Amazon.com
In Prague, Arthur Phillips's sparkling, Kundera-flavored debut, five young Americans converge in Budapest in the early 1990s. Most are there by chance, like businessman Charles Gabor, whose parents were Hungarian. But one of them, John Price, has the more novelistic motivation of lost love. He is following his older brother, Scott, intent on achieving an intimacy that Scott, a language teacher and health enthusiast, is just as intently trying to escape. The romantic hero of this unsentimental novel, John Price lives like an expatriate of the 1920s. He longs for experience (and more or less stumbles into a writing job for an English language paper), but even more so for the great, obliterating love that takes the form of the perky assistant Emily Oliver. Mark Payton, a scholar of nostalgia whose insights are touched with mysticism, seems often to speak for the author, even in his barely repressed desire for John Price. For who would not love the good and unaffected, in the confusion, opportunism, and irony that characterize fin-de-siècle Europe? Phillips's five seekers are like mirrors that reflect Budapest at different angles, and that imperfectly--but wonderfully--point toward the unattainable city: the glittering, distant Prague. --Regina Marler
Book Description
A novel of startling scope and ambition,
Prague depicts an intentionally lost Lost Generation as it follows five American expats who come to Budapest in the early 1990s to seek their fortune. They harbor the vague suspicion that their counterparts in Prague have it better, but still they hope to find adventure, inspiration, a gold rush, or history in the making.
Download Description
A first novel of startling scope and ambition, Prague depicts an intentionally lost Lost Generation as it follows five American expats who come to Budapest in the early 1990s to seek their fortune -- financial, romantic, and spiritual -- in an exotic city newly opened to the West. They harbor the vague suspicion that their counterparts in Prague, where the atmospheric decay of post-Cold War Europe is even more cinematically perfect, have it better. Still, they hope to find adventure, inspiration, a gold rush, or history in the making. What they actually find is a deceptively beautiful place that they often fail to understand.
What does it mean to fret about your fledgling career when the man across the table was tortured by two different regimes? How does your short, uneventful life compare to the lives of those who actually resisted, fought, and died? What does your angst mean in a city still pocked with bullet holes from war and crushed rebellion?
Journalist John Price finds these questions impossible to answer yet impossible to avoid, though he tries to forget them in the din of Budapest's nightclubs, in a romance with a secretive young diplomat, at the table of an elderly cocktail pianist, and in the moody company of a young man obsessed with nostalgia. Arriving in Budapest one spring day to pursue his elusive brother, John finds himself pursuing something else entirely, something he can't quite put a name to, something that will draw him into stories much larger than himself.
With humor, intelligence, masterly prose, and profound affection for both Budapest and his own characters, Arthur Phillips not only captures his contemporaries but also brilliantly renders the Hungary of past and present: the generations of failed revolutionaries and lyric poets, opportunists and profiteers, heroes and storytellers.
"Dazzling... brilliant... the most memorable fiction debut of the year."
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (starred review)
"Arthur Phillips's bold and ambitious novel, Prague, is one of those rare books that help define and identify a whole generation, in the same way that Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises introduced his lost generation."
PAT CONROY, AUTHOR OF THE PRINCE OF TIDES
"In Prague, Arthur Phillips spins the Jazz Age novel. His expatriate Americans have settled in Budapest rather than Paris, and instead of champagne and ragtime, they outfit themselves with Gauloises, paprika-dusted sandwiches, punk rock, and post-Cold War irony. But their passion -- to know America and to shrug it off -- is timelessly literary. A hip-hop remix of Fitzgerald and Hemingway, a meditation on a generation, a polemic, a love story, a new branch of sociology, Prague tries to do it all and succeeds."
PAGAN KENNEDY, AUTHOR OF BLACK LIVINGSTONE
"An intricate and wordly-wise novel, with sly and acute perceptions on every page, Prague sets itself the challenge of extending the tradition of brainy Central European fiction from an American perspective, and succeeds handily."
PHILLIP LOPATE, AUTHOR OF PORTRAIT OF MY BODY
"Phillips's exhilarating exploration of time, memory, and nostalgia brings to mind such giants as Proust and Joyce."
LIBRARY JOURNAL
Customer Reviews:
One dark little novel...........2007-07-29
I actually enjoyed Prague but I would've liked it a lot more if it hadn't been hyped as a light-hearted romp through expatriate life. You can't blame the author for that but believe me, this is a pretty dark book. Really, from what happens to the characters, you'd have to think that living in Budapest was about as psychologically damaging as serving in Vietnam.
On the other hand, if you're looking for a black comedy, you could do worse. I liked Phillips' writing (I found it leisurely, you might find it glacial) and as a American living abroad, I found his insights spot on. Sometimes, you just can't change yourself by changing the scenery. And really, while the Lost Generation were legendary boozers, isn't there a bit more to expat life than endless drinking games?
Anyway, I thought it was pretty good book. Just be warned it's a bit different from how it's been sold.
Snapshot of Life in Budapest.......2007-07-01
Writing a novel about ex-pat life in a foreign country offers 2 choices: a story that shows the city and lifestyle to outsides (usually written by casual visitors who just need a setting for their story), or a novel about real life with real people and events, for other ex-pats of the country. Despite Arthur Phillips' protestations to the contrary in the afterward (paperback edition), Prague clearly falls into the second category, starting with the title.
"Prague" is an insider joke for residents of Budapest during the time, the city where things were really happening, the place where they all wanted to be, but weren't. But this is only hinted at in the story itself, is generally inconsequential to the plot, and unless you've lived in the area, it will not be obvious, leaving the title incomprehensible and misleading. Had the novel been written for non-expats it would have had a title that encompassed life in Budapest (for example, Coffee at the Gerbeaud, or Chain Link Bridge), or least generalized to Eastern Europe.
