Poland

How do you think the Polish (former Communist) setting affected the story?

Alcoholism

What did you think of Jerzy's musings about the life of a drunkard? Do you think his version was accurate? Romanticized? Self-absorbed?

"The Mighty Angel"

What did you think of "The Mighty Angel"? Did you like (or not) the postmodernist style? And general observations?

Next pick

"The Mighty Angel" by Jerzy Pilch, a Polish novel about "the alcoholic misadventures of a writer named Jerzy."

The soprano

I don't feel like I ever quite grasped the nature of the relationship between Sonechka and Maria Nikolaevna. Sometimes Sonechka seemed to admire the singer and sometimes to loathe her. Sometimes Maria treated Sonechka like a friend and sometimes like a servant. It was fairly bizarre, considering that they lived together and spent so much time in each other's company. Sonechka wanted to make Maria suffer, but at one point she also wanted to free her by shooting her husband. Any thoughts on this strange dynamic? Or on Sonechka's theory that some people are just imperturbably happy and that their happiness fundamentally sets them apart from others?

Sonechka

What are your thoughts on the first-person narrator in "The Accompanist"? Did you sympathize with her plight in life? Did her reactions to her circumstances seem normal and understandable, or perhaps somewhat pathological?

Miss Tita

What did you think of Miss Tita's character? I was struck when the narrator said it was "impossible to overestimate her simplicity." Were you surprised that she ultimately destroyed the papers she had been helping the narrator to secure?