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132nd out of 575 books
—
56 voters
UTZ
Utz collects Meissen porcelain with a passion. His collection, which he has protected and enlarged through both World War II and Czechoslovakia's years of Stalinism, numbers more than 1,000 pieces, all crammed into his two-room Prague flat.
Utz is allowed to leave the country each year, and although he has considered defection, he always returns. He cannot take his precious...more
Utz is allowed to leave the country each year, and although he has considered defection, he always returns. He cannot take his precious...more
Paperback, 154 pages
Published
October 4th 1999
by Penguin Canada
(first published 1988)
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About 3/4 of the way in and I'm finding it really easy to read. It's sneakily subversive, witty, elegant in a quiet way and really gets its hooks into you. Absorbing, slightly absurd, legitimately funny and slyly knowing.
It was pressed on me by a drunken friend who insisted that I check it out. It was also among the 5,000 books namedropped by Hitchens (in a personal essay, though, and I think he probably knew the author well) so that's always a plus.
So far at least it's the kind of book tha...more
Piccolo libricino, preso quasi per caso e che invece si è rivelato una lettura molto coinvolgente. Primo romanzo che mi capita di leggere di Bruce Chatwin, è anche l'ultimo che il grande viaggiatore ha scritto prima di morire. La storia racconta del barone Utz e della sua fantastica collezione di porcellane Meissen e di come tutta la sua vita sia stata condizionata da questa passione. Molto profondo nel descrivere i tratti di questa ossessione, racconta la lotta di Utz per preservare dallo sface...more
La collezione proibita.
Strano romanzo questo Utz, breve quanto intenso, multiforme e cangiante.
Non avevo mai letto niente di Chatwin, ma per sentito dire o per articoli letti qua e là mi immaginavo viaggi avventurosi in terre lontane oltreoceano.
Mi sono ritrovata invece a Praga, «la più misteriosa tra le città europee», a viaggiare nella mente indecifrabile di Utz, un ricco collezionista di porcellane settecentesche della casa Meissen di Dresda; di origine tedesca, ebreo per parte di madre, Utz...more
Strano romanzo questo Utz, breve quanto intenso, multiforme e cangiante.
Non avevo mai letto niente di Chatwin, ma per sentito dire o per articoli letti qua e là mi immaginavo viaggi avventurosi in terre lontane oltreoceano.
Mi sono ritrovata invece a Praga, «la più misteriosa tra le città europee», a viaggiare nella mente indecifrabile di Utz, un ricco collezionista di porcellane settecentesche della casa Meissen di Dresda; di origine tedesca, ebreo per parte di madre, Utz...more
Utz is the story of Utz, a collector of fine porcelains. I have to admit the story was bizarre and somewhat hard to understand. The basic premise is before the war, Utz was a baron with a large estate. As a young child living with his grandmother, he took a fondness to porcelain figurines, using his money to purchase pieces. As he got older, he refined his tastes to learn between those pieces which were great and those which were fakes or sub-par.
With the onset of World War II, he packaged up h...more
With the onset of World War II, he packaged up h...more
I finally got around to reading this. I recall there being quite a stir about it when it came out; various friends were sure I'd love it because I had been to Prague.
I'm not entirely sure what I think of it. It's well written and I might have been quite taken with it had I read it in 1989. Unquestionably I would have liked it very much had I read it earlier in the 80s (but of course it wasn't yet written then). Now, however, I'm not particularly taken with the title character (which is perfectly...more
I'm not entirely sure what I think of it. It's well written and I might have been quite taken with it had I read it in 1989. Unquestionably I would have liked it very much had I read it earlier in the 80s (but of course it wasn't yet written then). Now, however, I'm not particularly taken with the title character (which is perfectly...more
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Feb 16, 2012
Nell Grey
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Lovers of original writing...
Shelves:
modern-fiction
Bruce Chatwin considered Utz to be a work of fiction, but it's written in such a way that it feels true. The narrator's voice is identical to that of the author's in In Patagonia, a journal of his travels (although one with more than a hint of the surreal and bizarre), and stylistically Utz follows a similar structure.
