Prague

Oct 24, 2011 Ian Graye rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviews, read-2011, phillips-arthur

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.
Second: a gross generalization: obviously influ...more

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Aug 17, 2007 Lp rated it 1 of 5 stars

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 (and that's being...more 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 (and that's being generous) characters, save one, who gets precious little ink. One reviewer said he could have done without section II, which introduces this one character of substance, a Hungarian printer. If it hadn't been for this section, I wouldn't have finished the book (hey maybe I could have done without section II after all!). The author's one gift comes out in his lists. At least you know there is some structure, and that it will end at some point. Unfortunately, there are only two or three lists in the book.

His voice is very inconsistent. There are these extremely dry attempts at circuitous, self-consciously poetic humor (which for the most part fail) at the same time as there are these gee-whiz takes on things that I think are supposed to be suprising that most of us who hadn't fallen asleep figured out 100 pages ago. Unless this is some postmodern attempt at...postmodernism? In which case, yawn.

The person who recommended this book to me, whose tastes I otherwise respect, found it very funny. I didn't get the humor at all.

Some mention was made, too, of it being a "Gen-x novel." And that that was a possible reason for my not liking the book. Oh, please. I'm not so old that I can't see Gen-X from here, but if it is a book about a generation, I definitely feel for the young-uns for being so....boring! One of the characters likens the losers who are wasting their ex-pat opportunities to the "Lost Generation" of ex-pats in Paris and Berlin in the 20s and 30s. This struck me as ridiculously funny, but not in the context of the story an a misguided character, but because I think the author really meant it.

Of course this could just be the author being smarter than any of us. Ha ha. Still, I doubt it. In the middle of my struggle with this book, I happened to hear the author reading some story about a guy's tryst with an Eastern European spy/prostitute on "This American Life." I didn't find his voice any more compelling when I could actually hear it. Not to mention his story-telling abilities.(less)

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Nov 02, 2007 Ben rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Gen-X expats

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, fuck it. It's a damn snooze fest....more

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Feb 06, 2008 Bruce rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: insomniacs

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-voiced Holden Cau...more

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Jan 11, 2008 Suzy rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: former expats, lovers of the written word

Shelves: all-time-favorite

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 often sim...more

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Jun 27, 2008 CLM rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

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 desc...more

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Aug 05, 2011 Tom Varnum 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 with...more

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Jan 26, 2013 Bruce rated it 4 of 5 stars

On Arthur Phillips’ website, the following pivotal passage is included in the synopsis of Prague, his first novel:

"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?"

These words are placed in the mouths of the novel’s pri...more On Arthur Phillips’ website, the following pivotal passage is included in the synopsis of Prague, his first novel:

"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?"

These words are placed in the mouths of the novel’s principal characters, a group of twentysomething American expatriates who seek adventure and understanding in the newly freed Eastern bloc. And what struck me in reading the passage was that this outsized narrative covering a year’s time in 1990-91 Budapest is remarkable ten years after its publication not only for its wit, style, and poignancy, but also for its portrayal of a world in which very little has changed. Emerging from the novel, one could easily see young Americans today asking exactly the same questions and arriving at exactly the same non-answers in post-revolutionary Tunisia or Egypt.

In other words, the story resonates. But that resonance comes not only from the moment in history the story captures, but also from the author’s seemingly effortless command of his art. Each sitting takes the reader on a gliding ride through imagery and emotion that is vivid, at times piercing, but always easy to digest. Even the massive interlude Phillips injects in Part Two is completely painless, and in fact invigorating. Here we are treated to hundreds of years of Hungarian history given as backstory for one of the novel’s few aged characters, a device that illuminates the character, takes us on a exhilarating flight, and lays a solid foundation for the remainder of the story.

