A Dreambook for Our Time

by Tadeusz Konwicki, David Welsh (Translator), Leszek Kołakowski (Introduction)

English, Polish (translation)

Genres: Polish Literature, Fiction, Poland, 20th Century, Novels, Literature

282 pages, Paperback

First published February 28, 1963

About the author

Prose writer, screenwriter and film director. Founder of the 'cinema d'auteur' in Poland and author of 20 books. Born in 1926 in Nowa Wilejka, near Vilnius (today Naujoji Vilnia, Lithuania), died on January 7th in Warsaw at 88 years old.

Konwicki was educated at the Universities of Cracow and Warsaw and began writing for newspapers and periodicals. He served on the editorial boards of leading literary magazines and followed the official Communist Party line. His first work, Przy budowie (1950; “At the Construction Site”), won the State Prize for Literature. He began a career as a filmmaker and scriptwriter in 1956; his film Ostatni dzień lata (“The Last Day of Summer”) won the Venice Film Festival Grand Prix in 1958. By the late 1960s he had quit the Communist Party, lost his job in the official film industry, and become active in the opposition movement.

Konwicki’s work is suffused with guilt and anxiety, coloured by his wartime experiences and a sense of helplessness in confronting a corrupt and repressive society. Chief among his novels are Rojsty (1956; “The Marshes”) and Sennik wspóczesny (1963; A Dreambook for Our Time), a book that writer and critic Czesław Miłosz called “one of the most terrifying novels of postwar Polish literature.” His other works of that period are Wniebowsta̦pienie (1967; “Ascension”) and Zwierzoczłekoupiór (1969; The Anthropos-Spectre-Beast). His later books—including Kompleks polski (1977; The Polish Complex), the bitterly mocking Mała apokalipsa (1979; A Minor Apocalypse), and the lyrical Bohiń (1987; Bohin Manor)—confront Poland’s social cataclysms of the late 1970s and the ’80s. The autobiographical Wschody i zachody ksie̦życa (1981; Moonrise, Moonset) recounts some of Konwicki’s experiences during the period of martial law in Poland.

Reviews

[William2 · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Dreambook for Our Time is a vividly told, character-driven narrative about the lives of a group of Polish adults in the late 1950s, about the time of Sputnik. The action takes place in a Polish village somewhere on the Sola River. A huge presence in the novel is that of the nearby forest. It was in the forest that many people hid from the Nazis during the war. It was also in the forest that Polish partisans operated during wartime; that Hitler was said to have hidden the "gold of the Jews"; and that one Huniady, a partisan turned bandit, was said to have his hideaway.

In the present day action of the story, the local residents are bracing themselves for the eventual inundation of the valley by a new dam now under construction. We first come across our narrator as he lies recovering from a suicide attempt in the parlor of his landlady, Miss Malvina. The main characters of the novel are pretty much all introduced in this scene. There is the Partisan, a local warlord who has lost power now that national and local government have been reestablished; Count Pac, who sadly expends far too much energy repudiating his aristocratic background and higher learning now that a Communist government is in power; Miss Malvina, a religious nut, but one who likes her drop, and who has an overweening sense of the social proprieties; her brother Ildefons Korsak, an old soldier half out of his mind after serving in numerous wars and who may be suffering from syphilis-related dementia; Joseph Car, the local evangelist preacher; Regina, a shopkeeper at the state-owned store who rejects the lusty Partisan's incessant offers of love; Justine, Rev. Car's wife, who carries on an affair with our narrator; and others more peripheral.

The story is for the most part about the daily grind of the main characters, who do not by any means strive to live the "examined" life. They drink ungodly amounts of vodka on the slightest pretext and in their cups act out in the most absurd ways. But who can blame them? The war has traumatized them all, some severely. For the Partisan the central issues are his loss of face (power) and Regina's refusal of his advances. For the narrator, it is his failure during the war as a NCO of the Polish Home Army. There are a number of flashbacks to wartime situations in which his backstory is elucidated. Dreams intrude on daily life, but they are never indistinguishable from reality. One of my concerns on starting the novel was that it would lack coherence, that I would be at sea amid a bunch of ambiguous images à la symbolist poetry. It is a "dreambook" after all. But that was not the case. Highly recommended for the discerning reader. (Not a beach read.)

