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Rates of Exchange & Why Come to Slaka?
Welcome to Slaka! A land of lake and forest, of beetroot and tractor, of cultural riches and bloody battlefields. Malcolm Bradbury's hilariously entertaining and witty novel, RATES OF EXCHANGE, introduces the small, eastern European country of Slaka. In less than two short weeks there, first-time visitor Dr Petworth manages to give a rather controversial lecture, get embroiled in the thorny thickets of sexual and domestic intrigues, fall in love, and still find time to see the main tourist attractions. In the wickedly funny satire WHY COME TO SLAKA? Malcolm Bradbury offers the would-be visitor, a la Dr Petworth, a wealth of information about the Slakan state, its pageantry and politics, its people and public figures, as well as some essential Slakan 'American Express? That will do very nicely.'
464 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
1 person is currently reading
125 people want to read
About the author
Malcolm Bradbury
106 books90 followersSir Malcolm Stanley Bradbury CBE was an English author and academic. He is best known to a wider public as a novelist. Although he is often compared with David Lodge, his friend and a contemporary as a British exponent of the campus novel genre, Bradbury's books are consistently darker in mood and less playful both in style and language. His best known novel The History Man, published in 1975, is a dark satire of academic life in the "glass and steel" universities—the then-fashionable newer universities of England that had followed their "redbrick" predecessors—which in 1981 was made into a successful BBC television serial. The protagonist is the hypocritical Howard Kirk, a sociology professor at the fictional University of Watermouth.
He completed his PhD in American studies at the University of Manchester in 1962, moving to the University of East Anglia (his second novel, Stepping Westward, appeared in 1965), where he became Professor of American Studies in 1970 and launched the world-renowned MA in Creative Writing course, which Ian McEwan and Kazuo Ishiguro both attended. He published Possibilities: Essays on the State of the Novel in 1973, The History Man in 1975, Who Do You Think You Are? in 1976, Rates of Exchange in 1983, Cuts: A Very Short Novel in 1987, retiring from academic life in 1995. Malcolm Bradbury became a Commander of the British Empire in 1991 for services to Literature, and was made a Knight Bachelor in the New Year Honours 2000, again for services to Literature.
Bradbury was a productive academic writer as well as a successful teacher; an expert on the modern novel, he published books on Evelyn Waugh, Saul Bellow and E. M. Forster, as well as editions of such modern classics as F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, and a number of surveys and handbooks of modern fiction, both British and American.
He also wrote extensively for television, including scripting series such as Anything More Would Be Greedy, The Gravy Train, the sequel The Gravy Train Goes East (which explored life in Bradbury's fictional Slaka), and adapting novels such as Tom Sharpe's Blott on the Landscape and Porterhouse Blue, Alison Lurie's Imaginary Friends and Kingsley Amis's The Green Man. His last television script was for Dalziel and Pascoe series 5, produced by Andy Rowley. The episode 'Foreign Bodies' was screened on BBC One on July 15, 2000.
He completed his PhD in American studies at the University of Manchester in 1962, moving to the University of East Anglia (his second novel, Stepping Westward, appeared in 1965), where he became Professor of American Studies in 1970 and launched the world-renowned MA in Creative Writing course, which Ian McEwan and Kazuo Ishiguro both attended. He published Possibilities: Essays on the State of the Novel in 1973, The History Man in 1975, Who Do You Think You Are? in 1976, Rates of Exchange in 1983, Cuts: A Very Short Novel in 1987, retiring from academic life in 1995. Malcolm Bradbury became a Commander of the British Empire in 1991 for services to Literature, and was made a Knight Bachelor in the New Year Honours 2000, again for services to Literature.
Bradbury was a productive academic writer as well as a successful teacher; an expert on the modern novel, he published books on Evelyn Waugh, Saul Bellow and E. M. Forster, as well as editions of such modern classics as F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, and a number of surveys and handbooks of modern fiction, both British and American.
