to nearest and dearest. As with the previous piece there’s an implicit criticism of institutionalised religion in Poland, specifically the Catholic Church, of how it may lack compassion and charity.

The last story, ‘Stiff’, has the writer as an active participant: he agrees to be a pallbearer for a young man who has died in a mining incident. When the truck taking the group to the man’s family breaks down the six men decide to themselves carry the coffin the remaining 20 kilometres. It’s an image that reminds me of Odin’s eight-legged horse Sleipnir, often taken as a symbol of a coffin carried by four men. Because they knew little of a dead man Kapuściński has his companions speculate on Stefan’s life before he joins the mine, and gives him a final epitaph:

Our legs buckled, our shoulders went numb, our hands swelled, but we managed to carry it to the cemetery — to the grave — our last harbour on earth, at which we put in only once, never again to sail forth — this Stefan Kanik, eighteen, killed in a tragic accident, during blasting, by a block of coal.

Kapuściński, it has been suggested, when he wrote of his travels abroad used them to allegorise conditions back in postwar Poland, and — shall we say — adapted his facts to suit his purpose of criticising repressive communism. In these stories written about 1960s Poland he seems to have chosen to be more circumspect, his criticism disguised in descriptions of rural people and their occasional vagaries. And yet there is a sense that, even if he has ‘adapted’ some facts, he is reflecting a reality that was actual.

William Brand’s translation doesn’t feel intrusive: by keeping the vocabulary relatively simple it surely reflects Kapuściński’s own text. And having thus sampled the author’s unique style I’m encouraged to seek out the rest of his vignettes of Polish life in the sixties collected under the English title Nobody Leaves.

[Vartika · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book because a friend recommended Ryszard Kapuściński with a feeling of the author being a near-absolute favourite.

I was not disappointed.

Kapuściński is a Polish traveler-journalist of great repute. This Penguin Modern #16, An Advertisement for Toothpaste presents four essays; including the title essay, Danka, The Taking of Elżbieta, and The Stiff. by him; all of which follow strange stories; about materiality, maternity, religion and the church, death, life, and the life smoked into the idea of people after their death; from post-war Poland. The choice of the form of narrative journalistic writing allows Kapuściński to punctuate his investigations and observations with eloquent descriptions and notable anecdotes, making the essays smooth and enjoyable, if also jolting, poignant and intensely insightful.

I would want to read more of his work.

[Teenu Vijayan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first read by Kapuscinski and this short book kept my attention till the end.
This book is based on Poland and has 4 short stories which are in the form of interviews. It deals with historical events like the Berlin wall and moves into the common man problems like the cost of toothpaste and why people cannot afford it.
It's a quick read and can be finished in a go!

[Liam O'Leary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Travel stories that I didn't find that engaging. I'm still yet to find a Polish author I can enjoy, anything I have read by a Polish author seems boring to me for some reason. This seemed directionless and lacking emphasis. Looking forward to the next Penguin Modern.

[Karl Fxml · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quatre petites histoires de la Pologne des années 1960 dans un style que j'aime beaucoup, ça donne envie de poursuivre la découverte de cet auteur.

[Hestia Istiviani · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read in English but this review is in Bahasa Indonesia

All of July has been streaming with rain and people have stopped believing in summer.

Kalau bisa dibilang, tulisan Ryszard Kapuscinski dalam An Advertisement of Toothpaste ini lucu. Lucu bukan dalam artian bisa mengundang tawa. Namun, lucu yang mendorong adanya decak kagum karena bagaimana bisa imajinasinya seperti itu. Ada perjalanan dan pertemuan yang sifatnya "ajaib." Seakan-akan bersifat sureal. Apakah memang terasa seperti itu atau karena permainan kata Kapuscinski yang menarik sehingga membacanya terasa menyenangkan.

Dalam An Advertisement of Toothpaste ada 4 cerpen. Semuanya menggunakan latar belakang sebuah lokasi di Polandia. Kapuscinski menuliskannya seakan-akan tempat itu adalah tempat yang dingin tapi terkadang ia juga hangat. Seperti Wonderland dimana Alice tersesat.

Bagiku pribadi, An Advertisement for Toothpaste memudahkan aku untuk berkenalan dengan penulis dari Eropa seperti Kapunscinki.

To hell with smoking. We feel like crying

[Joe Maggs · Rating 5 out of 5]

My initial thoughts on finishing this was how I couldn’t quite make out if it was journalism or fiction - further research leads me to understand this is Kapuscinski’s whole deal. Really quite unique and fascinating to read, you definitely get a vivid insight into post-War, post-occupation Poland struggling to recover from the horrors it faced yet straight away struggling with Communist influence. Particular highlights were the clashing of modernity and tradition not in a conflicting way but in just a strange, juxtaposed, odd way; also the influence of the Church and its relationship both with ordinary people and the State.