As it turns out, I have once again let a book sit on the shelf for much too long. Phillips has delivered four novels since Prague, all to great critical acclaim. But I figure arriving at the party late is much preferred to not arriving at all.
(less)

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Jan 01, 2013 Nancy rated it 4 of 5 stars

American 20-something expats seeking adventure in Europe, keeping unlikely company, flaunting public intoxication, patronizing less experienced expats in an attempt to disguise their own naivete and vulnerability; contentedly bearing a weak grasp on the ambient language, and copping mystified yet never-the-less ridiculously cocky attitudes. Oh man, this book brought me back to the good old days! While my days, however, were set in the relatively stable socioeconomic backdrop of Rome circa 2005,...more

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Sep 23, 2012 Koen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Walau berjudul Praha, buku ini bersetting cerita di Budapest, beberapa bulan setelah jatuhnya komunisme. Hongaria mengajarkan rakyatnya menganggap diri perlu ditolong (mereka dijajah Jerman pada PD II, dihancurkan dan dimusuhi semua pasukan yang berperang, lalu dijajah komunis sejak itu). Sebagian besar tokoh cerita ini adalah para expat pencari peruntungan. Dengan satu atau cara lain, mereka merasa hilang. Sungguh post-eksistensialisme. Yang menarik, dengan demikian, adalah bahwa cerita ini tid...more Walau berjudul Praha, buku ini bersetting cerita di Budapest, beberapa bulan setelah jatuhnya komunisme. Hongaria mengajarkan rakyatnya menganggap diri perlu ditolong (mereka dijajah Jerman pada PD II, dihancurkan dan dimusuhi semua pasukan yang berperang, lalu dijajah komunis sejak itu). Sebagian besar tokoh cerita ini adalah para expat pencari peruntungan. Dengan satu atau cara lain, mereka merasa hilang. Sungguh post-eksistensialisme. Yang menarik, dengan demikian, adalah bahwa cerita ini tidak perlu mengangkat tokoh protagonis dan antagonis. Sekedar hidup di tempat yang sedang menata definisi, termasuk tokoh2nya sendiri.

John Price, tokoh yang paling sering diceritakan, selalu merasa punya visi, mengejar entah apa itu, yang dia yakin … tidak di sini. Dia terus mengejar integritas dirinya, somehow, sambil kadang terjebak pada pikiran bahwa sebenarnya apa yang kita lakukan bukan sepenuhnya kehendak bebas. Ada game sincerity di bagian awal: para tokoh bertemu di sebuah meja, bergantian membuat pernyataan (yang tak dapat dibuktikan dengan mudah), lalu semua saling menilai mana di antara pernyataan yang disebut itu yang benar, dan mana yang bohong.

Maka di tengah cerita, Charles muda (Karoly, anak imigran Hongaria yang lari ke Amrik saat Soviet menyerbu kembali negeri itu di 1956. “Tak benar bahwa kita salah mengerti tentang para komunis. Mereka benar2 pembunuh, dan jahat.”) berkongsi dengan Imre (pengusaha Hongaria yang telah melewati seluruh penderitaan negerinya). Modal Charles diperoleh dari kongsi dengan banyak partner, yang terkesan atas tulisan John tentang Charles (Dia tak selalu menulis yang sesuai dengan hatinya. Tapi inilah hidup: kita tidak tahu mana yang sesuai hatinya dan mana yang tidak). Masalahnya, Imre mengalami koma. Dan Charles menjual perusahaan mereka ke perusahaan asing dengan keuntungan luar biasa. Saat transaksi ditepuktangani, Imre bangun: lumpuh tetapi bisa berkomunikasi. Terjadi ledakan kemarahan dan penyesalan atau tuduhan jahat? Tentu tidak. Ini, sekali lagi, bukan sinetron Indonesia.

“Kayak apa sih rasanya?” tanya John. Untuk mana Charles mengejek, “Hare gene? Mikirin perasaan?” Tak elok andai Charles dituding sebagai penjahat. Dia bukan misalnya pengejar harta yang serakah, tetapi hanya orang yang mencoba secara jujur dan terampil mencari kesempatan bisnis. Tertembaknya Charles, dan terfitnahnya John, hanya merupakan cara untuk menutup novel agar tak jadi lembek. John pergi ke tempat yang sesuai visinya: Praha, memasang harapan yang sama, dan barangkali menemui letup2 hidup yang berbeda tapi sebenarnya sama lagi.

