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the complete review - fiction

His Current Woman

by
Jerzy Pilch

general information | review summaries | our review | links | about the author

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Our Assessment:

B+ : light, enjoyable comedy of manners

See our review for fuller assessment.

  From the Reviews:

• "But what constitutes plot (...) is more the first inning of a misguided and involuntary game of self-discovery than a scenario of absurdity to create humor for humor’s sake. (...) But this novel is hardly misadventure. Misadventure bespeaks a comedy of coincidence, of random events that spiral on their own. Control, in this novel, is always apparent (...) That this novel is truly hilarious at times is just a bonus." - Brian Budzynski, Review of Contemporary Fiction
  
  
• "The entire work combines a dreamlike quality reminiscent of Franz Kafka with a slapstick comedy closer to Jaroslav Hasek. (...) However, the ultimate reason for His Current Woman is difficult to discern. The book might be a stylistic exercise, a satire on deception, an investigation of postcommunist society, or a look at gender and generational relationships. Unfortunately, as long as the overarching message is unclear, the several witty aspects of the novel hardly hold together." - Norbert Schurer, World Literature Today

Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.

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The complete review's Review:

       His Current Woman begins with veterinarian Pawel Kohoutek looking out the window of his country home and seeing "his current woman" -- the latest of his many big-city conquests -- walking across his lawn. She's come with all her belongings, determined to make real the fantasies Kohoutek spun out for her, a life together in his beloved Cieszyn region. Setting out a vision of their lives together "was the key to his successes" with the ladies, but this was the first time one had acted on them.
       Given that Kohoutek lives with his extended family -- which still includes a wife and child -- his current woman's appearance is more than a minor inconvenience. But Kohoutek heads her off, establishes her (i.e. hides her away) in the attic of the slaughterhouse on the property, and hopes for the best. Needless to say, it's not a situation likely to go well.
       Given the household, it's not that surprising that Kohoutek seeks escape, whether in women or his imagination. From his child -- barely a presence, and inevitably described as "doleful" -- to the retired pastor given to spontaneous sermons, it's a domestic arrangement that's somewhere between oppressive and absurd. The pressure of trying to keep his mistress out of sight, and of keeping her under control, also gets to Kohoutek, and leads him to ponder how he got himself in this position.
       He recognises the problem as a general one in his life, one that has merely now merely come to a head. Unable to focus entirely on the overwhelming task at hand, he daydreams of his youth, recalls family stories (including "the unbelievable story of his great-grandfather's funeral", one of several hilarious bit-pieces in the book), and talks at length with his dying mentor, Dr. Oyermah.
       Set early on a course to become a veterinarian, with "the mythical Book of childhood" being, in his case, a Stalinist-era Soviet veterinary encyclopaedia -- a book of fascinating horrors, but one that left such an impression that Kohoutek still uses Russian terminology instead of the common Polish (and Latin) -- Kohoutek has also never escaped from under the terrifying watchful eyes of his mother and grand-mother. His wife easily diagnoses him:

(Y)ou're still a little boy and the reason for all your troubles is that you're still living like a little boy in the world of prohibitions. I'm referring, of course, to the issue of carnal tribulations that is so fundamental for you. As far back as you can remember, you lived under an absolute taboo on carnality.

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Links:

• Northwestern University Press publicity page

• Basso Profundo
• Freitag (German)
• literaria (German)
• Publishers Weekly

• Jerzy Pilch at Polish Culture

• The Mighty Angel
• My First Suicide
• A Thousand Peaceful Cities

• See Index of Eastern European literature
• Other books from Northwestern University Press - Writings from an Unbound Europe under review

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About the Author:

       Polish author Jerzy Pilch was born in 1952.

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