The black seasons Book

Memoirs from the second world war. Nobody would dare to negate the great tragedy of Holocaust, but there is an ample documentation in form of journals, memoirs and novels. However, Glowinski has written a piece that is extraordinary because of three reasons. First, it is the perspective of a child. Second, skilful use of language. Third, it deals with the consequences of growing up during the war.

Although the memoirs are written down almost fifty years later, the perspective of the child is maintained. Most of these are flashbacks rather than memories. This is the incompleteness, together with the striking co-exsistence of reality of Warsaw's Jewish ghetto and fantasitcal products of the child's mind, that makes an ever-lasting impression.

Glowinski is a professional interpretor of literature, well aware of words and their functions. Story is told with use of elegant lexems, a number of vivid metaphors and striking sentences.

Memoirs do not stop when the war ends, but we see the consequences. They take a form of a young boy with post-traumatic stress, who learns to live in post-war Poland, affected by anti-Jewish propaganda. Next, we see an adult man who is confronted with his fear and hater when encountering German citizens.