What starts in the title flows through the rest of the novel - inside jokes to a small group of expats during a particular period that fail to resonate with non-residents.
The novel also can't quite decide whether it is about a story or a character, and if a character, which one. It jumps around between characters before deciding to focus on John Price. Unfortunately, John is only somewhat sympathetic as a character. He pines for Emily, but has a relationship Nicky, and casually cheats on her. He's a journalist for the local English lanugauage daily, but plants stories to help his friends win business deals for which he gets a kickback.
Nor is there a particular plot that gets followed through the novel, though most of the action revolves around a privitization deal and John's pining for Emily.
So what we end up with is a description of a year or so of life in Budapest during the early 1990s from the point of view of 5 American/Canadian somewhat-friends. The time and place are interesting, and the book does an excellent job conveying what it was like to be there at that special time in history by people who frequently remarked at how special a time in history it was. The prose is decent, but not particularly artful and frequently long-winded. I found myself frequently skimming the text, especially as I grew closer to the end.
Phillips is clearly talented, but inexperienced. It is obvious that the story was made up as he went along, with the only goal of describing what it was like to be at that time and place. It could have used another draft to tighten up the plot, and editing to cut it down by 25%.
So here's my recommendation - if you want to experience life in Budapest in 1990, and don't mind feeling like an outsider and missing all the insider jokes and ironies, this is a very good introduction. Much better than reading a travel guide. As a novel, it's not bad, but not great, either.
waste of time.......2007-05-01
It took me a year to read this book and I am 50 pages shy of finishing it and still not understand why it's called Prague when the action is in Budapest. At times it was the description of the city (Budapest) that kept me turning the pages, especially that I visited Prague and Budapest long time ago and the book brought back nice memories. Other than this and occasional wonderful and witty phrases, the action gets boring, the characters got mixed up in my head (especially after pauses in reading), everything is so lax....
tedious and awful.......2007-01-31
i hated reading this book:
(1) the language is pretentiouly self conscious and awkward, in short it is poorly written.
(2)the characters are unidimensional caricatures and uninteresting.
(3)it really has no insights or anything interesting to say
do not waste your time or money
Tedious and self-indulgent.......2006-09-21
First I should say that this book makes a decent backdrop if you're spending some time in Budapest - the descriptions of the city and its people are sharp, witty and perhaps even accurate. Soon enough, you'll start recognizing not only the famous sights, but will start seeing the book's characters in the inhabitants.
Alas, altough the book gets off to a good start, and you develop a faint interest in its characters, it gets tedious, self-indulgent, and just boring. There's a wonderful page-turner of a history chapter in the middle, but it's all downhill from there. By the end, I lost interest in all of the characters, their endless rondezvous, contrived conversations, silly dealings... I lost my suspension in disbelief and just wanted the book to end. It should have ended about 100 pages sooner. But I persisted until the end, with little reward.
Arthur Phillips is clearly a talented writer, but this book seems somewhat immature, forced, and conceited. And I hope the editing is more aggressive next time around.
And really, I wanted to like the book. I really tried... But I can't really recommend it beyond the first half.
Amazon.com
Franz Kafka rarely left his home town of Prague. At 19, he wrote "Prague doesn't let go. This little mother has claws." And though he complained often to his diary that he needed to get away, he spent most of his 41 years (1883-1924) firmly Prague-rooted. Prague is where Kafka wrote The Metamorphosis, The Trial, and The Castle, and where he lived and worked. A fan of Kafka might want to see the houses (nearly all still standing) where Kafka lived and the parks he strolled. Likewise, fans of Prague get an expanded understanding of the city through Kafka's eyes. This erudite and beautifully compiled Travel Reader is not only a guide to the Prague that Kafka knew, but also a guide to the Kafka that Prague knew.
Customer Reviews:
"This little mother has claws.".......2003-07-16
Franz Kafka spent most of his life in Prague, even though he always felt like a stranger there -- a German-speaking Jew in a predominately Czech Catholic town. Consequently, there are many sites in Prague that are of some interest to fans of Kafka's work. Klaus Wagenbach's little "Travel Reader" highlights most of these sites (e.g., the writer's birthplace, all the Kafka family residences around Old Town Square, Kafka's apartment in the castle, etc.). If you're headed to Prague, you could easily spend half a day retracing Kafka's footsteps with this guide. The book includes a map and numerous photographs of the city as it appeared about 100 years ago so you can contrast today's Prague with the Prague Kafka new. It also includes some short excerpts from Kafka's works, mostly vignettes like the haunting "An Imperial Edict", included next to the sections on the buildings where Kafka lived.
I lived in Prague myself for a month this summer and frequently took this book along with me on my evening jaunts through town. The selections from the writer's work included here helped add personal and emotional meaning to what otherwise might have been just a bunch of buildings. Highly recommended.
Amazon.com
The bloody ironies of World War II have inspired several fine mysteries, including J. Robert Janes's books about a German and French pair of detectives (Mannequin, Salamander) and Philip Kerr's Berlin Noir trilogy. Now the noted Czech author and revolutionary Pavel Kohout adds his unique voice to this very select group.
Her placid beauty (he could describe it no other way) was even more vivid in the near-darkness; her eternally sleepy voice moved him, though she was merely explaining that she had not been waiting long; no, she had just come outside, because it occurred to her they'd have trouble finding the house. He opened the rear right door for her and then got in on the other side. What sort of rare perfume was she wearing, he almost asked, before he realized that it was the smell of soap.
