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Gombrowicz is a genius. It's nice to see him mentioned since we just had a Borges thread, and the two were the greatest living authors in Argentina for years.

There's a recent translation of Ferdydurke that's supposed to be good. Be careful not to get the earlier translation, which was translated indirectly from a French intermediate and really doesn't have much to do with the original as a result.




Gombrowicz was a genius, indeed, and I cannot recommend his books strongly enough. However, honestly, I think that a good translation of his books is something extremely hard to do, and I am not too sure if possible at all. For me a hugely important aspect of his writings is a creative attitude to the Polish language, he was playing with it (and at times, forgive me, taking a piss of it) like no one else. I just cannot imagine how this can be translated to a different language. But it's not the only aspect of his works and I believe his dramas were successful not only in Poland.




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