The story of a writer who never wrote a book, but was happy to put his signature under the work of others. He seduced married women only, but always the most influential ones. He elevated the game of appearances to an art, and turned insincerity and vileness into a life philosophy. A.Z. is a mutation of Nikodem Dyzma and Citizen Piszczyk. The buffoonery of those characters has been replaced with A.Z.'s cynicism. Just one thing remains unchanged and immune to historical transformations - the absurdities of Polish reality, through which the protagonist moved with complete impunity up to the moment when he looked through his windscreen and saw a TIR lorry charging straight at him...
Cały czas / The Whole Time is a caricatured portrait of Polish reality from the 1970's until the present day. It is the first contemporary novel about the 50+ generation, and a head-on collision with the ethos of the hero of our times.
Source of Polish version: www.wydawnictwoliterackie.pl
The book has been nominated for the 2007 Nike Literary Award.
"CAŁY CZAS / THE WHOLE TIME" BY JANUSZ ANDERMAN
[Excerpts from the described book are translations made for the purpose of this article; for the original text go to the
link*Polish version*http://www.culture.pl/pl/culture/artykuly/dz_anderman_caly_czas**]**"Maintaining an air of mystery around oneself and playing the role of a modest person brings more benefits than losses", remarks A.Z., the protagonist of Janusz Anderman's novel.
A.Z. is a writer, or at least is regarded as a writer. The first novel which he stole and published under his own name was a huge success. Later, the trick was to stay on this accidental and undeserved wave as long as possible.
A.Z. is driving from Gdansk to Warsaw in the company of an actress he met by chance - on the coast, he has just rattled off a very lucrative job on the side for the anniversary of Solidarity. Suddenly, he sees a lorry hurtling straight at the car. The fractions of a second that separate him from catastrophe are all he has to run through his entire life of lies in his mind.
A.Z. cared about literary splendour and skilfully constructed his own legend - he got out of being conscripted by spending a few weeks in a mental hospital, then when the authorities wouldn't grant him a passport on the grounds of his fictitious mental illness, he spread rumours that this was obvious political harassment. He treated his signature on the literary community's letter against censorship mainly as a valuable ticket to that community. When he was asked to write a radio drama for Swedish radio, he again stole a few ideas from an old piece by an émigré writer that had been rejected in Poland. Thus, A.Z.'s existence in its entirety was like a pathetic comedy of intentionally provoked errors.
Anderman has managed to paint a great picture of the 1970's and 80's reality, slightly scary, slightly ridiculous and kitschy. Among props that are forgotten today, he invokes U.S. army surplus jackets from the Vietnam war - some tailor or other from Lodz made reproductions of these, the Jowita radio set that was allegedly the best for picking up Radio Free Europe, and Gauloise cigarettes bought at Pewex [foreign currency shops] which made everybody envious.
A.Z.'s life in constant disguise was only possible up to 1989. After that things went downhill for the hero of Cały czas / The Whole Time - nobody knows when former friends disappeared into government offices and ministries, while he seemed to lose his sense of smell, no longer able to tell from where the wind blew. He still pretended, though - after all that was the only thing he did well. Hence, the former star of 1970's young literature tried his hand at advertising, sold scripts of official celebrations to county offices, wrote semi-pornographic columns for women's magazines - again not by himself, but compiling idiotic texts from the hotchpotch offered by other women's magazines.
Cały czas / The Whole Time, and this may well be the most important quality of Janusz Anderman's writing, is a purposely anti-veteran and anti-heroic novel which lashes out at all that is sacred, while A.Z. is a shameless anti-hero - when he was thrown out of university, everyone thought it was because of his indomitable commitment to underground activity, though in fact he was given the boot purely for not studying. Generally speaking, A.Z. was quick to realize what the balance of his losses and gains would be in his circle. At one point he even informed on himself to the regime's newspapers, because "whoever was attacked by name, met with general respect".
What will be left of all this after the crash? "A two-sentence paragraph in the papers, ... unless some other special events throw it into deep shadow".
Author: Marek Radziwon, wiadomosci.gazeta.pl, May 27, 2007 - Polish version