Waktu buku ditutup: ah, sebenarnya memang hidup tak jauh berbeda :p. Mudah2an tak terperangkap seperti tokoh Nadya yang menggelung diri dalam ingatan kolektif. Dan, oh ya, novel ini membosankan.(less)

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May 06, 2012 Carl Brush rated it 4 of 5 stars

You won’t find another novel like Prague. A book, as reviewer Ron Charles puts it, “about Budapest called Prague by a Midwesterner who lives in Paris.” Actually, Charles omits the fact that although Arthur Phillips started out in Minneapolis, he stopped over in Cambridge on the way to pick up a Harvard degree. It’s not as though some flatland naif-savant suddenly became a literary phenom. Worthy of note as well is that Phillips may be the only writer of note to claim five Jeopardy championships....more You won’t find another novel like Prague. A book, as reviewer Ron Charles puts it, “about Budapest called Prague by a Midwesterner who lives in Paris.” Actually, Charles omits the fact that although Arthur Phillips started out in Minneapolis, he stopped over in Cambridge on the way to pick up a Harvard degree. It’s not as though some flatland naif-savant suddenly became a literary phenom. Worthy of note as well is that Phillips may be the only writer of note to claim five Jeopardy championships. But to the novel itself.
Prague is a work of studied and relentless irony. Its tone is reminiscent of Franzen, but it’s Franzen exaggerated. Irony demands detachment, but Phillips’ brand often puts us so far outside the story and the characters that we seem to be watching their world on a department store t.v. screen from across a wide boulevard. In the opening pages, he introduces his band of young ex-pats by describing a pub game, a variation of Truth or Dare, which they play regularly and take seriously. He doesn’t show us anyone at first, but instead lists the game’s rules--by the numbers. Phillips is fond of such lists and quantification and uses them often. Here, he takes us through rounds one, two, three, and four of the game, during which we learn that the group of Americans (whoops, one Canadian) has been drawn to Budapest by the recent fall (it’s 1990) of Communism. It’s something of a wild west situation, a society whose old rules no longer apply, whose new rules have yet to be drawn. A place of confusion and opportunity. None of the characters appears particularly wise or prescient, none clear about why they are there. Witness this exchange from “Round Two.”
[Charles:] There will come a point . . . when the Hungarians will realize that you can have too much democracy. They’ll realize they need a slightly stronger hand at the helm, and they’ll make the right choice” a strong Hungary with a real national-coporatist philosophy. . . . Like they had in the early forties.”
Mark: “As my dad always said, one’s pain should always be held in perspective. There is always someone worse off than yourself. That’s a perennial comfort.”
Emily: “. . . the world contains more nice people than mean people. I really believe that.”
It seems clear that Phillips wants us to join him in a certain amount of snickering and sneering at the banality of these conversations. The listing and the pseudo-playscripting are just two of the devices he uses to keep us at least at arm’s length from the story. He can’t have us identifying too closely with characters we’re meant to be judging rather harshly. Prague is a novel, rather like a Brechtian play, intended to make us think more than feel. Still, Phillips manages to engage our sympathies enough to keep us reading. He’s subtle, but he’s good at it. Here, he’s describing Emily’s morning workout, and we’re amused at her compulsiveness:
When the Monday sun hoisted its first yolk-yellow arc over an eastern hill of Buda, Emily was. . . waiting for it. . . . She was in the third part of a five-part high-impact-aerobics workout she had done every morning since her first day at the University of Nebraska. . . . she began her routine before sunrise and at the first glimpse of the sun, she would say, “Boo!” just as her father had done every morning in Nebraska, holding little Emily on his lap on a porch swing or at the kitchen table.
