Description from Goodreads
Milan Kundera called Witold Gombrowicz “one of the great novelists of our century.” His most famous novel, Cosmos, the recipient of the 1967 International Prize for Literature, is now available in a critically acclaimed translation, for the first time directly from the Polish, by the award-winning translator Danuta Borchardt.
Cosmos is a metaphysical noir thriller narrated by Witold, a seedy, pathetic, and witty student, who is charming and appalling by turns. On his way to a relaxing vacation he meets the despondent Fuks. As they set off together for a family-run pension in the Carpathian Mountains they discover a dead bird hanging from a string. Is this a strange but meaningless occurrence or is it the beginning of a string of bizarre events? As the young men become embroiled in the Chekhovian travails of the family running the pension, Grombrowicz creates a gripping narrative where the reader questions who is sane and who is safe?
My Thoughts on the Book
Cosmos is one of those books that you have to be mentally alert and present in order to fully appreciate while reading. It's a weird book, but due to the prose, it's an enjoyable book. Fair enough, I read a Norwegian translation of this, and I suspect it's better in the original Polish (most books are better in their original language rather than a translation). Cosmos has a couple of unlikeable characters, so if that's not your thing, it's priobably better to stay away.
I might have to re-read this book in order to get more out of it, but I'd still recommend people to read it as it's sometimes nice to read something a little bit more challenging.
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