The Street of Crocodiles and Other Stories

I grew up in a time (1950’s) and place (rural northern Wisconsin) when there was only one television channel—available only in good weather—no internet, and a library not much bigger than an Amtrak roomette.

It was a childhood full of wonder, but with very short horizons. I can’t say I actually read every book in our town’s library, but I came close. Books were my magic carpet to times and places and, more importantly, frames of reference well outside the box I lived in.

How was it that among its several hundred volumes was The Autobiography of a Yogi, by… show more.

Bruno Schulz describes life in his native Drohobych with such fanciful, dreamlike intensity that it seems somehow truer than an objective report.

With his alchemical vocabulary, he infuses an ecstatic, emotional truthfulness into his stories that would be impossible in a work of social realism. For this reason, Schulz was able to accomplish more on one page than most other authors could accomplish in thirty. 

In his stories, his cloth merchant father transforms into different animals according to his moods, casts magic spells onto furniture, and dresses in shining armor to guard against tickling. Also, Schulz’s darkly cartoonish descriptions of… show more.