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Oct 24, 2011

Ian rated it:

A Tale of Two Cities

Despite the title, the novel “Prague” is set exclusively in Budapest, the capital of Hungary.

A Confession and a Generalisation

First, a confession: I am hopelessly, romantically nostalgic about Hungary, a nation I have never visited.
There is a girl involved, well a woman, and the years were 1978 and 1979.
But you don’t want to know about that. Besides, we would need a few glasses of Bull’s Blood to taste the flavour of those times More...

25 comments like (18 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Lp rated it:

I'm with the reviewer who wants a medal for finishing this book. It was a slog, during which I kept stopping to read reviews to figure out what on earth I was missing. The promo copy compared the author to Proust and Joyce. Reviewers likened him to Kundera. To me his work resembled nothing more than pretentious freshman ramblings designed to impress writing professors.

I am here to tell you, the emperor has no clothes. This is a boring book, peopled by worthless two-dimensional More...

6 comments like (11 people liked it)

Nov 02, 2007

Ben rated it:

If you've ever met anyone who's been to Europe, you'll understand the humor behind these delightfully loathsome characters. Not a bad book, funny at times, annoying at others.

I liked it, but I have to admit that had I not been delayed in the airport in Nice, I never would have gotten as far as I did. Once I got home to the States I put it down for good.

4/5 of the way finished. Good read for a beach vacation in France. Not much of a page-turner though.

Actually, More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 06, 2008

Bruce rated it:

In the early 1990's, the first flourish of "Generation X" novels started getting published. Writers like Douglas Coupland, Bret Easton Ellis, and Jay McInerney composed incredibly self-conscious, pretentious novels and imagined themselves the voice of a generation. What they were, in large part, was a squeaky reiteration of a far more compelling earlier cultural icon: upon closer examination, it became clear that, apparently, Generation X was almost entirely composed of squeaky-voice More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 11, 2008

Suzy rated it:

Brilliant book. The story follows a group of five expats living in Budapest shortly after the fall of Communism. Each has their own reason for coming (and leaving) and even though little actually *happens* while they're there, it's what they figure out about themselves/life/humanity that's lasting. Anyone who has ever lived abroad will enjoy this book. I found myself remembering so much of what expat life is like through Philips eloquently worded pages. His writing style is so good - I ofte More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 27, 2008

CLM rated it:

I really wanted to love this book since I am 1/4 Hungarian and feel vaguely cheated by my college's having not really endorsed study abroad until after I graduated. In addition, the concept was quite original and the author seemed very charming when I interacted with him once (and I'd already paid for my book so it wasn't cupboard love, at least, not entirely). However, I found the characters somewhat annoying and I didn't really care what happened to them. The best part of the book was the More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 05, 2011

Tom added it

Pat Conroy bills Arthur Phillips's novel Prague as "one of those books that help define and identify a whole generation, in the same way that Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises introduced his own lost generation.” While the novel held my interest after a slow start, I don't think it's quite in the same ballpark as The Sun Also Rises.

My main problem with the novel is the multiple points of view. The only real character I cared about was John Price, a journalist who comes to Budapest to reconnect More...

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Feb 05, 2012

Christine marked it as to-read

---from mom's travel fiction list

Prague
By Arthur Phillips

It is 1990 and the Berlin Wall has come down. Young Westerners flood into the atmospheric decay of post-Cold War Eastern Europe seeking the legendary Paris of the 1920s. "Prague" follows four Americans and one Canadian, flush with irony and striving for success in a place they often fail to understand.

Reviews
ARTHUR PHILLIPS

Review by Roger Gathman

Americans love frontiers More...

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Sep 26, 2011

Patrick rated it:

I recently read a really engaging book, Prague by Arthur Phillips. A great first novel set, actually, in Budapest in the early 90s. I could relate to the characters and their experiences in several ways. First of all I visited Europe in 1992 after graduating form the University of Washington and I went to Eastern Europe-specifically Prague and Budapest. I had entertained ideas of teaching English in Prague, but after grad school the ability to make enough to pay off that loan was in question. Ha More...

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Sep 19, 2010

Pat rated it:

I'm still not so sure about Arthur Phillips. "The Song is You" was ultimately unsatisfying and somewhat aggravating. "Prague" was a more coherent book, and Phillips didn't cheat me on the ending the way he did in "TSiY", so I didn't finish the book and scream and throw it across the room, but there's something dodgy about Phillips. He's a talented writer but doesn't always seem too concerned about making sure his reader is actually satisfied or pleased with the way More...

