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The Painted Bird is a controversial 1965 novel by Jerzy Kosiński which describes the world as seen by a young black-haired, black-eyed boy who wanders about small towns scattered around Central or Eastern Europe (presumably Poland) during World War II.

Reaction

According to James Park Sloan, some readers initially assumed that Kosiński had written an autobiography, due to "claims" made by the author himself. .

It was viewed by Arthur Miller and Elie Wiesel as one of the most important books in Holocaust literature. Wiesel wrote in The New York Times Book Review that it was: "One of the best... Written with deep sincerity and sensitivity." Cynthia Ozick stated she immediately recognized Kosiński's authenticity as "a Jewish survivor and witness to the Holocaust."

Richard Kluger, reviewing it for Harper's Magazine, wrote: "Extraordinary... literally staggering ... one of the most powerful books I have ever read." And John Yardley, reviewing it for The Miami Herald, wrote: "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. The Painted Bird enriches our literature and our lives."

Although some readers assumed it was based on the author's experiences during World War II, the book was published and marketed as "fiction." Most of the events depicted are now widely considered to be fictional. It later became clear that Kosiński was neither the boy in the story nor did he share any of the boy's experiences, as revealed in a series of articles in newspapers and books. Norman G. Filkensteinan, assistant professor of political science at DePaul University and a controversial figure himself,, in his VPL lecture broadcasted by the Canadian Shaw Cable in 2006 refers to the book as a "hoax".

Eliot Weinberger has claimed that Kosiński was not the author of the book. Weinberger alleged that Kosinski used several editors to rewrite passages, as - according to Weinberger - he had very little fluent knowledge of English at the time of its writing.

Themes

The book describes the boy's encounter with peasants engaged in all forms of sexual and social deviance such as incest, bestiality and rape, and in a huge amount of violence – often at the expense of the child. While the book has been said to depict peasants in a derogatory fashion, some argue that it was not a particular social group, but all people, who are viewed as inherently predisposed to cruelty.

The title is drawn from an analogy to human life, described within the book. The boy finds himself in the company of a professional bird catcher. When the man is particularly upset or bored, he takes one of his captured birds and paints it several colors. Then he watches the bird fly through the air in search of a flock of its kin. When it comes upon them, they see it as an intruder and tear at the bird until it dies, falling from the sky.

Criticism

Some argue that the novel has contributed to false impressions of East European peasants. To others, the purpose of the book, from a deontological standpoint, was not to depict the cruelty of one group of people but to show the nature of all humanity, and of all existence, to be cruel.

According to Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski's article, the book deeply offended the members of the Polish farming family who had risked their lives to save Kosiński during the Holocaust. Pogonowski indicates that the family wrote letters of protest to the Polish press in response to the novel.

See also

• Anti-Polonism
• Markowa
• Jerzy Kosinski

Sources

• James Park Sloan, Jerzy Kosinski: A Biography, Dutton, United States, 1996
• Village Voice, June 1982.
• Eliot Weinberger Genuine Fakes from his collection Karmic Traces; New Directions, 2000.
• Kosinski, Jerzy. The Painted Bird, Grove Press, 1995, ISBN 0-8021-3422-X.

• 1965 novels
• Holocaust literature
• Time Magazine 100 best novels