La pornographie
| Author | Witold Gombrowicz |
| Vote | 9/10 |
| Reviewed on | 2020-06-24 |
| Read in | French |
It happens that I go for long stretches of time with just reading regular books, and then one book comes along that breaks all the rules and makes me feel I’m reading great literature again, the one that changes my perspectives. Pornography is one such book.
The title is its first uncanny feature. Gombrowicz tries to clarify what the word pornography means to him, and how he applies his interpretation in the book. I can’t admit I remember the concept. It made perfect sense at the time I read it. And the author does apply it in his tale. What seems to be a trivial1 story set in Poland’s countryside during the German occupation during WWII becomes the theater of unspeakable obscenities. Only they are such in word alone: There’s nothing in the events themselves that has anything to do with perversion or sex. And still it feels like you’re reading the account of some pervert.
You need this shock: Get it and read it.
1Maybe not so much if you consider that someone dies, but that’s not the point of the book.