[Nate D · Rating 4 out of 5]

The past is a trap, a smoldering peat bog, a river that leaps its banks and can only swallow.

Tadeusz Konwicki is amazing, a haunted poetic conscience of communist Poland who fought first Nazis and Russians as a partisan in WWII, then state censors and prohibitions as a novelist and filmmaker. I've already written a brief bio of Konwicki elsewhere but suffice to say that he's my only favorite writer -- besides nouveau roman-ers Robbe-Grillet and Duras -- who is also one of my favorite directors.

Published in 1963, A Dreambook for Our Time seems to be just that, an attempt to directly interrogate the psyche of contemporary Poland, a country desperately trying to work out its own existence under the long shadow of the war and the machinations of a government tied to foreign powers. The story takes place in a provincial township populated by caustically-but-somehow-sympathetically-drawn characters -- an embittered partisan, a peasant ashamed of aristocratic family origins, an ambiguous local religious leader, an old man lost in long-past wars. It's also populated by ghosts: graves of many uprisings, ruins of German bunkers and rumored outlaws in the forest, a house that once belonged to a Jewish family standing in empty accusation. And our narrator clearly has his own ghosts, opening his eyes on the first scene from a fog of pills and attempted suicide, ghosts gradually revealed in long stretches of eerie memory oozing backwards into the past.

While not really yet venturing into the full surrealism suggested by the title (for that, see later work), Konwicki's words nevertheless lend his otherwise stark realities a hallucinatory, mythical quality. The valley shimmers with ambiguities and veiled motives, mundane intrigues and historic portent. Which all blends to make this something of a page-turner through all the desperate spirals of guilt and resignation and regret.

[Nathan "N.R." Gaddis]

Found on the list, “William T. Vollmann’s Favorite ‘Contemporary’ Books,” but too should be noted that EVERYTHING from this series, "Writers from the Other Europe," could perhaps be included on that list.

Here's a list of thirteen from amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Books-Writers-O...

The LibThing list of fifteen:
http://www.librarything.com/publisher...

And My Shelf (why not?):
http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/...

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Profoundly well written, even though i didnt care for the story or content as much, although to be fair, my headspace at this time hasn’t been aligned to the tone of this novel. Worth a reread when better fixed, i think, to really aporeciate it.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Powerful - disturbed and disturbing.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this whole series - Writers from the Other Europe - ages ago. This was one of the standout volumes, though all had merit. Kundera - also in the series with The Joke, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, The Farewell Party, and Laughable Loves - has become well known, but authors such as Konwicki deserve our attention. Bruno Schulz (in the series with Sanatorium under the Sign of the Hourglass and The Street of Crocodiles), Danilo Kis (A Tomb for Boris Davidovich), and Bohumil Hrabal (in the series with Closely Watched Trains) all need to be read.

[Kinga · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oniryczna, pełna refleksji powieść szkatułkowa, która przenosi nas do powojennych Kresów Wschodnich. Po zakończeniu wojny Polacy, którzy zatracili swoje małe ojczyzny zamieszkują wymierające, senne miasteczko. Pobyt przyjezdnego budzi niepokój i zamęt przez tajemnicze losy, które dzielą przeszłość powstańczą na tych terenach. Klimat i niektóre wątki mam wrażenie, że przewijają się również w filmach Konwickiego. Momentami miałam wrażenie, że akcja przeciąga się w nieskończoność, przez liczne powtórzenia co do rytuałów picia wódki czy modłów nad rzeką do nieznanego Boga. Druga połowa książki nie była aż tak angażująca jak pierwsza i zakończyłam czytanie z lekkim niedosytem.