And with a touch of Rockwellian sentimentality, Phillips saves the scene from incipient ridicule and staves off total reader alienation.
Phillips is also a master of efficient and sarcastic exposition. He and Zadie Smith share this facility, I think. Here’s a scene where Charles (who speaks Hungarian via his parents, but is in every other way American) is introduced to a sixty-something Hungarian publisher who is trying to get his exiled-to-Vienna-during-Communism business re-established in Budapest.
My good [Charles] we are very honored to welcome you. . . . We are quite at your disposal. Your trip, I hope, was--” The script was followed precisely (alternating in generous English and generous Hungarian, until the man who reverted first to his native tongue would have admitted the same defeat as the man who lets his business rival pay for lunch): the names of the three other men. the ritual exchange and tribal inspection of business cards. a joke abut the ritual of exchanging and tribally inspecting business cards. Charles’s request that the others call him Karoly. Horvath noting the coincidence [of their identical last names]. Charles’s travel experience. Vienna, the neighborhood. the building. . . . Conclusion of introductory remarks. shiny delicious early train to Innsbruck not yet an impossibility.
It’s quite a while before the various plots and subplots sort out and the primary storyline manifests. That’s appropriate because the characters themselves lead generally aimless lives whose directions become more clear pretty much by happenstance. It’s not until the last third of the book that the reader (at least this reader) gets truly pulled into the intrigue. By that time Phillips has established so many layers of reality that it’s a simultaneously exciting and bewildering experience to travel from one character’s mind or location to another.
The geographical and psychological bi-location of Buda and Pest contributes to the feeling of separation of reader from characters and the characters from one another. Back and forth across the Chain Bridge and over the Danube travel the plots and people who are trying to make some sense and some hay out of the post-apocalyptic chaos. By the end we’re treated to what Phillips seems to intend as metaphorical capitalist deal-making over a comatose Eastern Europe. We divided the region up at Versailles (Call it Trianon, the Hungarians insist) after WWI; now we’re dividing it up again with cash rather than treaties.
As moralistic and even cliched as that judgment might sound, the atmosphere of Prague is clearly amoral. This is neither the naive do-gooding-with-unforseen-consequences of The Quiet American or the rape of the innocents a la Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. Collusion and corruption occur almost by accident. In general, these people do not exploit with intent, but by default. Greed is no more or less evil than a range of urges from adoration to dipsomania, and this crowd follows its impulses.
Despite the fact that Phillips doesn’t let us touch his characters with ten-foot pole most of the time, the book is a satisfying read that uses a specific time and place to help us experience what can happen when people with little internal structure are placed in a situation where virtually all external structures have disappeared. There are many such times and places in history, and Phillips has chosen well an environment that to my knowledge has been written about very little. At least in English.
And what of Prague? The city, not the novel. It bothered me a mightily throughout most of the book that there was so little of Prague in Prague. Now that I’ve finished, I think I know what Phillips intended, but to share my thought would be to ruin the book for others, so I’ll keep it to myself for now.(less)

