PROFILE
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instructors. But this serves
only as a framework, he says.
As if to further blur the line
between reality and fiction,
Kosinski described "The Her-
mit of 69th Street" as
"autofiction."
Marked similarities exist
between the author and the
main character, he says. "And
if you want to think it's
Kosinski, then you can say
`Yes, this is Kosinski? But if
you want to think it's all
made up, well, you can think ,
it's all made up."
"The Hermit" took Kosin-
ski six years to complete —
and he loved every minute of
it. "Those years," he says,
"were the best of my life."
There was a certain system
to that pleasure. For like Pro-
ust, who never traveled unac-
companied by his bottle of
Evian. Water, or Nabokov,
who insisted on writing all
his works long hand and stan-
ding up, Kosinski is not
without his idiosyncrasies
when it comes to producing
novels.
He starts at 8 a.m. and
works at his manual type-
writer through noon. He says
he never gets writer's block
and never runs out of ideas.
The time goes so quickly that
he remembers once turning to
look at his watch believing it
would be about 9:15 a.m., and
finding it was noon.
And when his emendations
were inadvertantly excluded
from the first printing of "The
Hermit of 69th Street?' Kosin-
ski despaired. They were
small changes, he says, "that
wouldn't matter to anyone
but the writer," and will be
corrected in the second prin-
ting. But realizing that the
corrections were missing in
the first edition "was one of
the few times I was truly
frustrated?'
Like his other books, "The
Hermit" is focused on
characters rather than action,
he says. He compares them to
the work of the Medieval ar-
tist Bosch — "and I'd like to
think that if Bosch had writ-
ten, he would have written
like me. But of course poor
Bosch isn't here to object."
He also describes his
writings as a partnership
with readers. His works are
not didactic, he says, but
rather filled with characters
who encourage the readers to
make their own analyses.
This may leave certain
readers contemplating for
some time when it comes to
the sex in Kosinski's works.
Sex, Kosinski says, "is what
drives my characters to life."
He says that "neither in
practice nor in attitude" are
the sexual scenes in his books
more unusual than anything
that can be found on television
or on soap operas. "It's the
way I look at it, not what I
look at," he says.
"The force of life must be
prompted by something —
hopefully not Mastercard," he
adds. "My characters are pro-
mpted and driven by sex.
That's exactly how I think of
it."
Fiction is Kosinski's only
writing passion, although he
has composed essays — "when
executive duty calls for it,"
such as when he served as
president of the American
Center, of P.E.N., an interna-
tional association of writers
and editors — and wrote the
screenplay for the film version
of "Being There?'
Writing movie scripts is not
something for which Kosinski
expressed unbridled enthusi-
asm. He says working on the
"Being There" screenplay was
like "treading an old path."
And in any case each of his
novels "has a thousand
movies in it," created by the
individual perceptions of the
reader, he says.
The recipient of the Na-
tional Book Award for "Steps"
and the American Academy
and National Institute of Arts
and Letters Award in litera-
ture, Kosinski says he defines
himself not as a writer, but as
a storyteller.
As such, he tries to keep
"the most portable imagina-
tion."
It is an imagination that
flourishes in New York where
Kosinski lives, and was nur-
tured in the fire and the
solemnity of his recent trip to
Poland.
"I went to Poland to regain
the force of life," Kosinski says.
"I think I got it?' ❑
Terror Leader
Seeks PLO Spot
Tel Aviv (JTA) — The ter-
rorist leader responsible for
hijacking the Achille Lauro,
Mohammed Zaidan, also
known as Abul Abbas, is
seeking the Number 2 spot in
the Palestine Liberation
Organization, according to a
report by Avi Benayahu in Al
Hamishmar.
Abbas was leader of the
Palestine Liberation Front
group which seized the
Italian cruise ship in Egyp-
tian waters in October 1985,
and murdered one of its pas-
sengers, an American Jew
named Leon Klinghoffer who
was confined to a wheelchair.
He would like to replace
Khalil al-Wazir, who was
assassinated at his villa in
suburban Tunis by a com-
mando-style hit squad.