[Oliwia · Rating 3 out of 5]

3+

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

In some ways very much of its time, in other ways unlike anything else I’ve read.
The multitude of characters espoused philosophy in every phrase, often expressed beautifully. Yet their conflicts were petty and repetitive, sometimes humorously so.
Often I’d think Konwicki was writing metaphorically and it turned out the metaphysical event, or the horrors, he was describing was really happening.
I read somewhere, maybe on this site, that this novel was not merely the Story of war survivors, but of post war Poland itself. I don’t know shit about Poland, so that may be true. But the bleakness of these stuck characters lives as they await both the promised railway and a likely flooding and forced relocation, certainly resonated with this reader as he endures, like everyone else, the stuckness of a global pandemic. Just waiting and waiting for that promised arrival of any kind of change, fighting off the ghosts that haunt us.

[Will · Rating 3 out of 5]

Konwicki's book is confusing; as he jumps back and forth between past and present, between dreams and reality. Overall, he looks at the trauma on a Polish community, from both the devastation of the Second World War and the communist regime that followed it.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Przeczytam coś jeszcze od Konwickiego, definitywnie
"Pragnąłem zapamiętać te sekundy rozciągnięte w nieskończoność, żeby wiedzieć, jak wygląda koniec. To ostatek wiedzy, który potem nigdy już nie jest przydatny."

[na_okraglo_zaczytana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jakie to było dobre! Fabuła, forma, postacie… Dawno nie czytałam książki, która tak interesująco przedstawia sen, a wzbogacona o problematykę powojenną staje się jedną z wybitniejszych książek, które dotychczas udało mi się przeczytać. Serdecznie polecam!

[Mieczyslaw Kasprzyk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Drifting, disconnected... lost in a time of fear and change.

[James Hale · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very depressing book

[mort · Rating 4 out of 5]

mocne 3+? 4-? nie wiem. czuję się chora po przeczytaniu tego

[Nhat · Rating 2 out of 5]

the story was hard to follow and also i really disliked that the majority of the scenes involving multiple characters doing something together, talking together, that it was difficult to enjoy if you do not have any emotional stake in any of them. however i must commend Tadeusz Konwicki for having such a vivid, descriptive style, and i will be glad to dive into his bibliography to find something a bit more introverted.

[James Varney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just could not get into "A Dreambook for Our Time." What happened in Poland during World War II, and what happened to Konwicki is, thankfully, beyond my comprehension. But the disjointed, yes dream-like nature of this novel made it too opaque for my taste. I wouldn't discourage anyone from reading it, but I can't give it a ringing endorsement.

[Kayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some great prose, but slightly confusing without some solid background knowledge of eastern Europeans politics during the time period beyond basic ww2 knowledge. Very character driven, and slow. Picks up slightly towards the end

[Wojtek Konieczny · Rating 4 out of 5]

(słuchowisko), 7/10

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Hadrian · Rating 2 out of 5]

6/10

[Mateusz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ciekawa konstrukcja narracji

[Maja · Rating 4 out of 5]

Książki Konwickiego są takie, że się zapomina fabułę, a potem się wraca do nich, jak do domu za każdym razem

[patrycja ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, nie sądziłam, że tak mi się spodoba

[marcyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Konwicki gość. Epizody partyzanckie na zawsze w moim serduszku. Czuć klimat "Salta".

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

More like A (Fever)Dreambook for Our Time.

[Gosia Koroluk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ciężko się to czytało; niedokończone wątki, motyw wojenny, którego nie spodziewałam się po tytule (XD), bardzo monotonna lektura. Na pewno dam jeszcze szansę Konwickiemu, dlatego, że tak autentycznie potrafi wykreować tę atmosferę mistycyzmu w połączeniu z realiami Kresów Wschodnich (w "Senniku" i "Bohini"), która wciąga i przemawia do mnie mocno na poziomie osobistym (!). Postać Malwiny Korsakównej jest szczególnym uosobieniem tego vibe'u; można by zdegradować ten zbiór cech do szufladki "mentalność wschodnia/człowiek wschodu", ale chciałoby się założyć, że stoi za tym jakaś magia. Tym bardziej jest to fascynujące, bo sama miałam okazję poznać osobę o podobnym portrecie, na jawie.

[Mag]

Sennik wspolczesny by Tadeusz Konwicki (1073)

[Barbara Bloniarz]

takie fajne oniryczne

[Laurent Szklarz]

To be read nowadays, if only to shut the polish government up about their new law.
Otherwise, this book is dense and obscure and will lose most of its readers.