The less the better – a review of the book “Hycel” by Bartłomiej Kurkowski

The book consists of several stories with significant titles, incl. Pest , Cerberus , Measure , Derailment . Each of the stories presents a different problem, which, however, lies within the general mind of the author – genetic research. As a consequence of the experiments, a new race is created, both humans and animals.

Let’s take a look at the cover

Bartłomiej Kurkowski promises the reader a lot. A defenseless book-alcoholic, faced with a choice: to buy, not to buy, after reading the teaser on the back (red!) Cover of Hycl, he will probably be tempted to spend a few evenings with the heroes of the stories. It all starts with a mysterious epidemic, the consequence of which is the death of all animals (and not only) in the world. Their lack enhances the feeling of loneliness in people. Consequently, they decide to conduct genetic experiments in laboratories. They create creatures that resemble both humans and animals. The author describes this form of genetic research as playing God. Sounds good, doesn’t it? But is it really, as Kurkowski writes, “being human becomes more difficult than being God”?

A game of appearances

The series of stories opens with a quote from George Orwell’s book Animal Farm , “No animal will kill another … [for no reason].” The blurb on the back cover in conjunction with the quoted fragment is a delicate author’s suggestion, as both man and animal are on the same level. Today, many meetings are organized, during which the topic of animal studies is widely discussed. The reader may presume that the book also follows this trend and the story (or stories) told in it will open his eyes to some previously unnoticed issues. The hopes of a defenseless book-alcoholic are vain, if he expects a quasi-scientific talk about the dangers of animal genetic experimentation.

About the text in general

The author adopted the concept of writing short, sometimes very short, single sentences. It is very onerous for the reader for the first few pages (later pages), later other, equally unsatisfactory elements may attract attention. The stories present various approaches to the same topic and perhaps they would be interesting and surprising if not for the number of references to other works of culture. One of the chapters describes a story similar to the one in The Hunger Games – hunting, prey, full control of the situation. Later, another (or maybe the same?) Hero like Max Paynehe wanders the streets and tries to control the situation – there is a gutter, city slang, leashes, weapons. The recipient, reading the subsequent chapters with commitment, unfortunately gets lost in the plot and cannot be sure whether the stories told are linked by something more than the coincidence of the names of the heroes (and this is not always the case. your streets or canals for a purpose only known to them, or without any purpose, as none of the stories stays in the reader’s memory for long).

But why?

There was potential, I guess. It is a pity that the author did not consistently lead his plot, but decided to mix all the concepts and combine them into a relative whole. In addition, the fact that Hycl’s corrector did not notice a few errors may be discouraging , which the watchful eye of a defenseless book-alcoholic will probably catch! Despite the interesting cover by Magdalena Muszyńska and the potentially powerful initial idea, the book is an unsuccessful debut. Almost three hundred pages of single sentences, written a bit by force and to pass the time, is an initiative with no future on the literary market.