Valencia
On the rainiest day, Valencia is the sunniest place in Spain
International
English newspaper about all the good news from Valencia
APAVAC Readers’ Club (December 2014)
The Elephant by Slawomir Mrozek.
In the world as we know it, where freedom of expression is taken for granted, used and abused, it’s difficult to imagine a world where censorship once existed. A world where you looked over your shoulder constantly, where walls had ears. Where, if you were sufficiently outspoken, you obliged yourself to go into exile! It was into such a world that Slawomir Mrozek was born and later fled from, only to return after the fall of the communism he so ridiculed.
Better known as a playwright Mrozek, in The Elephant, demonstrates that he also excels in the genre of the short story. His use of sharp satire to criticise the totalitarian practices of the time, is without bitterness. He writes with a certain detachment, almost as an observer, a bystander watching scenes and describing them. A third-person omniscient narrator.
Yet, there is one extreme aspect or other of this regime ridiculed in each of his tales. The over ambitious official in The Elephant wants his zoo to have more than just rabbits. However, he also wants to show the “powers that be” that a “rubber elephant” could be “cheaper”. The importance of status, both military and political surfaces incessantly.
Why should you make do with a canary when, by virtue of who you are, in this case an influential lawyer, you could have a ” tamed progressive” who sang? He recurrently personifies animals, the cautious lion, the giraffe whose existance is in question, the alcoholic swan, the horses.
I, personally, enjoyed figuring out the issues behind Mrozek’s little stories with all kinds of images forming in my mind’s eye. I do have to admit though, that from time to time, I couldn’t help wondering if I’d have enjoyed it in the quite same way, if I were to have lived through an era such as the one he writes about!
Well…For our next book we meet on the 16th of January 2015. It’s ” English Beauty” by Bob Yareham. It’s a special session, we have Bob Yareham attending! How often is a reading group lucky enough to get to chat with the author himself about his book???
English Beauty will be followed by Buckingham Palace District Six by Richard Rive and Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri.
Have a lovely Christmas and may the New Year bring you and your families health and much happiness!
Take care
Michelle Ann Prabhu
Recent Comments