The story centres around the character of Kasper Utz and his amazing and valuable collection of Meissen porcelain, both trapped in Czechoslovakia during the turbulent and dangerou...more
The story centres around the character of Kasper Utz and his amazing and valuable collection of Meissen porcelain, both trapped in Czechoslovakia during the turbulent and dangerou...more
I have a special relationship with this book. I read it while I was living abroad and it really sparked something special inside me. To me this book is the perfect intersection of language, humor, and intelligence, and I realized that was the same feeling I hoped to stir with my own writing.
It's a very simple story and a short one, almost a child's fable. The narrator goes to Prague (during the iron curtain days) to track down a man rumored to have an incredible collection of Meissen china. What...more
It's a very simple story and a short one, almost a child's fable. The narrator goes to Prague (during the iron curtain days) to track down a man rumored to have an incredible collection of Meissen china. What...more
This short novel was rather odd. It centers around Kaspar Utz, an eccentric Czech who collects 18th century porcelain figurines. He maintains his large collection in a small two-room apartment, despite living in Prague under the oppressive communist regime of the mid-20th century. Utz slowly develops its protagonist's character, reconfiguring the portrait it draws as it reveals new facts and anecdotes. Utz' life and personality also provide an interesting commentary on the preservation of intell...more
Mystical and pragmatic elements combine in a narrative about a collector in a society which no longer appreciates objects of beauty – including its citizens. Whimsy and trickery combine in a dance of possibilities and probabilities but little is left clear. Even the facts sit among layers of imagination. And then there are opinions… expert and otherwise, mostly otherwise from neighbours and vested interests. But what are they really interested in? A book where many values seem discarded, but few...more
Jan 26, 2009
Brian
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
porcelain junkies
Shelves:
read-2009
Utz is a man obsessed with porcelain figurines and dishes. I do not possess knowledge of porcelain wares. That's knowledge I can live without.
Utz lives in Czechoslovakia. It's oppressive. He wants to leave. The government let's him travel once a year. He must leave behind his precious porcelain collection. He realizes that the freedom enjoyed in free countries is tainted (luxury is only luxurious under adverse conditions). He decides to stay in Czechoslovakia with his porcelain. He dies. His por...more
Utz lives in Czechoslovakia. It's oppressive. He wants to leave. The government let's him travel once a year. He must leave behind his precious porcelain collection. He realizes that the freedom enjoyed in free countries is tainted (luxury is only luxurious under adverse conditions). He decides to stay in Czechoslovakia with his porcelain. He dies. His por...more
I read this beautiful little book with the Lincoln Park Book Group and fell in love with the writing of Bruce Chatwin. More recently it was included in a class I took at University of Chicago on the literature of Prague. Fundamentally it is the story of Kaspar Utz, who lives in Prague and who is consumed by collecting figurines and living a quiet life under the communist system. Utz is painted as a prisoner to his dolls while he lives under a totalitarian regime, so when he leaves on his annual...more
The portrait of the titular Utz, a porcelain collector living in Czechoslovakia. At first he seems to be another drab, oppressed official. But Utz is a complex figure. Despite living behind the Iron Curtain, he finds freedom there and grows restless in the west; despite being unremarkable and unassuming, he is a lothario. The narrator revises his opinion of Utz with each new development, revealing a new facet of the man. This is an elegant, well crafted story that plays on the reader's assumptio...more
I am not completely sure what I expected of Utz. The life and passions of an obsessive Czech porcelain collector? It sounded a bit like "High Fidelity" behind the Iron Curtain. All the same, I loved Chatwin's "Patagonia" and decided to give Utz a chance. The hilarious dialogue and ambitious historical scope (which is especially noticeable given the small size of the book) caught me by surprise and made this a very enjoyable read.
On the surface, Utz is the story of a fanatical collector attempting to maintain normalcy in Cold War-era Prague, but despite its brevity, Utz is a charming, nuanced novel that shows Chatwin at his best.
This book basically sets out Chatwin's core premise (i.e. that mankind is nomadic at heart), but makes the point by showing the antithesis to The Songlines. Where Chatwin used the Australian aborigines as the positive example of his theory, Kaspar Utz represents the polar opposite: a man so compl...more
This book basically sets out Chatwin's core premise (i.e. that mankind is nomadic at heart), but makes the point by showing the antithesis to The Songlines. Where Chatwin used the Australian aborigines as the positive example of his theory, Kaspar Utz represents the polar opposite: a man so compl...more
Chatwin tells the story of a collector of Meissen porecelain in Cold War Czechoslovakia. Reminding me a bit of Hare With Amber Eyes, but mostly because it was about a collector, the search for the objects move the story forward. This is a small book, almost a novella, with strong characters and an honest portrayal of life behind the Iron Curtain. Thoughtful and memorable.