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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. Unexpectedly, one emerged in Eastern Europe when the Berlin wall fel...more ---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. Unexpectedly, one emerged in Eastern Europe when the Berlin wall fell in 1989. The Gen X crowd went in droves to Prague and Moscow, and in smaller trickles to Budapest, Hungary, the setting for Arthur Phillip's ironically named first novel.

The time is 1990, and the gold rush is on for that eminently desirable thing called experience. The action revolves around a group of four Americans who socialize with each other in a select circuit of bars and cafes. In the case of Mark Payton, the American label is a mistake: Mark is actually Canadian. A graduate student, he wants to turn his dissertation about the culture and architecture of nostalgia into a book. For Scott Price, Budapest is a way station on a prolonged therapeutic escape from his family and history, which he blames for all his problems. Much to Scott's displeasure, his younger brother John has followed him to Budapest. John, whose point of view dominates the novel, is 24, an anomalous virgin with the habit common to his generation of turning his personal contradictions into easy ironies. During the course of the novel, while pursuing his obsession with Emily Oliver, an attaché to the American ambassador, John will lose his virginity to Nicki, an in-your-face artist with a shaved head.

John's sensitivity to Hungarian culture doesn't prevent him from being instrumental in ripping it off as part of a scheme cooked up by Charles Gábor, another member of the group. A native of Michigan, Charles actually speaks Hungarian, a linguistic gift he owes to his parents, refugees from the unsuccessful 1956 revolt against the Russians.

Although the beginning of the book is a bit bumpy with stage-setting, once we have a sense of Phillips' characters, their trajectories are moving, funny and above all, interesting. They never quite find the experience they're searching for, but in the process they turn a concrete, historically autonomous place like Budapest into a crossroads of peculiarly American schemes and dreams.(less)

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Sep 26, 2011 Patrick McCoy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary-fiction

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 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. Having lived abroad for several years I can understand the sense of adventure and opportunity living abroad offers romantic types as well.

This edition was a reading group edition with an interview with the author and discussion question. One
question asks why the novel is called Prague if it takes place in Budapest. His answer is:

”The novel is named not for a city, but for an emotional disorder. Milan Kundera wrote a marvelous book called Life Is Elsewhere (set in Prague, incidentally) that touches on the same idea: if only I were there, or with her, or doing that, or born fifty years earlier, then I would be where the action is. So for some expatriates living in Budapest, Prague felt like the place to be. Had those same people been in Prague, Budapest would have seemed like their paradise misplaced…” from A Conversation With The Author

I really liked Life is Elsewhere, too, Kundera is one of my favorite contemporary authors. I feel as though I sometimes suffer form this disorder as well…Paris in the 20s/Weimar Germany in the 30s before the Nazis took power/New York in the 50s/etc… But I do think “Life Is Here” in Tokyo-there is a lot of action going on, but others would say it is Shanghai. So one of the main ideas in the novel is that of the idealized past nostalgia for an ear one didn’t live in. But there’s more, the quest for finding oneself that sometimes involves others, the fragility/difficulties of relationships and more. A very thought provoking and entertaining novel.(less)

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Sep 19, 2010 Pat rated it 4 of 5 stars

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 his books turn out. "Prague" i...more

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Jul 27, 2010 Rowland Bismark rated it 3 of 5 stars

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

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Apr 22, 2010 Xon rated it 3 of 5 stars

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: "if only I...more

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Jun 14, 2009 Eleanor rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Recent Central European Travelers

Recommended to Eleanor by: LJ Martin

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 character disa...more

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Jun 08, 2009 Nicola rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

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 interesting – e...more 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 interesting – even when they are also infuriating – and Phillips’ tendency to switch POV (which can often be the kiss of death) works skilfully to reveal their quirks and self-delusions. There were times while I was reading Prague that I wanted to hug it and call it one of my favourite books ever.

However, over the month it took me to read this book (and I am no slow reader) there were just as many days when I hated the novel and wanted to throw it across the room in exasperation. The book is not only long, it’s also dense. Phillips has a wonderful way of describing people and events. Unfortunately, the long passages of simile- and metaphor-strewn prose really weigh the novel down – sometimes you just want Phillips to cut the cute wordplay and just move the story along. That’s another of the novel’s problems, of course. For a 200,000-word novel, there is very little plot. The characters bumble through their lives and things happen to them, occasionally. There are even a few instances were Phillips’ authorial hand is visible, bringing storylines to a conclusion, creating dramatic moments. But, to be a successful, well-plotted novel, it would all require a much tighter authorial rein. And some goddamn editing.

Phillips is prone to digressions and – are you sensing a theme here? – sometimes they are joyous and sometimes they are annoying. There’s one lengthy passage in the novel where a building is described in terms of its owners, tracing family lines back over generations. It’s a clever idea, but adds absolutely nothing to the novel. It often seems that Phillips is so assured of his own genius that he feels his readers will follow his eclectic brain wherever it wanders. To say that this becomes tiresome to a reader who is looking for entertainment is an understatement. Ultimately, I think Prague is too muddled to even be considered worthy of literary study, and it’s certainly not a book that an undetermined non-scholar will want to persevere with.(less)

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Jun 07, 2009 christa rated it 2 of 5 stars

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 desire to shed his past, Emily, a plain-old...more 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 desire to shed his past, Emily, a plain-old Nebraska good girl who cannot tell a lie, and Charles, the flesh-pressing leader of the troupe and the Canadian, Mark, who is on the surface, compulsively studying nostalgia, while quietly going insane.

