The Encyclopedia of the Dead

... and those two are enough in my card catalogue to justify a five-star rating. How many novelists have written even one great short story? I suppose I should have read one of Danilo Kis's novels first, as my first encounter with such an acclaimed author, but I like short stories. I especially admire coherent, cohesive collections of stories written as a suite. "The Encyclopedia of the Dead" is certainly just such a cohesive suite of stories, all of them concerned with death, all of them more or less metaphysical "conceits" in the older sense of the word. A comparison to Jose Luis Borges, the Argentine master of metaphysical prose, is inevitable. Kis acknowledges Borges in his postscript to this collection. The title story is pure Borges in conception. 'Simon Magus' and 'Last Respects', the first two stories in the book, are well-crafted prose, at least in English translation, but left me quite unimpressed. They and several later stories are too-clever stylized parables, anatomizing in the mummified cadaver of the religious imagination. Jewish or Christian, it's been done, and done more persuasively. The third story, 'Encyclopedia of the Dead,' however, captured my imagination from the start. The conceit is this: a woman gets special permission to visit a mysterious library. Inside and alone, she searches out a certain book, an encyclopedia of all the people who have ever lived whose names are NOT included in any other encyclopedia. In that book, every detail of the lives of such otherwise forgotten people is recorded. The woman immediately begins to read about her father, who has recently died. I won't tell more; it's a superb construct, a profound synecdoche of the memory and forgetfulness of humanity. In his postscript, by the way, Kis ruminates briefly on his discovery, after the writing, of a real-time counterpart to the 'encyclopedia' -- the underground archives of genealogy maintained by the Church of the Latter Day Saints in Utah. The other Great Story in the collection, "The Book of Kings and Fools," also has a real-time counterpart, but the process of writing and recognition were reversed. Kis, in his postscript, tells us that he became fascinated with the "true and fantastic" pernicious history of the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," that fraud that never seems to be properly exposed and discredited. Kis originally intended to write an essay about the route of dissemination of that anti-semitic forgery, but he discovered that there were so many missing links, between the well-documented initial perpetration and the world-wide self-sustaining willful perpetuation of the lies, that he could only turn to his authorial imagination to complete his essay in fictive form. Once again, the result is a profound sardonic 'conceit,' a story worthy of comparison with the best of Borges. Two out of nine? Good enough! I'm hooked. Let's see, what Danilo Kis shall I read next...

... and those two are enough in my card catalogue to justify a five-star rating. How many novelists have written even one great short story? I suppose I should have read one of Danilo Kis's novels first, as my first encounter with such an acclaimed author, but I like short stories. I especially admire coherent, cohesive collections of stories written as a suite. "The Encyclopedia of the Dead" is certainly just such a cohesive suite of stories, all of them concerned with death, all of them more or less metaphysical "conceits" in the older sense of the word. A comparison to Jorge (not Jose) Luis Borges, the Argentine master of metaphysical prose, is inevitable. Kis acknowledges Borges in his postscript to this collection. The title story is pure Borges in conception. 'Simon Magus' and 'Last Respects', the first two stories in the book, are well-crafted prose, at least in English translation, but left me quite unimpressed. They and several later stories are too-clever stylized parables, anatomizing in the mummified cadaver of the religious imagination. Jewish or Christian, it's been done, and done more persuasively. The third story, 'Encyclopedia of the Dead,' however, captured my imagination from the start. The conceit is this: a woman gets special permission to visit a mysterious library. Inside and alone, she searches out a certain book, an encyclopedia of all the people who have ever lived whose names are NOT included in any other encyclopedia. In that book, every detail of the lives of such otherwise forgotten people is recorded. The woman immediately begins to read about her father, who has recently died. I won't tell more; it's a superb construct, a profound synecdoche of the memory and forgetfulness of humanity. In his postscript, by the way, Kis ruminates briefly on his discovery, after the writing, of a real-time counterpart to the 'encyclopedia' -- the underground archives of genealogy maintained by the Church of the Latter Day Saints in Utah. The other Great Story in the collection, "The Book of Kings and Fools," also has a real-time counterpart, but the process of writing and recognition were reversed. Kis, in his postscript, tells us that he became fascinated with the "true and fantastic" pernicious history of the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," that fraud that never seems to be properly exposed and discredited. Kis originally intended to write an essay about the route of dissemination of that anti-semitic forgery, but he discovered that there were so many missing links, between the well-documented initial perpetration and the world-wide self-sustaining willful perpetuation of the lies, that he could only turn to his authorial imagination to complete his essay in fictive form. Once again, the result is a profound sardonic 'conceit,' a story worthy of comparison with the best of Borges. Two out of nine? Good enough! I'm hooked. Let's see, what Danilo Kis shall I read next...

I've not previously read Mr Kis's work and I was not sure what to expect. I read this collection in translation (by Michael Henry Heim). This was the first book I could obtain, and I was totally swept up in the beauty of the prose from beginning to end. This collection of nine stories touches on a number of facets of life: relationships, encounters and experiences. Each is unique. Each illustrates a different aspect of existence, including questioning the notion of divine order. `Everything a living man can know of death.' Because of these differences, I suspect that each story could be my favourite on a different day or read. Each provides food for thought and the language is exquisite. On this read, I particularly enjoyed `Simon Magus' and his questioning of divine order, `To Die for One's Country Is Glorious' describing the final hours of Esterhazy, and the reading journey of the bereaved daughter in the title story. In fewer than 200 pages, Mr Kis has managed to evoke a set of experiences and reactions that linger on in the mind. Where does life end, and death begin? Are the boundaries mutable or immutable? We will each have (or form) our own private views on this question. For myself, I am delighted to have read this book and will be looking to read more of Mr Kis in translation. `History is written by victors. Legends are woven by people. Writers fantasize. Only death is certain.' Jennifer Cameron-Smith

I highly recommend all of Danilo Kis's works.

It took almost six months from the day I ordered this book, until it came out of print and I received it in my mail. It took me less than a week to read it...This is a book of stories about people who find their death in different ways. Kis mixes myths and legends of the Bible to: middle eastern legends, female intuition, patriotism, death anticipation due to long and difficult illness. Each story is setup in its own time, century, country and is viewed from different perspective. And all these situations and places combined, make up this wonderful book. My favorite story was "The Encyclopedia of the Dead". It sounds so personal, that anyone who knows a little bit about Danilo Kis' life, can see a lot of Kis himself - in this story. Mr. Heim did wonderful job translating this work. However, I was a bit disappointed that Mr. Haim did not make an effort to write an introduction for this book. Writer's notes at the end of the book were extrimely helpful in understanding stories more deeply and understanding what he wanted to accomplish with this work of art. Many of Danilo Kis' reders like to remember him as writer who had Borges for an idol. Please, let us not forget that Kis had admirerers himself - no one less than Joseph Brodsky, amongst others.