That's Kohout (through translator Neil Bermel, who also did Kohout's previous novel, I Am Snowing) describing an encounter between a young and relatively idealistic Czech detective and a woman who might provide a clue to who in 1945 Occupied Prague is murdering and mutilating the widows of war heroes.
Like Janes, Kohout makes his two cops an intriguing set: the young Czech, Morava, is partnered with a Gestapo officer, Buback, who turns out to have Czech origins and a secret agenda. While ostensibly keeping an eye on the Prague police for his superiors, Buback is also helping his Czech comrades prepare for the day when Germany will be defeated. That's a lot of history and social significance for a mystery novel, but Kohout has the heart and muscle to hold it all together. --Dick Adler
Book Description
In the downward spiral of the Third Reich's final days, a sadistic serial killer is stalking the streets of Prague. The unlikely pair of Jan Morava, a rookie Czech police detective, and Erwin Buback, a Gestapo agent questioning his own loyalty to the Nazi's, set out to stop the murderer. Weaving a delicate tale of human struggle underneath the surface of a thrilling murder story, Kohout has created a memorable work of fiction
Customer Reviews:
Disappointing yet Instructive.......2007-04-26
The literary and psychological possibilities generated by a detective story set in the last three months of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (the rump state created by the Third Reich after the two-stage dismemberment of Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939) are promising. But this novel does not fulfill that promise. The major problems of the work are the clichéd nature of some of its characters and the implausibility of much of their dialogue, in which a sort of thinking-out-loud auto-didacticism occurs (in too many conversations characters review their lives and their relationships, including those of self to nation and culture, in a way that does not reflect realistic dialogue, although the subject matter of the dialogues and interior monologues is rooted in the real). The translation by Neil Bermel is solid and should not be held responsible for any shortcomings of style and expression found in the book - those are, as the saying goes, on Kohout's plate. It is clear from reading other works of Kohout (e.g., "The Hangwoman") that he does have superior talents as a narrator and stylist, but they are not on display in "The Widow Killer". If , however, you are partial to thrillers and "police procedurals", then you should go ahead and read the book, but don't expect either the characterizations or the accompanying philosophizing to rise above the conventional.
The story line is that of an investigation of a depraved serial killer who mutilates women in ritual fashion and who is accelerating the pace of his crimes. As the story progresses the investigation merges with the political and military events of the fall of the Protectorate. From a psychoanalytic point of view we readers learn rather soon that "his mama made him do it" - i.e., the murderer is driven by an abject condition of total emotional dependency on the "approval" of his dead (and formerly domineering) mother. His conversations with himself are well rendered, capturing the closed and agitated mental world in which he dwells. As the fall of the Protectorate nears he transfers his brutal energies to new targets and in his own mind he becomes an avenging angel against any and all Germans he encounters, and he begins to re-imagine himself as a national savior, a "new man" and a leader with a special mission. Whatever its object, he remains proud of his butchery. The equation of the killer with unregenerate Nazis, with Hitler himself, and with the most brutal enforcers of the Communist regime to come are evident. This is the killer's allegorical role.
Three policemen are especially important to the unraveling of the crimes and the pursuit of the madman. And, like the killer, each of them becomes a rather obvious allegorical or symbolic agent of recent political life and its messy morality. Superintendent Beran, of whom we learn nothing personal, is a fair-minded civil servant and highly professional policeman who also emerges as a mid-level leader in the movement to restore democracy to his country - he represents the virtues of the Czechoslovakian First Republic. His assistant, Jan Morava, is a young and somewhat naïve "country-boy" who comes to the capital city and adapts rapidly to a new way of life and who shows an instinctive investigator's abilities. His love-affair with Jitka is a side-story introduced in order to show us his admirable qualities (rooted in the traditions of his rural childhood) and to provide the killer with another heartbreakingly innocent victim. By the end of the book Morava is transformed into the typical good man of the postwar era who makes some very bad choices and lives to regret them. The third policeman is a German Gestapo man, Buback; he is a "half-Czech" who conceals his roots. His background and responsibilities are those of a conventional criminal-police investigator (and, as emphasized, not that of a "political" or "secret police" operative, despite his position in the Gestapo). He stands for the potentially "good German" who comes to his senses during the death spasms of the Third Reich. While Buback and his German lover (a promiscuous dancer and professional mistress who is self-deceiving but always alluring) confess their human failings to each other and attempt to redeem themselves by being of service to the Czechs, Morava goes through a parallel set of ruminations in which he tries to curb his antipathy toward Germans by recognizing their common humanity with his own people. These deliberations strike me as too transparent and somewhat awkward, and they represent, I believe, Kohout's retrospective contemplation of his own feelings at the time of the story (1945). They are psychologically plausible and instructive, but should have been rendered more indirectly and less clumsily.
As for the "thriller" elements of the story, it becomes obvious by the middle of the book that both Morava and Buback (and his girlfriend Grete, who is the tainted counterpart of Jitka) will not only solve the case but will also be on a personal collision course with the murderer, placed by the author on converging pathways that will lead inevitably to a gruesome conclusion. The reader will be surprised by the identities of the killer's last sacrificial lamb and the character who renders the ultimate justice.
