Search SFE    Search EoF

  Omit cross-reference entries  

Kandel, Michael

Entry updated 18 September 2023. Tagged: Author.

Icon made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com

pic

(1941-    ) US book editor, translator and author, best known until the late 1980s for his brilliant translations from the Polish of works by Stanisław Lem, among them a pyrotechnic rendering of the novella "Kongres Futurologiczny" (1971 Poland) as The Futurological Congress (1974), many of whose wordplays as translated here being of necessity Kandel's own coinings. The Cosmic Carnival of Stanisław Lem (coll 1981), which Kandel assembled, contains excerpts from previously translated novels plus some stories. A further important translation is of Marek S Huberath's Gniazdo światów (1999) as Nest of Worlds (2014 ebook).

Kandel's own novels seem to reflect – in the seemingly sideways (but in fact confrontational) impact of his Satirical gaze – a deep immersion in the Eastern European tradition, as well as the influence of Philip K Dick. Strange Invasion (1989) describes, with dissecting humour, an alien tourist invasion of Earth. In Between Dragons (1990) subjects a fantasy-game-like universe to an equally wry analysis. Captain Jack Zodiac (1991), in a fashion reminiscent of the way Post-Holocaust traumas were surreally ignored in The Bed-Sitting Room, exposes its zany cast to a USA gone terminally insane after the Bomb has been dropped. In Panda Ray (1996), the dilemma of a young Alien – he is to be punished for having revealed the fact that he is capable of Time Travel – is resolved in a Fantastic Voyage that takes him on a tour of an exaggerated cosmos. [JC/DRL]

Michael A Kandel

born Baltimore, Maryland: 24 December 1941

works

works as editor/translator

  • A Polish Book of Monsters (New York: Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in America (PIASA) Books, 2010) [anth: translated by Michael Kandel: pb/]

works as translator

  • Marek S Huberath. Nest of Worlds (New York: Restless Books, 2014) [ebook: trans of Gniazdo światów (1999): na/]
  • Stanisław Lem. Memoirs Found in a Bathtub (New York: Seabury Press, 1973) [trans with Christine Rose of Pamiȩtnik znaleziony w wannie (1961): hb/]
  • Stanisław Lem. The Cyberiad: Fables for the Cybernetic Age (New York: Seabury Press, 1974) [coll: trans of Cyberiada (coll 1965): hb/Daniel Mroz]
  • Stanisław Lem. The Futurological Congress: From the Memoirs of Ijon Tichy (New York: Seabury Press, 1974) [trans of "Ze Wspomnień Ijona Tichego: Kongres futurologiczny" in Bezsenność (coll 1971): Ijon Tichy: hb/from Paul Klee]
  • Stanisław Lem. The Star Diaries (New York: Seabury Press, 1976) [coll: trans of stories from Dzienniki Gwiazdowe (coll 1957) and from later editions: Ijon Tichy: hb/]
  • Stanisław Lem. Mortal Engines (New York: Seabury Press, 1977) [coll: trans of 11 stories from Bajki robotów (coll 1964), plus stories from Maska (coll 1976): hb/from Max Ernst]
    • Stanisław Lem. The Three Electroknights (London: Penguin Modern, 2018) [coll: chap: trans of 4 stories from the above: pb/nonpictorial]
  • Stanisław Lem. A Perfect Vacuum (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978) [trans of Doskonala próżnia (1971): hb/Milton Glaser]
  • Stanisław Lem. The Cosmic Carnival of Stanisław Lem (New York: Continuum Publishing, 1981) [coll: trans of stories from several sources: hb/]
  • Stanisław Lem. His Master's Voice (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983) [trans of Głos pana (1968): hb/from René Magritte]
  • Stanisław Lem. Fiasco (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1987) [trans of Fiasko (1985): hb/John Alfred Dorn III]
  • Stanisław Lem. Peace on Earth (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1994) [trans with Elinor Ford of Pokoj na Ziemi (1986): hb/]

links

previous versions of this entry



x
This website uses cookies.  More information here. Accept Cookies