[Wouter Janssen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four short stories by Kapuscinski on post-WWII Poland; two of which absolutely brilliant. Good ol' four star rating.

[Lin Piao · Rating 4 out of 5]

An Advertisment for Toothpaste by Ryszard Kauściński (雷沙德·卡普希钦斯基)
（企鹅书屋现代经典小绿书第16本）这本企鹅小绿书收录了波兰作家、记者雷沙德·卡普希钦斯基以“魔幻新闻”手法写成的四个短篇小说。在他冷静纪实的笔触下，浮现出一幅幅魔幻而略带黑色幽默的画面——农村舞会上从未用过牙膏的姑娘露出羞怯笑容，教堂圣母像的原型竟是穿比基尼的城里女郎，一心为女儿谋划未来的父母不得不面对她即将成为修女的现实。而第四篇故事，尤其触动我心。记者跟随抬棺少年们前往另一个村落的墓园。途中他们遇见一群美丽的少女。天真的女孩问少年：“蝴蝶是怎样接吻的呢？”少年们暂时忘却沉重，心情变得轻快，唯有记者在这片被天空、大地与青草环抱的自然间，感受到生命的残酷对照——他们正处在最美丽的生命与最冰冷的死亡之间。棺木里躺着的，是在煤矿爆破中丧生的十八岁少年，他当上矿工还不足两周，家中还有瘫痪的父亲。最终，少年们重新抬起棺木，继续上路，将这位早逝死者安葬进他家乡的墓地。这个故事起初让我想起福克纳的《在我弥留之际》，但越往下读，越被作者对生命无常、美好易逝的深沉慨叹所感染，字里行间悲悯尽现。

[eveline williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

short, easily digestible, intriguing, eye-opening and I wanna read more. I liked the refreshing format of four very short stories put together and I thought it was fascinating to learn about a culture that I'm not as familiar with as I'd like to be through the eyes of not only a native of that culture, but also one who is versed in world culture, as well as being a great journalist and storyteller.

[Kushev · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Reach out and you can put your arm around a girl; take a few steps and you can lean over a coffin - we are standing between life at its most beautiful and death at its most cruel.” (Kapuściński, 51)

Four essays from obscure parts of communist Poland, its characters being in unorthodox situations of various degrees. The author is there; exploring, until he’s caught in the peculiar act of carrying a coffin.

[Cody · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vividly sketched scenes of life in postwar Poland, about the role there of modernity, the draw of the city, tradition, and religion. Loved the first three selections especially for their focus on women's stories.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deeply interesting. Basically longform journalism (a la Vanity Fair or Esquire) from behind the Iron Curtain. My only criticism comes from the subtexts and cultural connotations I am surely missing. But it’s even deeply fascinating to consider just what it is I might be missing.

[Majo Ortiz · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.75 ⭐️. From the title I knew this book would have an interesting take. I loved the four short essays, especially An Advertisement for Toothpaste (my absolute favorite) and The Taking of Elzbieta. Also, the writing is beautiful, simple and smart.

[Kukasina Kubaha · Rating 5 out of 5]

savage (as in the compliment)

[❀ Tina ❀ · Rating 2 out of 5]

2,5*

[Maria Nolasco · Rating 4 out of 5]

"(...)but we managed to carry it to the cemetery - to the grave - our last harbour on earth, at which we put only once, never again to sail forth (...)"

Kapuściński descreve tão bem as pessoas com que se cruzava, as situações mais caricatas de sempre, que quase que parece que neste livro fomos transportados para a Polónia no pós-guerra

[Gracjan Brudkiewicz · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5⭐️

[Carys · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe a 3.5? Beautifully written but I didn’t appreciate it and struggled to follow the anecdotes

[lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

got me to the goal. lfg. short stories. slayed but also eh

[Nik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Penguin Mini Modern Classics #16 of 50

Finished. This is a collection of four short stories. All the stories are set in Poland. my favourite was 'The Stiff'. I probably shouldn't think it as funny as it's about a dead body, but there were aspects of the story that were hilarious! All the stories are well written. All were complete stories in themselves. I did really enjoy the book. Yes I recommend this book

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25⭐️

[Peter · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is terrible, bland and unreadable.

Unlike the little black classics there seems to be more misses than hits. From the first 16 only two or three have hit the grade.

Shoddy at best.

[JK · Rating 3 out of 5]

These strange but engaging wee tales of post-war Poland were a delight. We see a full range of humanity as Kapuściński looks at village life, religious scandal, parental disappointment, and taking on burdens before releasing them. They were so different in their subject matter, and yet similar in their explorations of both Poland and its inhabitants.

All of them were odd to me, in a curious way that appealed. It made me wonder, are all of Kapuściński’s tales of a strange nature, or have Penguin chosen to insert the ones which had a whiff of the fantastical crossed with raw reality?

Whatever the answer, Kapuściński’s skill is clear, and I’m glad to have discovered him.