Interesting details of the historical situation are introduced in the final pages of the book -- the role of General Vlasov's doomed renegade army in evicting the Germans from Prague; the city's rather casual and chaotic liberation; and the arrival of a fiery and decisive Communist leader named Svoboda who has definite plans for the constitution and political complexion of the future Czechoslovakian state (this is not Ludvik Svoboda, the military hero who later became President; but it is a name chosen for its symbolism, a name directly translatable as "freedom"). Svoboda's energy, persuasive talents, apparent rectitude, and previous suffering on behalf of his cause convince Morava to commit himself to the emerging Communist regime, believing it is the path to a just society. As the book's final sentence states, this decision is the biggest mistake of his life. This judgment comes at the end of a sentimental message from Morava to the deceased Jitka (a message that mingles a love-note with simple-minded patriotic and political musings akin to slogans). The deflating last sentence of the book appears to be a sort of oblique self-evaluation by the author, since Morava's sudden and eager commitment to the Communist cause reflects the early "ideological" career of Kohout himself. We might read it as a displaced acknowledgment of guilt, that is, as the author's confession of and penance for the follies of his own youth, follies always implicit in the assumption of harsh and "pure" beliefs (and their punishing effects on the lives of others), which he too came to regret.
More than a mystery: Prague's dark dangers.......2005-10-09
Not only for its first sentence, cited on Amazon, but for its last, which raises hopes of a sequel about the rise of Communism in the Czech lands already begun before the final silencing of the Nazis in Prague--this novel deserves an audience in the West. It did take me a long time to finish, and while I cannot comment on whether the fact of translation (which I always suspect when I slowly read applicable novels in English) or the details amassed by Kohout were the cause, the density of atmosphere as Prague struggles to free itself from its captivity as the capital of the Reich's Protectorate makes for a fittingly somber and moving fictional thriller, combined with a thoughtful meditation, thanks especially to Gestapo functionary Buback and his love Grete, on how decent people can redeem themselves--and perhaps others--from barbarity for which they have been too long its too complacently silent perpetrators.
This added depth to an already intricate whodunit enriches the plot. It's not perfect. A map should have been added for the benefit of readers not familiar with Prague's byways. Even as a repeat visitor there, I wished for some guidance, as much of the action in the later chapters depends upon the barricades and escapes among its city streets and districts, as the German and native elements make their assaults and retreats.
The action itself, although it starts finally to intensify after the news of Hitler's suicide begins to encourage and discourage the novel's various characters, might have moved along far quicker; although the novel never bogged down, it did wander off on detours that detracted from the intensity of its central clash between liberators and oppressors. I do not read mysteries or thrillers normally, so I may be not the best critic of such genre conventions regarding pacing. The murders, thinking about it in retrospect, uneasily shift from those of psycho-sexual delusion to those excused on behalf of a vengeful populace, and although this transfer is less than smoothly accomplished, it does perhaps represent more accurately the sudden jerks of the crazed mind rather than the controlling author.
As I stated earlier, I'd love to read more about some of the key figures as the Czech democrats succumbed to the Communists, and certainly Kohout's own age and experience would make him an excellently placed observer and chronicler. In the meantime, this novel may not describe much of the beloved postcard Prague, but conjures up the sinister shadows that, when I walked along Bartolemeska street, I could still enter, left by decades of its prominence as the dark facades where the police and the jail loomed even as the flags changed.
Historical, gripping, spine-chilling.......2001-11-26
I bought this book to get away from the normal stuff that I read. Good choice, as it is both historical gives one a glimpse of the days of German-occupied city of Prague during the twilight of World War II. The story opens with the gruesome murder of Baroness of Pomerania, the widow of a German Wehrmacht general, by a serial killer. The coroner's report determines that the victim did not resist and was not raped. Mysteriously, her heart was removed and vanished with the killer.
The mismatched pair of Jan Morava, a Czech detective, and Erwin Buback, a Gestapo agent who is questioning his loyalty to the Nazis, set out to track down the killer before he can strike again. But as Morava and Buback follow the killer's bloody trail through Prague, it becomes clear that he is not a political radical or a wartime dissident but a tormented psychopath.
In the final days of the Third Reich, as the war proceeds to its gruesome end, the narrative sinuously shifts perspectives, taking us deep into the emotional maelstrom of each of the characters: young Morava, struggling to find love and approval in a war-torn city; the disillusioned Buback, haunted by the ghosts of his beloved wife and daughter; and the tormented killer, sent on a bloody rampage to please "her whom he obeys."
As the story comes to the end, it grips you yearning the know what will happen next. A gripping tale of human struggle under a thrilling murder, Pavel Kohout creation of a memorable work of fiction, as one of the last important novels from one the war's direct eyewitnesses.
Highly recommeded, text refers to hardcover edition.
A very good read, with excitement and intelligence.......2001-08-31
Kohout's novel works on two levels. First, it's an excellent, gripping, historical murder mystery. The characters are well-rounded and interesting, the killer mysterious and frigtening, and the plot taught and fast-moving. Second, it's a thoughtful examination of issues of loyalty and personal morality, revolving primarily around the efforts of a Gestapo officer and a local, partisan Czech police detective to cooperate in capturing a sociopath while balancing their respective commitments to their own consciences, and their loyalties to their own countries, as the Reich falls around them.
A very good read.
One Step Beyond Chaos.......2001-07-28
It would be hard for an Author to have more sterling credentials than Mr. Pavel Kohout. He was born in Prague in 1928, he was a leader in, "The Prague Spring", in 1968, and finally with Vaclav Havel he helped create the freedom document, "Charta 77", in 1977. As his book is set in Prague it resonates with the level of detail that only a native could know and share. I used the idea of beyond chaos as a reference to the time he chose to set his tale. I cannot imagine a more frenzied period than the closing months of a war when competing, "Allies", are intent on taking over your city. Mr. Kohout added to this frenetic environment a particularly brutal serial killer with multiple demons that drive him.
