Biography
Being There was written by Jerzy Kosiński, a Polish-American writer who was born on June 14, 1993 and passed away on May 3, 1991. He was born Józef, yet he had to change his identity during World War II as his parents were Jewish. His family survived through assistance of people in his local village, something that was illegal and punished by death to the whole family.
He went on to study History and Sociology at the University of Lodz after the war, achieving graduate degrees in both areas while only being 22 years old. In 1957 he emigrated to America, where he worked in diverse occupations until graduating from Columbia University. Eight years later he became an American citizen, and five years after that he had already received acknowledgements from the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Ford Foundation and the American Academy of Arts and Letters award for literature.
In his late fifties he was suffering from a number of ailments. Furthermore, he had much pressure from the media who claimed that he was plagiarizing his works. This led him to commit suicide, saying that he would be putting himself to sleep for eternity.
Summary
Arguably, Jerzy Kosinski’s most popular novel was Being There, especially due to the movie starring Peter Sellers that was released soon afterwards. The story revolves around Chance, a very simple gardener who becomes a very important political and economic figure in the United States of America in spite of his lack of any exceptional attributes. He is completely shrouded in mystery, as people do not know his origins and do not really understand what he is saying, yet he reaches the top anyways due to the public inserting their own meaning into what he is saying.
Chance grew up with only the television set, being completely isolated otherwise, leading this to be his primary influence. When his boss dies, he must leave the house where he has lived and worked for many decades. The novel indicates that he has no qualities that would differentiate him from anybody else, much less a person of such humble origins and occupation. Nevertheless, a car accident leads to him being virtually adopted by an important businessman, Benjamin Rand, and his wife, Eve. Beyond this, people know very little about the man, and attempts to discover his background lead nowhere.
Interestingly, his rise to fame is due to people misinterpreting what he says. Even though he is giving simple and straight-forward advice about gardening, which had been his occupation for the majority of his life, people believe that he is actually talking about American politics, something that he knows very little about. However, people’s misconceptions about this rather plain man lead him to even become the policy adviser to the president. Finally, after Benjamin Rand dies, Eve makes plans to marry Chance, much to his bewilderment, yet leaving him the heir of this wealthy tycoon.
Reviews
The main comment with respect to Kosinki’s Being There upon its release was that it was a copy of Tadeusz Dolega-Mostowicz’ Kariera Nikodema Dyzmy, a Polish novel that was very popular during the interwar years. This was not the only time claims of plagiarism plagued him, as he was also accused of this for his debut novel, The Painted Bird, about six years before. Furthermore, Geoffrey Stokes and Eliot Fremont-Smith would accuse him in a Village Voice article would accuse Kosinki of not having written Being There at all, but having others write it for him, or perhaps translating it from Polish (Park Sloan).
Nevertheless, it has become a well-respected novel, one that many people call a classic. This helped cement Kosinki’s status as one of America’s foremost writers, despite the controversy that ensued. Furthermore, it became a best seller and is currently studied in many universities.
Some critics heralded it as a postmodern masterpiece. In it, an everyman becomes a superstar, ridiculing societal norms and standards. Furthermore, it turns the reader into an active one by only supplying some information, forcing the reader to imagine the rest, as Welch D. Everman believes. Kosinki almost turns the reader into a character in his novel, as he or she is also left wondering where Chance came from and how he got to be who he is.
Furthermore, although not a Heideggerian novel, the author was influenced by the German philosopher, which clearly shows in many of the themes. This is especially true of its existentialist aspects, which critics also hailed. They felt that Chance’s lack of identity and posterior envelopment by culture was a primer study of the effects of society on who people are. This gardener only exists, service as a mirror for the rest of society to place their own ideal existence.
However, there were many people who also decried it as being unsuitable, especially with respect to the rest of his oeuvre. For example, Jack Hicks believes that it is not grand at all, lacking in conception and execution. One of the main elements he criticized was the prose, which he believed to be too simple. Nevertheless, as will be discussed afterwards, this could have been a masterful way for Kosinki to mirror not only Chance, but the culture that he was immersed in as well.
Position with Regards to Critical Consensus
I generally agree with the critical consensus. Even though I did not readily perceive the more philosophical aspects of the text, focusing more on the political and societal ones, I could understand their reading. Overall, I thought this was a very solid novel, even though it did have some flaws.
