“I am a little like an aspirin relieving congestion.”
After having received the International Editor’s Prize in 1967, Witold Gombrowicz sought to take advantage of his recent fame and of the unique opportunity of these interviews with Dominique de Roux to dissipate the many misunderstandings concerning his work that had accumulated over the years.
Forbidden in his own country, published as an émigré writer with little money, and translated into a mere dozen languages in a chaotic and partial manner, Witold Gombrowicz felt the need to link his work to his life in a coherent and structured manner.
These interviews, which follow the chronological order of Gombrowicz’s life and the publication of his works, are an autobiography as well as a guide to his works. Through this classic sequence of events, Witold Gombrowicz retains all of his acuity, his humor, and his prescience. He assumes his own contradictions, explodes all preconceived theories.
“I consider myself a dedicated realist. One of the main objects of my writing is to cut a path through Unreality to Reality.”