Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass
Review of the collection of short stories by Bruno Shulz
The same crazy father, the same dreamlike consciousness (which he dubs “semireal”), but not as striking and memorable as his other book of short stories — Street of Crocodiles.
Isolated extraordinary lines such as:
“Likewise, when we sleep, severed from the world, straying into deep introversion, on a return journey into ourselves, we can see clearly through our closed eyelids, because thoughts are kindled in us by internal tapers and smolder erratically.” p. 42
“It was the color of a cloudy summer dusk in our part of the country, when the landscape has become saturated with water after a long period of rain and exudes a feeling of self-denial, a resigned and ultimate numbness that does not see the consolation of color.” p. 114
“The problem is the quick decomposition of time no longer watched with incessant vigilance.” p. 127
