Wise Dawidek
Weiser Dawidek is a novel by the Polish writer Paweł Huelle . The original edition was published in 1987. The action takes place in Gdansk in the post-war period. In 2001 a film was released based on the novel, see Weiser (film) .
history
Dawidek Weiser is a Jewish boy. Suddenly, he is the fascinating person for a whole school for one summer , or at least for the narrator. Weiser floats in the air in religious meditation, triggers explosions he designed himself, can tame the lion in the zoo and is a gifted football player. Years after his mysterious disappearance after an explosion caused by Weiser, the narrator goes in search of him and tries to fathom his personality in his own reflections on this time - the 1950s - and in conversations with other acquaintances at the time and his girlfriend. This task seems too big for the narrator, and apparently he cannot unravel Weiser's secret. In place of the “truth” about Weiser, the colored picture of Gdańsk at this time appears as it appears from the perspective of a twelve-year-old student: bathing places on rivers, the natural surroundings, the everyday life of a Polish family and, on the fringes, also political scenes.
Reviews
The review highlighted the new thing about Huelle's novel, the relationship to the German in Gdansk, which was not noticed in Poland for a long time after 1945: “The German Gdansk is discovered for the first time in a Polish novel. Huelle's main character introduces his friends to the “secret topography of the city”, conjures up strange-sounding German streets and shows the houses of famous Gdańsk residents. The association with Günter Grass ' Danzig trilogy is intentional. "
expenditure
- Who Was David Weiser? Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7475-0882-3