Jerzy Kosinski: 9a Biography

This book surveys Kosinski's early life, his new life in the US, his travels, his celebrity status, his sexual libertinism, and his suicide. That latter is portrayed as a well-planned event. Sloan comments: "Only Kosinski knew that the peasants he had encountered, while certainly no angels, had been nothing like the villains depicted in his novel." (p. 421). The incident about the altar-boy Kosinski being thrown into a pit of excrement, for accidentally dropping a missal, is admittedly fictional. (p. 36). For more on the specifics of Kosinski's mendacity, read the detailed English-language Peczkis review of Czarny ptasior (THE BLACK BIRD-MONSTROSITY). The Soviet occupation followed the German occupation. Jerzy's father, Mieczyslaw (Moishe) Lewinkopf, joined the overcrowded ranks of rescued Jews who turned against the Polish nation by becoming actively Communist (p. 49, 53), thus making themselves complicit in the Soviet subjugation and oppression of Poland. (Sloan sugar-coats participation in Communism as a manifestation of anti-fascism and idealism (pp. 46-47). Oh, please! The criminality and terror of Communism had by then been well-known, if not long before--not to mention the fact that anyone supporting Communism was well aware of the fact that it was odious to the vast majority of Poles.) Moishe Lewinkopf also associated with Jerzy Urban, another Jewish Communist. (pp. 58-59). (Urban later became a pornographer, editor of the magazine NIE!, and a well-known vicious anti-Catholic slanderer of Pope John Paul II.) When THE PAINTED BIRD came out, its German-language edition was well-received. (pp. 234-236). (Decades later, after the present book was written, Gross' NEIGHBORS also came out in a German-language edition that was enthusiastically received.) This clearly served a need: To relativize German conduct and dilute German guilt in the murder of 5-6 million Jews--by making lurid, mostly-bogus, relatively-trivial accusations against Poles. The same anti-Polish and anti-peasant themes of THE PAINTED BIRD showed up in Lanzmann's SHOAH. Kosinski gave an evasive answer when asked about the objectivity of the latter. (p. 419). Kosinski's I-am-a-constant-victim-of-Poles fibs continued. He changed his story about his NY apartment invaded by a bunch of Polish goons, first saying that he used a gun to scare away the assailants, and then saying that he never had a gun (p. 245). Sloan portrays Kosinski as a man confused about his heritage, and a loose cannon prone to offend both Poles and Jews. (Yes, but the former offensiveness has enjoyed far greater publicity. THE PAINTED BIRD is still widely read, and is used in American classrooms. The latter is long forgotten.) In terms of the specifics of the latter, Kosinski favored a universal theme for the remembrance of Auschwitz in preference to a Judeocentric one (p. 419). He suggested that Jewish snobbery provoked Polish anti-Semitism (p. 409). Finally: "At one point in Jerusalem when a reporter a

This is a gripping and very well written book. The fact that Kosinski was disliked by some Poles is irrelevant. A remarkable biography.

I think Sloan's work is helpful but shouldn't be taken as final word. It's been awhile since I've read it but my impressions were that it was fair. I was disappointed to hear of all the controversy over Kosinki's use of translators. I've read all but his last, "The hermit of 69th street," before I'd heard of Sloan's book. The real question is why did he keep the use of translators a secret? In the end, it's still Kosinki's work and nobody can take that away from him, which is noted in Sloan's book. One other piece of criticism that bothered me was the questioning of fact versus fiction. And so I ask, what difference does it make? His seven novels were released as fiction, that is what a novel is. As far as I'm concerned, Kosinski covered his tracks with the word "novel." It sounds like petty jealousy to nitpick over something like that. Kosinski told brilliant stories and "Being There" was the most brilliant of ideas.

All I have to say is that I was interested in this book because of the "plagiarism" issues concerning Kosinski. It is informative in this regard.I was amused and somewhat disgusted, however, to see Gabrielle-Renoir-"I Love France's" review because I had read almost exactly the same text elsewhere moments before, except it was written by a certain professor D.G. Myers under the title "Life Beyond Repair". If D.G Myers was ripping off G.R. (or perhaps IS G.R.)then I suppose I am barking up the wrong tree and should be ashamed of myself for not enjoying the irony at play.If it is simply the case that "I Love France" is merely ripping off someone else's review about a book about a fraudulent author, I'm just not impressed enough to buy Gabs something off his or her wish list. Keep tabs on it, people. There are still laws about this kind of thing if folks don't have the decency to police themselves.

When I picked up Sloan's biography I had never heard of the controversies surrounding Kozinski's writing. I have read several of Kozinski's novels, but it was my parents that saw him on the Tongiht show and heard him tell his stories as if they were factual. I read his work thinking that most of the incidents he described actually happened to him while recognizing that clearly some were fictionalized. After reading Sloan's biography I now know exactly what was fact and what was fiction, but for me Kozinski's work has not lost its luster. Reading his fiction today, it doesn't matter whether Kozinski was running around New York telling lies to his rich friends - you have to read his stories as just that: stories