Borowski is among the important but little known writers to have bestowed an almost metaphysical dimension on Auschwitz. Although his oeuvre offers no contribution to the debate on "theology after Auschwitz", it does help the reader to comprehend the unbelievable and the monstrous in the lives and deaths of Homo auschwitziensis, even if only to a limited extent. Borowski's stories are characterized by great precision. He refrains entirely from moral value judgements, and there is not the slightest hint of empathy, making the book's brutal, horrific passages a torture to read. Is this nihilistic indifference, this lack of empathy feigned? Was it the author's provocative literary means of awakening empathy in the reader?
more from Sign and Sight here.
I have not read Borowski and I don't know if I will.
The two most unnerving accounts of Auschwitz I have read are Art Spiegelman's Maus and Primo Levi's Survival in Auschwitz. Both are made all the more poignant by the calm voices reflecting back on unspeakable horrors. For relentless indignities and pain outside the camps, Victor Klemperer's I Will Bear Witness is a remarkable chronicle.
Posted by: Ruchira Paul | Saturday, March 17, 2007 at 11:28 PM