An Advertisement for Toothpaste

A short book from the Penguin Modern collection, it consists of four short reportage pieces from Kapuscinski, taken from his book Nobody Leaves. Kapuscinski spent time in the 1960s in his native Poland, which was post-Stalin, but still communist.

The four stories presented here are -

The title story, An Advertisement for Toothpaste - in which “the reporter” visits a village dance and watches the dynamic of the youths - “There are fifteen girls in the village and only four boys.”

Danka which reports the aftermath of village women attacking an attractive girl. We learn who she is, and why she was in the village, living in the Sextons cottage with a sculptor, at the suggestion of Father Michal.

The Taking of Elzbieta - the story of Elzbieta, whose parents scrimped and saved to educate her to become a teacher, and why she gave it away, turned to God and became a nun.

The Stiff - in which “the reporter” become a pall bearer for a man who dies in the mines, and must be repatriated to his village by other miners.

Its unclear how good a selection these were from the original book. They are all slightly odd, and perhaps they were the ‘odd' stories from the book, or perhaps they were selected around a theme of the choices people make. They were entertaining, in the short term way a short story is.

3.5 stars, rounded down.