Krakow Melt by Lambda Award nominee Daniel Allen Cox (Shuck) is an incendiary story about two pyromaniacs who fight homophobia in Krakow, one of the fronts of the Solidarnosc revolution. It's 2005 and Poland's moral crisis escalates as Pope John Paul II approaches death while the country's president makes homophobic declarations. Radek is a bisexual artist convinced that fire is the great stabilizer; he meets Dorota, literature student and budding pyromaniac. Driven by rage and sexual curiosity, they buck Church, government, and the LGBT community to find sexual freedom, escaping their enemies by scaling the crumbling walls and ideas of the city.
Review
The setting of "Krakow Melt" the newest gay fiction from Daniel Allen Cox - author of Shuck - is war torn and history laden Krakow, Poland. In 2010, 20,000 people marched in the streets of Poland in “Eastern Europe’s largest ever gay rights demonstration.” Mr. Cox - who lives where same sex marriage is legal, in Montreal, Canada- by placing his story in Krakow, proves that where there is history there is conflict, where there is conflict story and in this case, where there is smoke, there is most definitely fire. This is why his novel is so searing and powerful, so stylishly atmospheric, and most of all so relevant. He recognizes Poland's current place in what has become a global gay movement. The lessons to be learned, the context in which we learn them, the notion of battles yet to be fought- all seem to resound here in Krakow because of its redolent history. For like the USA, Krakow, in spite of itself, ready or not, continues to evolve in the sphere of gay global awareness and global gay rights. In Krakow, with “Krakow Melt”- in this era of mass media, the internet and youtube – Daniel Allen Cox has found what I believe to be a story for the ages.
In fact one might categorize "Krakow Melt" as a contemporary historical gay novel, because it takes place in the not so distant past, in the year 2005, before a backdrop of political and spiritual attack on the Krakow gay community.
The story centers on the relationship between two outcasts named Radek and Dorota who are labeled as deviant and degenerate by the likes of Pope John Paul II and the polish Prime Minister. It is the very fact that they are outcasts or "invisible", which draws the two together and feeds their mutual attraction. For both are mad as hell and unwilling to take it anymore. And since the church and government are against them, they are against the church and government.
Who are they actually? One is the gay performance/visual artist Radek Tomaszewski: strikingly handsome 25 year-old Elvis look-alike. The other, his like-mindedly free spirited friend and accomplice the beautiful Dorota: an open-mindedly straight female literature student. As we experience the interaction of these two brilliantly iconoclastic individuals, both with each other and within the city of Krakow, we gain some understanding of how difficult and challenging it is to survive in a deeply conservative predominantly Roman Catholic environment, when what you have is deemed an alternative "life style".
But these two are anything but cowards, and Radek especially has a number of no-nonsense ways of rising to the challenge. First, for example, he refuses to see himself as invisible - though most of Krakow appears to do so - by insisting on standing up for himself, whenever he gets the chance . Also he is a faithful practitioner of what he calls the fine "discipline not sport" of parkour. This enables him to conquer if not the hearts and minds of Krakows's Roman Catholic majority, at least the landscape of their city, and in doing so he makes it his own.
For when the anti-gay pope is on his deathbed, and religious fervor is so dangerously at fever pitch that even the prime minister is badmouthing the gay pride parade and inciting violence against gays, one may need to get away fast. Especially if one is being chased by skinheads and other angry wasps. Yes, at times like these, Radek needs to gain the most ground possible in the shortest time possible just to stay alive. Therefore, he sprints and vaults sliding against human and inanimate objects. All this is “parkour”: Getting from points “k to z” as quickly and efficiently as possible.
While parkour enables him to physically survive, it is his connection to his art that offers him his greatest sustenance. This is where he thrives.
Radek, whose professional name is S. Mok Walwewski ( where there's S. Mok there's fire) creates miniature artifacts of cities that were famously decimated by fire. Then before live and paying art gallery audiences, he sets his mini-recreations ablaze. Why does he do this? Well, you see Radek sees fire as the great equalizer. He’s felt this way ever since his family home burned down when he was a boy. To Radek, “The only way to grow is to lose what’s precious. Fire… forces us to be better next time. It wheedles out the weakest elements in societies we build.”
