KILLING THE SECOND DOG

by Marek Hlasko ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1989

Hlasko (1934-69) was a popular Beat-like Polish writer who early on incurred disfavor with the Fifties regime and spent much of the last part of his short life elsewhere. The venue of this short, hard-boiled, but quite engaging little novel is Israel, with two Polish ‚migr‚s acting in concert to scare small sums out of single American women on vacation. The narrator and his cohort Robert buy a dog, find a woman, and then go into action. The narrator feigns existential despair, allows the woman to comfort him, refuses her money, kills the dog in an act of utter nihilism, and takes Nembutal immediately after--not enough to kill, but enough to convince the woman of his utter abjection. Then Robert steps in with an explanation, a story involving a debt--and the scare is completed. Hlasko weaves actual conscience-pain through the narrator's acts, which gives dimension to what is otherwise a breezy, black joke. The style is punchy and none too rich (Hlasko's books were made into Polish films a number of times), but the portrait here is of genuine disaffection, very Fifties in its itchiness and memory-hangover of the war years. Overall, then, a good introduction to an interesting writer.

Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1989

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Cane Hill (225 Varick St., New York, NY 10014)

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1989

Categories: FICTION