There is yet a third layer of conflict on an individual level as several of the characters are trying to resolve their actions during the war with their respective nationalities. Prague was unique in that it was a protectorate, so while occupied it still maintained an indigenous Police Force however closely monitored by the Nazi Invaders. These opposing forces and their members must work in concert to solve a crime just as the relationships and power structures that have governed their lives for 6 years are crumbling by the day, and eventually from moment to moment.
For me the book worked very well for much of the beginning and the end. In fact these two portions make up the majority of the book. There were some decisions made about who would participate in the capture of the killer, and I found them hard to take as credible, and very predictable in their outcome. Taken as a whole the work is well above most contributions to the genre, and additionally brings the first hand life experiences of the Author.
Another aspect that deserves mention is one female player he singles out that seems to embody so much of what the occupying Germans fear they will face as a result of how Germany will be perceived after the war. This woman can be exasperating, as she seems to be enigmatic at best, and to speak in riddles at worst. However as the tale unwinds she becomes a reflection of the more complicated of the wars conundrums.
This is a special book that could stand alone simply on the quality it is imbued with. When the Author is a man who has been in the midst of his Country's History, his words and the experiences he relates raise the work to another level of credibility. It may indeed be fiction, but if you were to walk the streets with this book in hand, you would probably be left with a feeling that it would serve as a guide for your trip through Prague.
A very well done work definitely deserving of your time.
Book Description
A brilliantly written graphic novel about the real human experience of living behind the iron curtain from one of Italy's leading comic artists.
Customer Reviews:
Good, but too short as usual.......2002-06-12
This third installment (following Loss of Innocence and Adolescence) of Italian cartoonist Giardino's graphic novel series about a Jewish boy growing up in Communist Prague concentrates on the developing relationship between title character Jonas and fellow teen Tatiana Gostrov. Of course, since he's the son of a political prisoner and she's the daughter of a Soviet diplomat, they are forced to see each other in secret. Meanwhile, the bookseller for whom Jonas works is coming under increasing scrutiny by the secret police. Over the course of the short (56 page) book, Jonas moves from outsider in his group of intellectual teenage friends, to a leader of them. As with the other books, the story is drawn in the lovely realistic style I tend to associate with European cartoonists, and colored with an appropriately subdued palate of grays and browns. And, as with the other books, it's all too brief-one day this series will be assembled an excellent single volume.
jew in communist prague:rebellion.......1999-12-16
the art is forceful, somewhat stylized. Faces and personalities are delineated with simple precision. The adaptions the characters make to live under a dictatorship while remaining human and intelligent give the reader hope for our civilization. As soon as you finish you turn to the front and start reading it again!
Book Description
From Roger L. Simon, author of The Big Fix, comes his best Moses Wine novel yet -- a hilarious, dark thriller set in the movie world.
DIRECTOR'S CUT
A quarter of a century after he first appeared in the now-classic The Big Fix, Moses Wine remains a private investigator par excellence. Still a Berkeley radical at heart, Moses is now thoroughly chastened by the events that have led to the war on terrorism -- so much so that he's started to find himself agreeing with John Ashcroft, which for Moses is like saying that the Grateful Dead were overrated. Then the call comes -- a film crew in Prague keeps finding hate messages on the set and in their hotel rooms, and it's Moses's job to find out who's trying to shut the movie down. In a twist of fate that might only happen to a man like Wine, the director of the film gets knocked off a bridge by a runaway truck, and Moses agrees to take over -- Moses Wine is an auteur!
But there are obstacles: The costars, the sexy Donna Gold and the brooding Goran, can't decide whether to kill each other or have an affair; Moses's wife has a surprise for him; Moses keeps finding himself in places he really shouldn't be; the CIA seems interested in the film, and that's a first; and a guy who resembles the Michelin Man keeps turning up with threats of violent destruction. Clearly something more is at stake than an art-house film, and things turn deadly serious when the threat of terrorism appears at the screening of the film -- Moses has to race to save not only the movie, but the whole of the Sundance festival, too.
Roger L. Simon has been delighting fans of smart thrillers for a quarter century. This time it's the movie world's turn to get the Roger L. Simon treatment, and Director's Cut shows him at the height of his powers -- skewering our mores and making us laugh out loud.
Customer Reviews:
Moses Wine, Movie Director????.......2006-12-11
I've read all of the Moses Wine books, and I enjoyed the movie "The Big Fix" a great deal; I think it's one of my favorite detective novels. Wine's an amusing character, a Berkeley radical who's by now bemoaning the fact that he agrees with John Ashcroft on certain things with regards to dealing with terrorists. Simon appears to be one of the liberals who was (as I read on another one of these people's blogs) "mugged by reality on 9/11". There were little hints of a more intelligent, less idealogical person peeking through even in the earlier books. Wine has always been more of a cynic than most idealists, and more pragmatic, too. You only have to read "The Big Fix" and get Simon's take on self-help gurus to know that he's not quite as trendy as most in Hollywood.
In the current outing, it turns out Moses is buddies with a group of Hollywood types who meet at the Farmer's Market at 3rd and Fairfax. Anyone who's been there can imagine this sort of thing happening--I myself have seen actors in restaurants there, and I'm notorious for not seeing celebrities--and it lends an air of authenticity to the story. One of his Hollywood buddies is a TV guy who's going to make a love story about the aftermath of the Holocaust, only he's been having trouble while he's filming on location in Prague. He contacts Moses, in a panic, and insists that our hero get on a plane and fly there to see if he can stop the threats and pranks that threaten the movie.
