false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172523020m/184662.jpg 184662 3 Ranging over nearly three decades, the stories collected in Ivan Klíma's <I>Lovers for a Day</I> offer a fine cross section of the Czech writer's career. Yet the book also traces the misunderstandings and frustrations, the hopes and disenchantments of an entire nation--where, ironically enough, Klíma's creations were banned until the mid-1990s. How does this fictional barometer work? The earlier tales, which tend toward dissections of private life, seldom mention the Communist regime--yet their protagonists are so thoroughly warped by political circumstance that even love becomes an avatar of control and constraint. In the later, post-perestroika stories, Klíma's characters explore their newfound freedom. Yet that, too, turns out to be something of a mixed bag, in both the public and private sector. No wonder the judge in "It's Raining Out" finds his new beat--divorce court--nearly as dispiriting as the old regime's political trials: <blockquote> He would divorce couples on grounds of infidelity or mutual incompatibility. Some of them were husbands and wives who had stopped living together long ago, but in spite of that, he could never rid himself of the conviction that most of the divorces were unnecessary, that people were attempting to escape the inescapable: their own emptiness, their own incapacity to share their lives with another person. </blockquote> For Klíma's countryman Milan Kundera desire represents a zone of freedom: an assertion of the unique self in the face of a collective state. For Klíma, alas, eros is yet another venue for repression. Suggesting that national politics might inscribe itself onto the deepest contours of the individual, he's able to write about both at once. It's a grim equation, perhaps. But Klíma's mastery of the medium, and his rare emotional intelligence, make for a superb exposition of love among the ruins. <I>--Burhan Tufail</I> 2007510 1999 Lovers for a Day: New and Collected Stories on Love total:26|5:3|4:8|3:13|2:2| 26 90 36 2 3 0 false false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Feb 05 15:11:51 -0800 2008 Tue Apr 01 22:20:58 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Apr 01 19:51:14 -0700 2008 Tue Apr 01 19:52:35 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Thu Oct 22 16:02:54 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 09 15:50:13 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 22 16:02:54 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Sun Jul 05 20:36:33 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 05 20:36:33 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sun Jun 28 23:37:01 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 28 23:37:01 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat May 30 19:58:30 -0700 2009 Sat May 30 19:58:30 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri May 29 10:37:59 -0700 2009 Fri May 29 10:37:59 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue May 12 14:21:29 -0700 2009 Tue May 12 14:21:29 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Tue Apr 07 10:26:52 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 07 10:26:52 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Jan 28 08:07:54 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 28 08:07:54 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Sun Jan 11 18:28:41 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 11 18:28:41 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Tue Dec 16 19:17:21 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 16 19:17:21 -0800 2008 0 0 false false Thu Nov 06 17:56:49 -0800 2008 Thu Nov 06 17:56:59 -0800 2008 5 0 false false Fri Oct 31 08:40:24 -0700 2008 Fri Oct 31 08:40:24 -0700 2008 3 0 false false Sun Sep 28 08:19:03 -0700 2008 Sun Sep 28 08:19:03 -0700 2008 3 0 false false Fri Sep 26 12:21:15 -0700 2008 Fri Sep 26 12:21:15 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Sun Sep 14 06:20:33 -0700 2008 Sun Sep 14 06:20:38 -0700 2008 2 0 false false Thu Sep 11 12:56:27 -0700 2008 Thu Sep 11 12:56:27 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Wed Aug 06 13:17:31 -0700 2008 Wed Aug 06 13:17:31 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Fri Jul 25 07:23:16 -0700 2008 Fri Jul 25 07:26:10 -0700 2008 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=184662