How much I was missing the distopic ambiance of the Central-European literature! Jewish refugees after the war are sharing their broken identities and aborted new beginnings as well as memories of forgotten cultures in the Scandinavian neutral city of Stockholm.
A group of Polish Jews, trying more or less successfully to hide their real identity, are following, not without an obvious mark of craziness, varius idols: an absent and incertain father (Bruno Schulz), an unknown manuscript (by the same Bruno Schulz), their origins, their memories. Dislocated souls with conflictual memories, lost countries and past, but not without humour. The author successfully depicted a typical literary ambiance for the Central European sour-sweet sadeness, easy to be found in many real time memories of the post-Shoah first generation of survivals. We were sad, but at the end we went through all!
Ozick dedicated the book to Philip Roth who edited two of Bruno Schulz books: "The street of Crocodiles" and "Sanatorium under the sign of the Hourglass".
A book to read and think about!
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