{"product_id":"jerzy-kosinski-passing-by-selected-essays-1960-1991","title":"Jerzy Kosinski  Passing By:   Selected Essays 1960-1991","description":"A collection of essays by the late author of The Painted Bird features pieces about polo and skiing, levitation, the streets of New York, present-day Poland, the Cannes film festival, celebrities, and more.   Please Note there is damage to the front fly page.\r\n\r\n\"Jerzy Kosinski's suicide in 1991 shocked the literary world. A Polish emigre who had survived unspeakable horrors as a child during World War II, Kosinski was a flamboyant figure whose death only added to the aura of mystery that surrounded him.\" \"Passing By is Kosinski's legacy, a collection of writings, never before published in book form, that answers many questions about Kosinski and his work - a revealing and provocative self-portrait by an author whose life was shrouded in enigma.\" \"Kosinski prided himself on his ability to hide - physically - whenever he wanted. Certainly he managed to keep his own persona and even his life something of a mystery, but here he talks about himself, some of his obsessions, and his feelings about places from New York to Poland. The man who emerges has a passion for sport (polo and skiing), a quirky sense of fun (\"Learning to Levitate\"), strong opinions about various locales (the streets of New York, present-day Poland, the Cannes film festival), an idiosyncratic range of acquaintances (meetings with such diverse people as Pope John Paul II, Solzhenitsyn, Warren Beatty, Nobel Prize-winning biologist Jacques Monod), and an abiding love of secrets, conundrums, and fantasies.\" \"But first and foremost - as he demonstrates in \"The Real Author of Jerzy Kosinski's Books,\" and in major essays on his novels The Painted Bird and Steps - Kosinski is a powerful literary artist, a man who will always be remembered for his electrifying works of fiction.\"","brand":"Random House, 1992","offers":[{"title":"Very Good \/ 17f289287b9","offer_id":48068051107991,"sku":"9780679413899-VG-17f289287b9","price":6.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0741\/9002\/8951\/files\/20251115_162014-front-cover.jpg?v=1785059165","url":"https:\/\/thriftreads.co.nz\/products\/jerzy-kosinski-passing-by-selected-essays-1960-1991","provider":"Thrift Reads","version":"1.0","type":"link"}