Magdalena Tulli

If you're up for a very eerie reading experience, I can absolutely recommend this book: it's short, but offers an inimitable chain of reflections on what the essence of a city is. The Polish Magdalena Tulli (°1955) is a biologist by training and profession, but started publishing poems and prose at a late age. This book was her prose debut, in 1995. I'm not the first to say it, but the link with Bruno Schultz's surrealist tales is very obvious. And of course the Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino also come into the picture, which inevitably gives Tulli the label postmodern. But I would like to add another reference: the phenomenal graphic series Les Cités Obscures by the Belgians François Schuiten and Benoit Peeters, in which they bring the most bizarre cities to life in both drawings and texts. It seems as if Tulli has extracted some of her texts from the work of Schuiten and Peeters. In any case: this book certainly is extraordinary, with surreal associations and contrasting effects, set in a philosophical tone with occasionally fantastic passages, but often also sought-after effects. This will certainly put off many readers, but Tulli at least manages to illustrate perfectly how cities are each in themseleves a microcosm, anchored in the real world as well as in the imaginary.… (mer)

Initially published in 1995 and a winner of the Polish Koscielski Foundation Prize, Dreams and Stones is a work built of stone and metaphor. Abstaining from conventional narrative structure, Tulli's Dreams has been categorized as simply a "novel" by author, the ambiguous "prose-poem" by translator Bill Johnston, and the often gone to "postmodern" by many a critic. The craving of categorical summations aside, it is the story of a great city rebuilt. In myth and metaphor, with Tree and Machine, Tulli offers up the burgeoning fruit of an ideal and captivates one within its evanescent existence, its life cycle.

When I first read the synopsis for Tulli's Dreams and Stones it precipitated both a keen interest in the book and a wariness that it might not live up to the extravagant praise decorating its back cover. I have to admit to ignorance concerning Bruno Schulz; as such, the synopsis comparison between his work and Tulli's fell flat for me. However, having read Tulli's poetic and stirring Dreams it is an ignorance I plan to correct as soon as possible.

Dreams and Stones is the risen cream, a compendious reduction in which its prose and Tulli's use of metaphor is thickened and intensified so that each word, each taste, is easily savored. Though a short read, Dreams offers up relatable imagery that conjures rich reflection on the worth of an ideal and its reality, the build and lifespan of society, and the interplay between humanity and the world that sheathes it.

Prior to starting, I saw this as a quick read. It ended up being better experienced in short bursts which allowed me to sit with the material a bit and relish it. Tulli's prose has a beautiful energy to it and it carries great philosophical weight. Both offer up satisfying depths to bask in and reading it in bursts was a perfect opportunity to prolong it.

Bill Johnston's translation of this work seems to be strong, authentic, and satisfying. While this will inevitably be added to my Read in its Original Language pile, as well as my To Be Reread (many times) mountain, I enjoyed Johnston's version immensely. There is this fulfilling sensation to be had from authentic translations that seem to really connect with an author's energy and context such as in Robert Pinsky's translation of Dante's Inferno, a lasting favorite translation of mine. I felt that essence with this translation as well.

I'd like to thank NetGalley and Archipelago for the opportunity to read this book.


… (mer)