5 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 27, 2010

Rowland rated it:

Arthur Phillips first book is a gem. It is 1990 in Budapest and the fall of the Soviet Union has freed Turkey and caused a rush of expats: some running in with venture capital, some with political purposes, some blown by the winds of happenstance and many following the artistic nose that continually draws them to the very place history is unfolding. That place is ever changing and for some in Budapest in 1990 the fear was that they were missing the real action that was happening in Prague. Hence More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 22, 2010

Xon rated it:

I found this book ironic and somewhat interesting mostly because of the crcumstances in which I read it. I picked this up in a book store right before I left for Europe where I struggled for a few weeks on which cities to visit. I chose Prague and ended up passing on Budapest. This entire book takes place in Budapest and is entitled Prague only to further the main theme, which centers on the emotion of life being elsewhere. It's a "grass is greener" feeling that Phillips explains as More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jun 14, 2009

Eleanor rated it:

If all of this book had been like the first section it would have gotten four stars easily, no problem. I loved the vivid descriptions of recently Post-Communist Budapest and the quirky, yet believable characters. However, Arthur Phillips tried far too hard to impose a "meaningful" narrative structure on this novel and as a result it got boring and tedious. I kept reading mostly because I wanted him to recover the perfectness of the first section. No such luck. Instead my favorite char More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 08, 2009

Nicola rated it:

Prague is a novel whose title sets the tone for Arthur Phillips’ wry style: the understimulated American/Canadian expatriates at the centre of the book spend the year 1990 in Budapest – despite the fact that everyone they meet is quick to tell them that Prague is where things are really happening.

Phillips’ ironical sense of humour zings through the novel. Perhaps it’s not to everyone’s taste, but I found his love of the absurd to be utterly delightful. The characters are warm and int More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 07, 2009

christa rated it:

I deserve a big, fat, chocolate-covered "I told you so." Arthur Phillips' "Prague" is, interesting-wise, the exact inverse of his most-recent novel "The Song is You," interesting-wise.

Damn if I didn't fall hard in the early chapters, which find a handful of 20-something ex-pats in Budapest in 1990: John, the laid back, love-lorn accidental journalist has followed his brother Scott, a formerly obese exercise-hound who's desire to shed pounds equals his de More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 11, 2009

Shannon rated it:

It took me a while to read this book, which should mean I've had plenty of time to think about my review of it. I'm not sure it worked out that way, but here's what I thought this book did well:

1) Evoke a sense of place: I've never been to Budapest, but I'd love to go, especially after reading this book. Phillips does a great job of not just describing the city, but the country, its people and how it was evolving during the early 1990s.

2) Characters: While the charact More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 30, 2011

Eveline rated it:

I borrowed this from a friend of mine, who said as she handed it to me, "Actually, you can keep this - I kind of hated it. Everyone in it was so annoying - I was just like, stop whining." After reading it, I can definitely see what she was talking about, but despite all its flaws -- very wink-wink surfacey razzle dazzle without a whole lot of psychological depth -- I still really enjoyed it. I guess because just the surface alone was still impressive and amazingly detailed and entertai More...

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Mar 27, 2011

Brian rated it:

Really great novel. Very funny and also sneakily emotional. The study guide in the back mentions that reviewers have noted the author's compassion for his characters and his lack of compassion for his characters. This is pretty funny and also pretty accurate, the author is something of a wise ass, but one who also writes beautifully and sympathetically. This is the 2nd novel of his I have read and loved, after The Song is You. One passage especially stood out to me as a good example of his More...

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Dec 09, 2009

Eszter rated it:

upper-middle-class american twentysomethings come of age obnoxiously in budapest directly after the fall of communism. as a hungarian, i am left with a slightly unpleasant taste in my mouth despite phillips' "i'm joking/i'm not joking/but really, i swear, i'm joking/okay, now start digging for my actual meaning" business up in this book and the two years he spent in budapest that clearly qualify him to talk trash/not talk trash/really, it's talking trash/but no seriously, he's making i More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 26, 2009

Geraldine rated it:

I've wanted to read this book for a long time, because of the setting and all of the comparisons to Fitzgerald/Hemingway. (Note to publishing houses, all you have to do to get me to read a book is say that it's a throwback to the Lost Generation; I'm easy like that.) Anyway, it was a HUGE disappointment. After the first chapter or so, it sort of fell apart and was practically unreadable by the end. Unlike the REAL Lost Generation-ers, the characters were not only unlikeable--which is not a pr More...

