false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171248395m/92488.jpg 92488 9 In <I>Prague</I>, 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. <I>--Regina Marler</I> 3121153 2002 Prague: A Novel total:1169|5:93|4:281|3:386|2:266|1:143| 1169 3422 1823 211 1 5 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Aug 03 15:11:42 -0700 2007 Fri Aug 17 17:43:01 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 2 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Nov 02 07:50:11 -0700 2007 Fri Nov 02 07:56:21 -0700 2007
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 f...more...]]> 1 1 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Feb 06 19:16:18 -0800 2008 Wed Feb 06 19:29:22 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 11 18:41:52 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 11 18:47:48 -0800 2008 more...]]> 2 2 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2002 Fri Jun 27 12:49:31 -0700 2008 Fri Jun 27 12:55:21 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 14 20:01:48 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 14 20:07:27 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 1 false false Mon Jun 08 01:54:24 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 08 01:54:46 -0700 2009 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 happenin...more...]]> 2 2 false false Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 07 11:59:22 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 07 12:26:31 -0700 2009
Damn if I didn't fall hard in the early chapters, which find a handful of ...more...]]> 3 0 true false Sat Apr 11 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 11 07:46:32 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 11 07:56:37 -0700 2009
1) Evoke a sense of place: I've never been to Budapest, but I'd love to go, especially after...more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Nov 04 20:38:25 -0800 2009 Fri Nov 06 20:13:09 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Thu Apr 30 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 30 03:51:45 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 30 03:59:11 -0700 2009 more...]]> 1 0 false false Mon Jan 26 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 08 20:52:51 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 26 08:17:37 -0800 2009 more...]]> 1 0 false false Fri Jan 16 21:13:55 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 16 21:13:55 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 1 false false Sat Aug 29 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 19 05:12:19 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 13 21:35:34 -0700 2009 1 more...]]> 3 1 false false Fri Nov 02 08:12:38 -0700 2007 Fri Nov 02 08:14:57 -0700 2007 3 0 false false Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 31 08:48:43 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 04 08:37:34 -0700 2009
Also, when Char...more...]]> 2 0 false false Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 28 19:01:40 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 06 19:59:09 -0700 2009
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) y...more...]]> 1 0 false false Thu Jan 27 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Sun May 10 19:11:54 -0700 2009 Sun May 10 19:17:59 -0700 2009 more...]]> 1 0 false false Fri Feb 20 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 12 18:22:49 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 20 19:19:47 -0800 2009
Anyway, t...more...]]> 2 0 false false Sun Jul 05 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun May 31 07:51:50 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 08 13:50:54 -0700 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=92488