Gems Are Still Possible. On Waldemar Borzestowski’s “The Night Fruit Seller”

Abstract

This article discusses the debut collection of short stories by the Gdańsk-based author Waldemar Borzestowski (born 1964), Nocny sprzedawca owoców (The Night Fruit Seller), published in 1999, or more broadly at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. The collection deserves attention and extraction from the vast wave of literary production of recent decades, especially as both its themes and its original poetics clearly distinguish it from other works written in a similar period. While the majority of Polish prose writers focus on a realist or grotesque portrayal of ordinary, grey everyday life, exposing unattractive relics of the PRL era or various shortcomings of contemporary democracy, Waldemar Borzestowski creates a protagonist capable of “looking into the world and beyond.” His protagonist, deeply rooted in Jewish culture, draws on the history of his immediate family, his nation, and above all the Bible. Thanks to this rich background of experience, he is not a one-dimensional figure; he feels a close bond with God, which allows him to perceive life, the world, and other people primarily as a gift, and to see beauty and higher meaning even in ordinary daily activity. In many cases, this activity is transformed into a near-biblical action, recalling the eternity awaiting human beings. Also noteworthy is the author’s original, vivid language, which turns his writing into poetic prose.