Part I hyper-exposes them as cliches of the 20-something world travelers in a way that made me swoon and giggle and love each of them despite their know-it-all, on-top-of-the-world bravado. Part II shifts focus to the elderly Imre Horvath's past in relation to Hungary's past, and the publishing house his forefathers built. Good God. The whole thing reminded me of that awful semester in college where I ended up slogging toward a C in a history class I hated. Unfortunately, Imre Horvath's chapters are crucial to the next two sections of the book, business relationships and more history, nearly impossible to focus on, given the circumference of my permanent yawn.

To be fair, there are still occasional gems in this novel, that kept me from using it to roast S'mores. Nicky, a bald bisexual artist who is both hands on and hands off with John, is a great character -- especially when she seduces the all-American snore, whom John thinks is the love of his life, Emily. And even in the bitterly blase end, there are entire paragraphs that are utterly fantastic:

"He could not stomach setting off into 1991 with any of the others, not even Karen Whitley, who had lately donned a transparent attitude of jaded, sophisticated, take-it-or-leave-it disappointment, laced with a golden thread of ironic guilt-mongering, dusted all over with a heady vanilla body-spray scent of still-available."

Ha! I've met her before.

Plus, Phillips does some interesting things with structure. For instance, shifting perspective between two characters in alternating paragraphs; List-making, with lists so long that you forget you are reading a list.

This is, very obviously, the same person who wrote "The Song is You." I'd recognize the elaborate metaphors, even if they were wearing a fedora, trench coat and awkward sunglasses. It's just that in this novel, it is exhausting; In "The Song is You," it becomes part of the charm.
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Apr 11, 2009 Shannon rated it 3 of 5 stars

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 characters weren't all likable (far...more 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 characters weren't all likable (far from it), they were fully developed, unique one from the other and not archetypes.

3) Theme: While the novel is entitled Prague, the entire book takes place in Budapest. Part-way through the book, I wondered why this was the case. But it became more clear to me as I went on and I actually found this one of the most intriguing elements of this book. Several of the characters think their lives would be better "if only." As in, "If only I had lived before the two world wars." "If only my father hadn't been so successful that I will forever live in his shadow." OR "If only I were in Prague instead of Budapest." This was a subtle element of the book, which made it all the more thought-provoking for me and all the more enjoyable.

While the book did all of these things well, I am giving it only three stars. Largely because:

1) Pacing: It took me a long time to read this book, even though it is <400 pages. I wanted things to move a bit faster.

2) Descriptions: While I love a good word picture as much (or more) than the next person, I found myself wanting Phillips to get to the point. I don't need a fabulous metaphor for rain every other page. Sometimes it's OK for it to just rain.

3) Mood: While the characters were fully developed, their constant sarcasm wore of me a bit. It was kind of like spending time with a very negative person. After a while, you start to see the world their way, even if that's not your preferred frame of reference.

So who should read this book and why? If you love - or even are interested in - Eastern Europe, this book takes you there. If you want a book that you can read slowly, perhaps alongside a non-fiction book, this book would be a good choice. There are fairly frequent breaks, so you can read a few pages and set the book aside until you are ready to return to it. If you aren't looking for a pick-me-up, but a thoughtful, well-written book, give this a try.(less)

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Dec 02, 2012 Jori Richardson rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-owned

This complex novel gives insight into the lives of five young Americans living in Budapest in the 1990's. I decided to read it due to a recent interest I have found with Americans living in Paris during that Golden Age of the 1920's. I had also heard Phillips compared to Kundera, one of my top three favorite authors.