I remember being very disappointed when I first started reading Bruce Chatwin's novels. I wanted to like them, LOVE them, because he was OMG!Bruce Chatwin! and you had to worship what he did.
It broke my heart that I couldn't like his novels as much as I did his travel books. I thought it was my fault somehow.-
Well, I was a teenager, so I think I shall be forgiven...
Looking back, i don't feel bad about not liking his novels much anymore. they are good novels, but they are simply not my kind of no...more
It broke my heart that I couldn't like his novels as much as I did his travel books. I thought it was my fault somehow.-
Well, I was a teenager, so I think I shall be forgiven...
Looking back, i don't feel bad about not liking his novels much anymore. they are good novels, but they are simply not my kind of no...more
It’s a wintry day some time between November and mid-March. You have the day off or decide to ring in sick. You are tucked up in bed or on the sofa or an old armchair, with or without a pot of coffee, or of tea, and roll-ups. Outside it’s raining or snowing or the skies are dark and grey. Your flat or your house is quiet and still. If you can picture getting on with any of that and fancy a new read, Utz is for you.
Set during the last years of Czechoslovakia before the end of communism this short novel is based around a meeting between the author and the character of Utz, a collector of porcelain and their discussion around his collection and the nature and history of European porcelain. The rest of the story is reconstructed after the death of Utz.
Well-told story, yet missing something... like maybe the reason for telling it? The narrator seems too detached from it, as if he's being forced to tell it. Still, for the cultural aspects alone, it's worth reading (it's short and reads quickly), as it gives one a good look at Czechoslovakia during and immediately after the Iron Curtain.
The first book I've read by Chatwin, and I must admit to being a little underwhelmed by it. Possibly had I come to the book with lower expectations I might be a little more glowing in my praise. Still, it's an enjoyable little novella, and maybe worth a re-read in a year or so to see if it stands up or not.
Never thought to live just for your passion to material objects? Damn! Bruce Chatwin, in this book, persuaded me that I can do many things but if I am not a collector of art, I will never been the developped man I pretend, in my inner part, to be.
Prague, porcelain, and an eerie police state. Lovely book, a mix between Sebald and de Waal (Hare with Amber Eyes), that is funny and deep - plus, an mention of golems and/or cabbalistic rituals - not the rmband-kind) is always a plus.
"In Grimm's Etymological Wordbook, 'utz' carries any number of negative connotations: 'drunk', 'dimwit', 'cardsharp', 'dealer in dud horses'. 'Heinzen, Kunzen, Utzen oder Butzen', in the dialect of Lower Swabia, is the equivalent of 'Any Tim, Dick or Harry."
funny, riveting and a quick read.
funny, riveting and a quick read.
A book that touches on freedom and confinement, obsessions, needs and wants, love and lust.
I'd read two of Bruce Chatwin's travel books and wasn't much taken with them, but this book captured my attentions.
I'd read two of Bruce Chatwin's travel books and wasn't much taken with them, but this book captured my attentions.
I read this in one very late sitting. I really enjoyed its quite a strange story focusing not so much on the plot and more on the strange character of Utz. I really like Bruce Chatwins writing, and although I enjoyed this I prefer his travel writing.
Jul 28, 2011
Drew
added it
I'll be searching out more of Chatwin's fiction after this. Extremely enjoyable, particularly the effortlessly embedded historical detail, vividly evoking Soviet era Prague.
This book which so exquisitely tells the story of the Cold War on a human level and explores so finely the nature of collecting and obsession is a finely crafted gem of a novel.
A Czech porcelain collector - not what you'd expect from Bruce Chatwin, whose travel writing is so limpid and sharp.. Excellent!
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Charles Bruce Chatwin was an English novelist and travel writer. He died of AIDS.
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Oct 29, 2012 04:31pm
Yeah this book was foisted on me by a dear friend and I loved it...more
Oct 29, 2012 09:29pm
Oct 30, 2012 03:20pm