Simon has a dry wit that's just about as biting as it can be, at times. From an FBI who questions a *Jewish* private eye about his contacts with the 9/11 hijackers to an Arab terrorist who wants his hostage to tie *him* up to a film festival that's 90% pretence and marketing, this is Simon's send-up of the post 9/11 world, and of Hollywood at the same time. Moses even takes a turn at directing the movie, and of course that turns out pretty funny, especially when it turns out he's not as bad at it as you might think.
I heartily enjoyed this book, and highly recommend it.
An Amusing Tale for Our Time.......2005-01-24
I have read a couple of Simon's books, but I don't remember them being this clever. A private detective becomes a movie director. Quite witty. Wild Turkey (was that the name?) was also humorous.
(Some strange reviews on here with seemingly hostile motive perhaps? I don't understand what that is, but shouldn't Amazon have a way of dealing with this?)
Stunning bad.......2005-01-02
This book would have been merely a laughably sophomoric piece of poorly-edited hack fiction if it didn't try to promote itself as capitalizing on September 11th. The book will probably be historically significant only in that the author's fascination and glorification of such insidious real-world personas as Ashcroft and Freeh lends it a bit of Leni Riefenstahl kitch.
terrible.......2004-10-30
I'd give this zero stars if that were an option. It is poorly written, poorly edited (there are a tremendous number of grammatical and spelling errors for a published book), and, most importantly for a thriller, it is just plain boring.
Don't waste your time on this garbage.
Director's Cut... Cut, cut, cut.......2004-10-13
Like anyone who enjoys a good mystery, I was looking forward to this read especially having been recommended by Hugh Hewitt, a radio talk show host who had previously suggested works from Joseph Epstein and Daniel Silva. Both were great reads.
I should have been somewhat suspicious seeing only 240 pages, surely not enough to develop the characters, background and rich plot that often adds to pleasure of a good novel. I found the plot sophomoric, even laughing out loud not a the humor but the utter ridiculous situations. For example, why would private investigator Wine consider staying on with the production of a "B" rated movie that ends up on some obscure cable channels? Not only does he stay but becomes the director of this crazy movie. Perhaps some of Mr. Simon's humor was lost on me but too many times I found the plot farfetched.
If Mr. Simon were to remove a few choice swear words, this book might be appropriate for junior high school. They might appreciate characters like "Anna Rockova", yes Mr. Simon has seen several episodes of the Flintstones. My advise would be to "Cut" this one off at the pass and move on to more seriously researched terrorist mystery. It's no wonder that Mr. Simon must use a blog to help promote his work. Not worth the $16.95.
Average customer rating:
- the most natural coincidence easily becomes an oracle
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Mozart's Journey to Prague and a Selection of Poems (Penguin Classics)
Eduard Morike
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus
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ASIN: 0140447377
Release Date: 2003-12-30 |
Book Description
Eduard Mörike's delightfully high-spirited 1855 novella is an imaginary re-creation of the journey Mozart made from Vienna to Prague in 1787 to conduct the first performance of Don Giovanni. Set in the rococo world of the Bohemian nobility, the story paints an unforgettable picture of Mozart's creative genius—its playful heights and its terrible depths. Mörike's own lyrical powers are also displayed in his poetry, which combines classicism and romanticism with elements of the traditional folk and fairy tale.
Customer Reviews:
the most natural coincidence easily becomes an oracle.......2006-09-12
When I came across this novel (a Penguin Books edition, without the poems) I had no idea that Morike had written novels - I was aware of his poetry through the music of Hugo Wolf. So what would a novel be like by the man who wrote this?
Let me be,O World!/Do not tempt me with gifts of love,/Let this heart keep to itself/its joys and its sorrows.
I do not know what I mourn for/it is an unknown grief;/only through tears I see/the sun's clear light.
Often (I am hardly conscious of it)/bright joy flashes/through the gloom that oppresses me;/bringing rapture to my heart.
Let me be,O World!/Do not tempt me with gifts of love,/Let this heart keep to itself/its joys and its sorrows.
It is a beautiful poem, and so is the novel. But the novel is so different - full of rapture - the bright flashes are sustained. But there is also just a touch of distress - just what an author needs to keep the reader alert. This is a beautiful novel about Wolfgang and Costanze. Did Morike have any real knowledge of the Mozarts that he could produce such a convincing image of the scurrilous, caring but often-distracted Wolfgang? And what of Costanze - she is so wonderful in this novel. Perhaps Morike helped frame the vision we have of Mozart, but perhaps he also reflected common understanding of the man and his character accurately.
Average customer rating:
- Mesmerizing, Tragic yet Uplifting
- Skvorecky's Best Work
- Humourous tale of Czech horrors
- The essential modern Czech novel.
- A complex and amusing autobiographical novel
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The Miracle Game
Josef Skvorecky
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
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This Side of Reality: Modern Czech Writing (Modern Short Stories)
ASIN: 0393308499 |
Customer Reviews:
Mesmerizing, Tragic yet Uplifting.......2003-11-23
This is the first book I ever read by Skvorecky and it is undoubtedly the best. Two stories procede at side by side, the former (from 1948) setting up the latter (in 1968) which references the first. The religious experience of downtrodden peoples from Middle Europe was perfectly depicted - from their simple faith to their hope for a miraculous deliverence from the tyranny of communism.
By the time of the Spring Prague the nation was demoralized but had not surrendered its soul. As in every country under Soviet tyranny, people expressed their desire to be free in hundreds of ways, one of which was revolution. But the "miracle" of that spring was as elusive as the purported miracle from 20 years earlier.