Furthermore he says , “ One has to destroy to create"..."Someone has to flick the lighter light the match, match the fire's intensity with his own will to keep it going. It's an act of violence sure, but also of creation". For Radek fire serves as regeneration. After a fire he can build from the ashes and create new life or perhaps a new world view. Dorota says, “Fire is passion. The voice of passion is better than the voice of reason. The passionless cannot change history....”And make no mistake, Radek and Dorota like all good gays , want to change history.
To label S. Mok/Radek and Dorota (who fans his flames so to speak), Pink Floyd- loving pyromaniacs is to miss the point. To Radek himself, his fires are strictly regenerative. They lead to both social and spiritual rebirth. Therefore they are useful; therefore they are necessary.
Listen, This book is very dynamic and deliciously eccentric. At times graphically violent and sexually, Hot. Hot. Hot. At other times warm, funny, reflective, almost serene. It's whimsical but never for the sake of being flashy. The characters are well thought out and developed and very, very sexy.
Have I said enough? I think of the book review as an adjunct to the book's synopsis. I don't want to be telling you every in and out of the story. I'm more concerned with how the author develops his story and if it pays off. In this case, I can assure you it has.
P.S. On the very last page underneath the author's stunning photograph, in the very last line of the obligatory author's blurb, we learn that (gasp) the author's "home burned down in 2007". If this is true and not merely a shameless publicity stunt- If his tragedy was indeed the inspiration for this wonderful book, I would say that Mr. Cox's loss has most certainly been our gain. Thanks for a great read Daniel Allen Cox. I'm sorry for your loss, but I'm glad your house burned down. After all, Fires are regenerative.
Cox, Daniel Allen. "Krakow Melt", Arsenal Pulp Press, 2010.
Another Winner from Cox
Amos Lassen
A couple of years ago we had never heard of Daniel Allen Cox and then he made a splash in the literary pool with his outstanding novel, "Shuck". I wondered how he would follow that but he has and he has done so brilliantly with "Krakow Melt". This time he gets political and has written an indictment of the homophobia of Poland after the rise of the Solidarity movement. Beginning in 2005 when Poland was finally admitted to the European Union, we meet Radek who is bisexual who believes that fire is the great stabilizer and seeks a way to use what he believes. He soon meets a literature student,a female, Dorota, who is a pyromaniac. The two are both full of anger and repressed sexuality and their meeting has strange consequences. They are also sexually curious about each other and this drives them to be even closer. Together they find secret meanings in the lyrics of Pink Floyd and as a two person team they go against the church, the government of Poland and the existing gay community so that they can find what they consider to be sexual freedom and they, of course, make enemies along the way but they manage to avoid them by climbing the walls of the city.
I became a fan of Cox's with his first book and "Krakow Melt" cements my opinion of his vibrant new voice. He seems to have no regard for the boundaries of what is considered formal writing and he takes us with him to Poland in this book. (Of course, it helps that he, indeed, spent time there and thereby can write about Poland with some authority). The story that he gives us is a tale of courage and struggle, of defeat and freedom and is loaded with Cox's wit and excellent prose style. As I read I felt as if I was there in Poland among those who had lost hope and given up the quest and if there is one thing that permeates the pages, it is love.
This, I suppose, is a somewhat strange book that dares us to read it...and when you do you will have an experience like none you have had before.
Here in the United States, we have reached a point in our quest for liberation that is appears that activism has died. Even with the debate over gay marriage, we do not see what we used to see in the days of Queer Nation and Act Up. Cox shows us activism by touching topics that many would consider out of reach--the Pope, Polish solidarity, homophobia of a degree that we have been lucky enough not to know. Many of us cannot conceive of gays fighting homophobia in place like Poland. Cox does not shy from attacking Poland and it doing so, he attacks homophobia worldwide. Here is a look at the struggle for freedom in a place where we would not think that it would occur. I have no doubt that this book will end up on list of bests this year. I can only hope that Cox is already working on something else because I have a strong feeling that he is destined to be a major voice of gay literature.
