Has anyone ever read The Painted Bird ?

Question

Who wrote it?

Answer 1

The Painted Bird (novel)

The Painted Bird is a controversial 1965 novel by Jerzy Kosiński which describes the world as seen by a young black-haired, black-eyed boy who wanders about small towns scattered around Central or Eastern Europe (presumably Poland) during World War II.

Background

It was at first widely assumed that Kosiński was writing an autobiography, on the basis of Kosiński's claims. Elie Wiesel acclaimed the book as "one of the best indictments of the Nazi era, written with deep sincerity and sensitivity." Cynthia Ozick stated she immediately recognized Kosiński's authenticity as "a Jewish survivor and witness to the Holocaust." However it later became clear that Kosiński was neither the boy in the story nor did he share any of the boy's experiences, in a series of exposes in newspapers and books. It is also believed that Kosiński was not the author of the book, using several editors to rewrite passages, as at the time of its writing he had very little fluent knowledge of English. Furthermore, it has been speculated that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency was involved in the publication of the book.

Themes

The book describes the boy's encounter with peasants engaged in all forms of sexual and social deviance such as incest, bestiality and rape, and in a huge amount of violence – often at the expense of the child. While the book has been said to depict peasants in a derogatory fashion, some argue that it was not a particular social group, but all people, who are viewed as inherently predisposed to cruelty.

The title is drawn from an analogy to human life, described within the book. The boy finds himself in the company of a professional bird catcher. When the man is particularly upset or bored, he takes one of his captured birds and paints it several colors. Then he watches the bird fly through the air in search of a flock of its kin. When it comes upon them, they see it as an intruder and tear at the bird until it dies, falling from the sky.

Criticism

Some argue that the novel has contributed to false impressions of East European peasants. To others, the purpose of the book, from a deontological standpoint, was not to depict the cruelty of one group of people but to show the nature of all humanity, and of all existence, to be cruel.

Nevertheless, the book deeply offended the members of the Polish farming family who had risked their lives to save Kosiński during the Holocaust. (For real stories about such people, see the article about the Polish village of Markowa).

Answer 2

elie wiesel?. if so, yes, but many years ago. and, though i forget the plot, i certainly have not forgotton the general theme and the overall impression the book left upon me. definitely not light reading, but a very important, and well written book. you will come away from it, especially if you are young, with some new topics and issues to ponder. that's for sure. ;-)

Answer 3

yes read it but borrowed it from the library years ago and i cant remember who wrote it but it was a gr8 book

Answer 4

sorry I'm not familiar with that one.