What is particularly tragic is all the wasted time, effort and lives expended arguing about such an absurd philosophy as Marxism which, we should note, was hardest on the "people" to whom it gave lip service; its existence was made possible through the use of force. By the end one understands that all the dialectics and theories and promises mean nothing when compared to individual freedom or in this case, the liberation of a whole society.
Skvorecky's Best Work.......2003-05-21
This is Josef Skvorecky's best novel, a fairly strong statement since much of his other work, such as the novel The Engineer of Human Souls and some of his short stories, is excellent. Like a number of his other works, this book is semi-autobiographical and covers a good slice of modern Czech history. At its core is an analysis of the false promises of Communism, which is shown to be triumphant only by a combination of repression and chicanery. Written with his usual humor and deft characterization, this is simultaneously an ironic and tragic view of modern history.
Humourous tale of Czech horrors.......2000-09-03
Skvorecky has done an interesting thing here, he has intertwined a serious story of the horrors of living in Czecheslovakia with a bawdy romp about a young oversexed man who teaches in a all girls high school. We follow Danny as he grows into an oversexed middle aged man. The story is funny and well-written for the most part. My only complaints are he jumps around in time a little too much and the translation got a little borderline obscene. All in all I enjoyed reading it and think anyone with an interest is Czech history will as well
The essential modern Czech novel........1999-04-21
This is the one. This novel better than any other explains the imprint left on the Czech consciousness by the Soviet invasion of August 1968, described so vividly by Skvorecky.
A complex and amusing autobiographical novel.......1998-01-13
Skvorecky continues his series of semi-autobiographical novels with The Miracle Game, interweaving his hero Danny Smiricky's experiences in the post-war rise of Czech communism with the end of the Prague Spring. More obscure and hence less successful than The Engineer of Human Souls, but still a complex and amusing story. The high point of the novel is a moving chapter telling in parallel the story of the Nazi roundup of Prague Jews and a friend's escape from the 1968 Russian invasion.
Amazon.com
In Czechoslovakia in 1950 a young boy and his father spy a cicada while on a picnic in the woods. The father notes that the insect doesn't trust humans: "They're not completely wrong. There are children who put them in cages. Then they stop singing and die very quickly. They can't stand to be locked up," he says. Two months later, without any warning and with precious little cause, the father is arrested for his supposed counterrevolutionary activities; in reality he is arrested because of the state's anti-Semitic resentment. Thus begins Vittorio Giardino's extraordinary masterpiece A Jew in Communist Prague. It is the story of Jonas Finkel, a boy who grows up all too soon; cares for his frantic, grieving mother; and fights off wave after wave of prejudice. There is sincerity in every one of Giardino's lines. He writes, "I spent hours trying to write down, in a few words, a simple and honest presentation of Jonas Finkel's story, but it just got increasingly difficult." The result of his careful work is well worth any reader's time.
Book Description
A brilliantly written graphic novel about the real human experience of living behind the iron curtain from one of Italy's leading comic artists.
Customer Reviews:
this one stands as one of the greatest GNs ever...........2005-10-01
"A JEW IN COMMUNIST PRAGUE VOL. 1: LOSS OF INNOCENCE" TP
writer/artist: Vittorio Giardino
Vol. 1:
The story begins in 1950's Prague, Czechoslovakia. The Prague government arrests Dr. Finkel(for no apparent reason). Jonas Finkel is his son.
The government goes to controls their assets, forbids his son to school, forbids his wife to looks for good work, etc.
Jonas Finkel is the lead character of this book. It is in a comicbook format(graphic novel).
Vol. 2:
Jonas is a teenager now.
The official reason for the arrest is counter revolutionary activities & espionage.
Jonas looks for work to helps his mother. He frequently moves from one labor work to another. Jonas does not finishes his school, although he is a bright student.
He lands a job he likes(finally) in a small neighborhood bookstore.
He joins a treasonous movements(of teens). They study & learn forbidden books.
Vol. 3:
Jonas' boss(bookstore owner) finds trouble with the authorities. He fights the law with his forbidden books. He is a recalcitrant(turns out).
Vittorio Giardino's script & art are very good. He is the best of this genre(also see "No Pasaran" TPs).
These books have explicit sexual scene(vol. 1) & brief sexual suggestion(vol. 3).
Great graphic novels that must be read:
. A Treasury Of The Victorian Murder: Jack The Ripper HC(Rick Geary)
. Book Of Jack HC
. Clyde Fans Vol. 1 HC
. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon Vol. 1-4 TPs(Andy Seto)
. Dead Memory HC
. Desperadoes: A Moment's Sunlight TP
. Desperadoes: Quiet In A Grave TP
. Four Women TP
. Hey, Wait...TP
. Jar Of Fools TP
. Last Day In Vietnam TP
. Maus Vol. 1 & 2 TPs
. No Pasaran Vol. 1 & 2 TPs
. Samson: Judge Of Israel TP(Metron Press)
. The Cartoon History Of The Universe Vol. 1-2 TPs
. The Dreamer TP(Will Eisner)
. The Fixer HC
. The Picture Bible HC(Iva Hoth)
. To The Heart Of The Storm TP
Worst graphic novels that should not be read:
. A Contract With God TP
. Ante Genesen Vol. 1 HC
. Comics Poetry: The Adapted Victor Hugo HC
. Fables Vol. 1 TP
. Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde HC
. Ghostworld TP
. Harlequin Valentine HC
. Minor Miracles TP
. Preacher Vol. 1 TP
. Remembrance Of Things Past Vol. 1 TP(Stephen Hueut)
. The Magic Flute TP
. The Tower Of Bois Maury Vol. 1 HC
. V For Vendetta TP
. Y The Last Man Vol. 1 TP
Final Analysis:
"A Jew In Communist Prague Vol. 1-3" TP
5 of 5 stars
***** = a "must Own"
Rating: A
One of the greatest GN ever!