"Prague" is intricate, with a great many things going on, contrasting and interesting characters, and a wide span and understanding of human nature in general. I appreciated its comp...more

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Jan 30, 2011 Eveline Chao rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

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 entertaining, and...more

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Mar 27, 2011 Brian rated it 4 of 5 stars

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 style...more

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Dec 09, 2009 Eszter rated it 2 of 5 stars

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 insightful...more

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Jan 26, 2009 Geraldine rated it 1 of 5 stars

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 probl...more

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Feb 16, 2010 Katie rated it 5 of 5 stars

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 like him, living in ci...more

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Mar 15, 2013 Diane rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

This book must be read slowly with lots of wool-gathering time to be satisfying. The novel opens with a game played by its characters called Sincerity which involves truth- and lie-telling and the players' discernment of which is which. The game seemed to me to be mean-spirited (really, hasn't anyone played Trivial Pursuit lately?) until you apprehend that it inextricably linked with the book's theme.
Prague is not set in Prague, it is spent in Budapest. This announces the novel's element of por...more

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Sep 13, 2012 Molly rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: kindle-fire

I often felt, while reading this novel, that I was looking around characters and concepts rather than straight at them. There were so many misses with this novel--characters misunderstanding one another, characters cruelly pulling things apart behind one another's back, characters despising one another for unspecified reasons. And while there were five characters playing a game of truths + lies at the start, we really mainly get the perspective of the newcomer to the group, and for me, he was le...more

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Nov 04, 2011 Felix Zilich rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: hate-list

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 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 финале больше.

После подобного вступления можно ожидать от этого отзыва лишь одного. Моей попытки сыграть в “искренность” на бумаге за счет романа Артура Филлипса. Обещаю, что этой попытки не будет, хотя вы никогда и не сможете угадать то, насколько я был честен в этом заявлении. Почему? А потому что “Прага” – одна из главных книг, прочитанных за этот год. “Главных” – по той причине, что я наконец нашел для себя роман, который могу тупо и искренне ненавидеть. В “Праге” сочетается все то, что я реально не переношу в современной литературе. И сочетается настолько хитро и прямолинейно, что я стал догадываться об этом только к странице двухсотой или трехсотой. А это очень болезненное и невероятно мучительное открытие.

Во-первых, “Прага” – это мемуары тридцатилетнего человека, самого обыкновенного нашего современника. Типичная ситуация – человек хочет стать писателем, но воображение у него отсутствует, а из всего жизненного опыта только два года яслей, десять лет школы, пять лет института и три года работы в офисе. Угадайте, про что он будет писать? Естественно, про то, как хуево работать в офисе. Кому? Ему, представителю очередного “потерянного поколения”. Одним словом, здрасте, Бегбедер, Стогофф и половина отечественной современной литературы.

Артуру Филлипсу повезло. Помимо воспоминаний о штате Мичиган он может вспомнить еще и Будапешт образца 1990 года. Вспомнить и развить из этого претенциозную сюжетную мистерию Артуру Филлипсу повезло, но из-за этого зверски не повезло читателям. На протяжении 500 страниц они собирают конспирологические крохи и даже не догадываются, что перед ними всего лишь очередной роман на тему “как хуево мне было в офисе”.

Роман Артура Филлипса “Прага” я ненавижу, но при этом очень ценю. Если кто-нибудь из гостей просит почитать меня что-нибудь интересное и ужасно популярное, то я с удовольствием впариваю ему это книгу. Наверное, на самом деле я хочу подсознательно от нее избавиться, но уже пятый раз “Прага” бумерангом возвращается на свою полку с кучей каких-то мутных и якобы положительных отзывов. Люди, будьте бдительны! (2007.12.24)(less)

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Oct 22, 2012 Caroline rated it 1 of 5 stars

Reading this book felt like trudging through mud while wearing iron chains around my neck. It took everything in me to keep reading and finish this before Christmas. And yet. And yet now that I'm finished I feel a bit nostalgic to leave behind these characters who never seem to do anything at all. Their experiences led up to nothing and were so poorly interwoven together that most of the time I had no idea whose story I was reading. (And I honestly couldn't have cared less) Yet, this book does d...more

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