4 comments like

Feb 16, 2010

Katie rated it:

Pretty awesome!! Looong. But I really liked it. Basically contrasting a "lost generation" in the 1990s living in Budapest (yes this book is called Prague, but it's set in Budapest...the title Prague represents the place you always to be...like if you were in Prague than you would want to be in Paris and if you were in Paris than you would want to be in London etc). There are lots of great "shout-outs" to the modernist era: name-dropping Hemingway and a guy written articles li More...

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Nov 05, 2011

Felix rated it:

Игра в “искренность” очень проста. Пятеро игроков садятся вокруг небольшого чайного столика. После этого каждый из них по очереди рассказывает один неизвестный факт из своей жизни. У каждого игрока за игру должно быть четыре факта, из которых только один может соответствовать реальности. После перечисления всех озвученных фактов все игроки начинают обсуждение и пытаются отделить правду от лжи. За каждую ложь, которая была принята за искренность, игрок получает очко. Побеждает тот, у кого их в фи More...

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Aug 09, 2011

Steve rated it:

I checked out this book at my local library for two reasons. One, the writer is a former Jeopardy! champion, and I always try to watch Jeopardy. Two, I knew the story actually took place in Budapest, the home of my paternal ancestors. I'm not much for writing reviews, so I'll just plunge in and say that I read this book, but I wish I hadn't. It took forever to get through, and the "characters" (I use the term loosely) were a jumbled mess of, I don't know, stereotypical Gen-Xers who More...

0 comments like

Jun 26, 2010

Ashley rated it:

Prague was long, and at some points a hard slog. What I found interesting about it was that, being set in 1990 (despite being written in 2002), it took on the tone of early 90’s “postmodern” writers like Douglas Coupland. I began to feel like it was unrelentingly cynical, laden with themes of nostalgia, modern meaninglessness and life in (what the author/authorial persona appears to consider to be) a cultural wasteland.

My favourite sections in Prague were those written from the pers More...

0 comments like

Jan 16, 2009

Andy rated it:

There are a few books I finish, and think that they were boring or pointless. There are a few that are too complex or confusing that I've given up on and never finished (like The Satanic Verses or Ulysses). This book, however, I absolutely hated. From the opening scene, of four boring, egotistical, self-absorbed assholes sitting around at a cafe, I hated each and every one of the main characters. And they just got worse from there. If the goal of the book was to portray the stereotypical " More...

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Sep 13, 2009

Chana rated it:

A book that doesn't say much of anything, but what it says it says beautifully and with a broad and pervasive irony. Some of the writing is so good that I was just delighted, loved it. The story, if one can call it that, is set in Budapest, Hungary in 1990/91; Prague doesn't come in to it except as a more desirable location. There are some young people from other countries, mostly Americans. One works at the embassy, one works in finance trying to find Hungarian businesses that are worthy of Ame More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 02, 2007

Becky rated it:

I like this book - a good description of Eastern Europe after the Fall and after the West has taken over. I would have given it a higher rating, but the ending is bizarre. I felt it didn't really fit with the rest of the book.

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Aug 04, 2009

Laurie rated it:

I loved the moment when, while playing the game Sincerity, Emily lies "I think I could live in Hungary forever," and John smilingly imagines Emily "raising her Hungarian children to be the first trusting and cheerful nonsmokers in the nation's history."

Also, when Charles goes with John to arrange a sublease, and Charles translates what is said by the old man leaving the apartment: "Okay, first the bad news. Mr. Szabo is looking forward to returning to the co More...

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Sep 06, 2009

Wm rated it:

Part of being an LDS missionary serving in Romanian in 1992/1993 was the feeling that

a) you were missing out by not being in Budapest (or in Prague)
b) you were missing out on not being able to leverage your American exoticism and energy for some sort of vague gain and fun
c) you were superior to the expats and the tourists because you spoke near fluent Romanian and met hundreds of the locals in there own homes, and, with many of them, learn their stories
d) you were b More...

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May 10, 2009

Colleen rated it:

A great disappointment for me since I loved The Egyptologist. I was just never able to get into this book. Prague is full of unlikable characters, just like The Egyptologist, but it worked in that book and I don't think it worked in this one. It reminded me in many ways of The Secret History, a book I thoroughly disliked. It had the same kind of characters--young college graduates who are VERY self-absorbed and think they're smarter than everyone else. Nothing gives them greater pleasure t More...

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