The best of the best!
A top echelon GN!
A classic!
A must read!
P.S.- vol. 1 subtitles "Loss Of Innocence"(eg. A Jew In Communist Prague Vol. 1: Loss Of Innocence), vol. 2 subtitles "Adolescence", & vol. 3 subtitles "Rebellion".
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HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION!!!
A Wonderful Begining.......2001-08-11
The first in Italian cartoonist Giardino's series about a Jewish boy growing up in Communist Prague introduces us to Jonas Finkel and his pleasant middle-class life in Prague. His professor father is arrested for allegedly being a counterrevolutionary, although the unstated truth is that he's the victim of unofficial state anti-Semitism. The book is at its best in showing Jonas and his mother gradually sliding into poverty while they try to penetrate the state beauracracy to learn of the father's whereabouts and sentence. When Jonas is not admitted to high school due to his father's alleged crimes, he enters the workforce and awkwardly encounters the stirrings of hormones. The art is done in the lovely realistic style I tend to associate with European cartoonists, with appropriately washed out coloring. It'll be great to see all the books together.
Captivating, a must-read.......2000-05-13
When you first pick this book up, do not scoff at it simply because it is full of pictures. A Jew in Communist Prague is a fine example of what a graphic novel or any book should be modelled after. The story is a truly captivating tale, providing a down-to-level, human look into the life of Jonas Finkel and the brutish treatment of his family because they are Jewish. All of this is told wonderfully, as the writer displays his brilliance for storytelling, pacing, characterization, and dialogue. And complimenting this marvelous plot are the equally fantastic illustrations, which style manages to perfectly mesh with this story of social and political issues in Communist Czechoslovakia. This is a very intelligent read and is recommended for fans of all genres.
Book Description
A "Golem" is an artificial man made by qabalistic magic and legends of this strange being extend back at least to the ghettos of medieval Germany. The Golem was created to serve its creator.
Amazon.com
The second volume of Italian master cartoonist Vittorio Giardino's powerful A Jew in Communist Prague finds the main character, Jonas Finkel, still patiently waiting for word on his father's imprisonment. After much ill luck at a variety of odd jobs, Jonas finds employment first as a working-class laborer and then at a bookstore, where he can again pursue his love of books (his education was previously stunted by the racially motivated actions of the state). The beauty of Adolescence--even more than Giardino's wonderfully realistic drawings--is in the relationships he reveals: Jonas's friendship with a kind, middle-aged drunk in the labor yards; the supportive fatherly role of the bookstore owner; and Jonas's awkward connection to a group of young radicals bent on reading anything and everything that the government bans. Giardino lays down slices of life like jewels along a dusty path.
Book Description
A brilliantly written graphic novel about the real human experience of living behind the iron curtain from one of Italy's leading comic artists.
Customer Reviews:
Wish it Were Longer!.......2001-07-28
This second installment of Italian cartoonist Giardino's graphic novel series about a Jewish boy growing up in Communist Prague finds Jonas Finkel unable to attend school due to his father's status as political prisoner. Forced to work, he toils as a laborer on a building site before falling in with Slavek, a fatalistic, drunken storytelling plumber. From this substitute father-figure, he moves on to work in a bookstore, where his love of books can be nourished, and where he meets a club of teenage intellectuals who meet in the park to read forbidden poetry and sing banned songs. Jonas's outsider status is highlighted by his awkward fumblings in trying to attract the attention of Tatiana, one of the intellectual girls. Interspersed with his is some of the political goings-on of the time, the death of Stalin, counter-revolutionary efforts by the secret police, and soforth. These feel rather forced and shoehorned in when contrasted with the simple tale of Jonas growing up without his father. Perhaps the effect is lessened when the series is read in its entirety, instead of in sparse 48-page installments. It'll be interested to see where it'll all lead. As to the art, the story is drawn in the lovely realistic style I tend to associate with European cartoonists, and colored with an appropriately subdued palate of greys and browns.
Books:
- Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd: The inventories of the Wardrobe of Robes prepared in July 1600, edited from Stowe MS 557 in the British Library, MS LR 2/121 in the Public Record Office, London, and MS V.b.72 in the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington DC
- Raintree: Inferno (Silhouette Nocturne)
- Real Estate Finance: Theory and Practice (with CD-ROM)
- Relax Your Way to Thin! Hypnosis Weight Loss Motivation
- Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America
- Send Me
- Shadow Baby (Today Show Book Club #14)
- Sleeper Vol. 1: Out in the Cold
- Sleeping with Strangers
- Son of the Morning Star
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- WORDS THAT WORK: IT'S NOT WHAT YOU SAY, IT'S WHAT PEOPLE HEAR
- The Complete German Commission E Monographs: Therapeutic Guide to Herbal Medicines
- Postcards From The Boys
- Mind, Self, and Society: From the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist
- Staffing Organizations
- The Foster's Market Cookbook: Favorite Recipes for Morning, Noon, and Night
- Savannah Blues
- 2000 Professional's Guide to Target Marketing: How to Gain Profitable New Business
- Prosperity: The Coming Twenty-Year Boom and What It Means to You
- Brick Lane: A Novel
The Egyptologist: A Novel
Angelica: A Novel
Prague: A Traveler's Literary Companion (Traveler's Literary Companions)
The Geographer's Library
Budapest: A Novel
