The good faith of Janusz Drzewucki

From Czesław Miłosz and Zbigniew Herbert to Krzysztof Varga, from Karolina Lanckorońska to Małgorzata Rejmer – these are the paths we'll take as we read the latest book by renowned literary critic Janusz Drzewucki. The third volume of his prose, this time titled "Moments of Certainty," was published by the Szczecin-based FORMA publishing house.

As the author, who has been associated with the monthly "Twórczość" for many years, says, his book is a record of "life in literature." He explains his approach as a critic this way: "I analyzed these books in accordance with my own knowledge and sensitivity, using a method known as art and interpretation, and, moreover, in good faith, whenever I felt that the author of the very book I was poring over here and now didn't want to take anything away from me, but wanted something from me. What? Anything means everything."

In his writing about writing, Janusz Drzewucki doesn't use whimsy, nor does he exploit other authors to prove his various intellectual advantages—he's interested in connecting with the reader, inviting them into his world and showing them: "See, this interested me, captivated me, enriched me. Maybe it will have the same effect on you." He reaches far and wide. He writes about classics (Herbert, Miłosz, Zagajewski), about forgotten distinguished authors (historian Karolina Lanckorońska, Stefania Kossowska, the last editor of the post-war London "Wiadomości"), about non-writers who became writers for a moment (Gustaw Holoubek, publishing an autobiography), and about young, popular authors (Małgorzata Rejmer, who received the Gryfia National Literary Award from "Kurier Szczeciński").

What does he get from the writers discussed, what can we get? Jarosław Marek Rymkiewicz is intriguing as a writer who persistently returns to the theme of existence and non-existence—could there be a more fundamental question?—and who, despite everything, retains within himself the conviction or intuition that "beyond nothingness, there is something else existing, something that does not belong to nothingness." If such things were said by some sentimental, honest man, one might shrug them off, but since a lover of bloodbaths and the king of Polish nihilists admits to them, it must mean something!

Gustaw Holoubek teaches stoicism and gratitude for the gift of life. In Krzysztof Varga, Janusz Drzewucki finds an ally in thinking of writing as the most serious occupation in the world – such an assumption, if consistently maintained, allows one to gain true independence. Małgorzata Rejmer, author of the riveting book about Bucharest, "Dust and Blood," is valued by the Warsaw critic for her sensitivity to paradoxes, for her ability to simultaneously perceive certain phenomena and their opposites.

Many a reader, looking at the title of the book published by FORMA, will undoubtedly ask: "moments of certainty" are a lot or a little? I think Janusz Drzewucki's answer is: it's enough. Enough to preserve a faith—fragile, perpetually threatened, somewhat "otherworldly"—in the meaning of literature and writing about literature. ©℗

Alan SASINOWSKI