Danilo Kis

It's not every day that I'm impressed -- I mean truly impressed -- by a collection of short stories. But that was most certainly the case with The Encyclopedia of the Dead, Danilo Kis's mesmerizing tales of European history, philosophy, and religion. 

I'd read Kis's A Tomb for Boris Davidovich -- which was good; Encyclopedia, though, is in a league of its own. The collection really is a triumph. These are just my sort of stories: subtle, erudite, and focused on the past. 

In the title story -- "The Encyclopedia of the Dead" -- Kis wrestles with the nature of history and historical writing: which events, he wonders, are worthy of narration, and which can be set aside? How many details are necessary before a history becomes overloaded with the mundane? I found these questions to be relevant to our own lives: which details, for instance, do we include when describing our days and which do we knowingly ignore? That decision is part of the historical process, but it is equally part of our own. 

"To Die for One's Country is Glorious" makes a similar attempt to probe historical analysis: who writes history and after how long -- how many years -- does their narrative assume a sense of truth? Further, asks Kis, how do we know when we've properly identified motivation in history? How many revisions will it take for us to get this right? Profound questions lurk at every turn. 

Finally, there's "The Book of Kings and Fools" which must be the most successful story of the collection. Here, Kis imagines the history of a book (one similar in content and consequence to the Elders of Zion). This story is as good as it gets: Kis focuses on the transformation of texts over time. Its a testament to Kis's success that the story he weaves sounds and feels plausible: the names Kis invents, the tales he develops are endowed with a sense not only of the plausible, but of the real. For those interested in the evolution of texts -- and the abuses committed in their name -- let me strongly suggest "The Book of Kings and Fools." This was something of a revelation. 

Out of respect, the last word is reserved for Kis:

"The corrupt cannot imagine people different from themselves; they can only imagine people who have succeeded in hiding their true natures."