I am not sure I would regard it as a classic, as I think that there is some gravitas lacking for it to be called that, but I do believe that it is an excellent novel. Being There is generally too light to be compared to other masterpieces. Furthermore, it can be rather clunky in its style, including being very repetitive and not living up to its full potential.
With regards to the alleged plagiarism, I believe that this should not be so big an issue. First, there have been many similar stories across time. Some could even argue that it was copied from one of the greatest tales of all: Jesus Christ. Furthermore, I saw the synopsis of the book that it was supposedly copied from, and there are glaring discrepancies between the two, including the television and isolation, essential elements of Being There.
Analysis of Themes, Writing Style, Point of View and Tone
This book’s strongest aspect is its management of themes. Kosinki provides a powerful societal critique by having somebody raised in isolation with respect to humans be completely adept at handling situations in the real world. His not every having contact with his employer, the Old Man, is also very interesting, as it not only separates Chance from the beginning, but also provides foreshadowing with respect to the depersonalization that can happen in the wealthier classes. Even when he does get to integrate himself in society, it would seem that he is still watching television due to the superficiality and self-absorption of the people around him. Media culture as a whole is taken on to be something negative, as people are living lives other than their own, slowly becoming very vacuous. Finally, one could interpret meaning and its creation to also be under attack, as people seem to constantly read into Chance whatever they want to, not what he is actually intending.
I actually thought it was a very delightful tale, and very well-written, yet it was a missed opportunity as a whole. The sentences are frequently short and crisp, mirroring Chance’s character. Nevertheless, it did get a little monotonous, especially with regards to him saying something and people understanding something else. Furthermore, the Biblical symbolism was not explored and developed, even though he was legally expelled from a garden, was set up to marry somebody named Eve and regularly was taken to speak in an allegorical way, even though this was not his intention.
The omniscient third person point of view was perfect. It allowed the reader to see everything that was happening, yet also be aware of Chance’s true, simpler intentions. It also allows the audience to see the way other characters perceive Chance, something that is also significant. Furthermore, it allowed the reader to form part of not knowing where this gardener actually came from, something that might have been more unavoidable with a first person narration.
The light tone made the story more manageable, and there were some outright funny moments at times. It is very interesting to see how art can handle such complex and dramatic themes in a comic way, yet still revealing their essence. Nevertheless, this coy tone also becomes weary, as the book is basically just one idea repeated incessantly. Therefore, the first times it is very cute, yet becomes fastidious by the end.
Historical Sources and Current Events (193)
One could argue that the greatest historical source that Konsinski used was his own horrible story through World War II. As one can read above, he had to hide his identity completely in order not to be sent to the concentration camps, becoming a Catholic and changing his name. Furthermore, he went to the United States with very little fame, also being a virtual nobody.
In contemporary times, one can see the rise to fame of many people that are not too intelligent. This is obviously true for such socialites as Paris Hilton, the Kardashians and Nicole Richie. These people have become famous, not because of their intelligence and skill, but, arguably, for being deeply ignorant.
Nevertheless, the novel more closely mirrors the rise of Sarah Palin, who was the vice presidential nominee a couple of elections ago. She came from a very sparsely populated place, being the governor of Alaska, and rose to fame and political status despite demonstrating a lack of knowledge of what it takes to be a statesman in such an important country. Therefore, one could definitely find parallels between current events and those in Being There. In this sense, I do believe that it could be considered a classic, as it gave such a precise and truthful depiction of society that one can still see it today.
Recommendation
Being There is an excellent book that I would not necessarily recommend to everybody. Even though I enjoyed reading it, I have been enthralled by many other books in a greater manner. After a while, it gets repetitive and tiresome, something that should not happen in a book as short as this one.
However, I would surely not read it again. After a while, it got repetitive and boring; in fact, it took me double the time to read the second half with respect to the first one. At the end, I was just wishing for it to end.
It was not a waste of time, but I would recommend that somebody else read another book instead of this one. I have read many other novels that I thought were handled in a much better way. Even though the tone and ideas in the novel are very fresh and crisp, it would be more worthwhile to read something else, even for those people interested in existentialism, politics and media culture.
Works Cited
Everman, Welch D. Jerzy Kosinski: The Literature of Violation. San Bernardino CA: Borgo P, 1991.
Hicks, Jack. In the Singer's Temple. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1981
Park Sloan, James. Jerzy Kosinski: A Biography. New York, Dutton: 1971.