He also wrote extensively for television, including scripting series such as Anything More Would Be Greedy, The Gravy Train, the sequel The Gravy Train Goes East (which explored life in Bradbury's fictional Slaka), and adapting novels such as Tom Sharpe's Blott on the Landscape and Porterhouse Blue, Alison Lurie's Imaginary Friends and Kingsley Amis's The Green Man. His last television script was for Dalziel and Pascoe series 5, produced by Andy Rowley. The episode 'Foreign Bodies' was screened on BBC One on July 15, 2000.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
September 25, 2025
Rates of Exchange by Malcolm Bradbury
10 out of 10
Rates of Exchange is a Booker Prize finalist and a stupendous, hilarious, intriguing, sardonic, exquisitely entertaining, accurate, satirical, adored by this reader, who has been acquainted with Malcolm Bradbury – more in the manner in which omniscient Plitplov is so familiar with the hero, Angus Petworth, who has no idea of the existence of the former – though the reading of History Man http://realini.blogspot.com/2014/06/h... Rates of Exchange was considered explosively funny, but on top of that, it is extraordinarily accurate, in its description of Slaka, a country that combines elements from my own land and countries trapped across the wrong side of the Iron Curtain…
One of the fantastic aspects of the Magnum opus is that it is so easy to read it and see that it reads at times as a diary, for most of the things that happen in the chef d’oeuvre have either taken place in the life of the under signed, or he knows of friends that have experienced – at least – similar stories…first of all, I have been a tour guide in the communist regime – and then went on with my own business, in the same filed – so I must identify with Marisja Lubijova on some level, though she is the opposite of what I was…while the personage keeps singing the praises of the regime – look at our workers, peasants, achievements, industry and all other false claims of the regime – the real me was telling the guests the jokes that we read in the masterpiece and others, pointing out that this is not the advertised heaven, but hell…
There is even that long joke – you can find it on the blog, or just ask for it…remember to subscribe, like, share, all that paraphernalia, to get more of our savory commentary – wherein Ceausescu is going to America – in my AT&T activity, I coupled it with AT&T, phones, their headquarters, whenever I attended team buildings and we were required to make reports, but in my case, in the last part, not getting paid for the work…that is another story though – and he talks on the phone with heaven, then at home he contacts hell –as the only place where he knows anybody – and at the end we discover that this is…well, Hell
Doctor Angus Petworth, the expert in languages invited by the Ministry of Culture of Slaka will have incredible, mirthful experiences in the country, starting with the flight on which he has different stewardesses than was the norm on western planes at that time, women with hair in their nostrils and an approach that said stay away and not come up and buy, which is of course at the center of services in capitalism…at customs, he is almost arrested, but then he is embraced in the tradition of the country – on the way out, they will intentionally break the only gift he will have bought – and then given the local raqi, a drink that appears similar, if not identical with our own tzuica or palinca and it can also be based on slivovitz or other specialties of our region…
At the exit from the customs area, there appears to be nobody expecting him, though he is approached then – and repeatedly throughout his two weeks stay, reminding me that there was yet another joke with changing money, presumably happening everywhere in communist paradise, even at Peter’s gate…if you know, remind me the details, for I have forgotten it, not having any tourists to tell it for the past…let us not place number of years here that will affect the impression of youth gathered from the Elixir offered in Rates of Exchange – by people wanting to change money, get dollars for sex (chaka, chaka) and by the controversial, changing, intriguing, ever changing figure of Professor Plitplov…
There are quite a few dimensions to this analytical, panoramic, extraordinary take on Slaka, communism, tyranny, for it is not all mirth and humor – albeit that is such a Joy, an absolute delight to take from the novel – it takes a hard look at the fake claims made by the communists, the shortage or complete absence of anything – the hero has to take a dump and there is no toilet paper in the otherwise expensive, leading hotel of the capital – the happiness enjoyed by the citizens – who would nevertheless rise up, only to be shot and killed, without the official visitor to be allowed in those areas where murders took place, his last legs of his journey being cancelled – in theory, but in practice they seem to be quite low, the misery of their life being limited to a very small place, if they get an apartment, advancements would be made ‘on their knees, or for some on their back’, as a reference that immorality reigned and some characters will have to have relations – carnal and otherwise improper, against the Categorical Imperative principle – with various apparatchiks that will ensure protection..
More is said in the comments bellow, this being one premiere, a note that is not just longer than the usual personal production, but three times as loquacious, for as mentioned, this particular magnum opus has not only offered jocularity, outstanding merriment, but it is also as an autobiographical book on many levels, given that I had to take people around the country, with dubious characters all around, just as in the book and both details and the big picture are extremely Accurate…take the instance when Petworth is giving a lecture at one of the universities and then the question of funds is raised, when they have to think lunch…it has happened to me in Timisoara, where I was guiding a group of Chinese apparatchiks…because they were so high up, I was more in charge of the logistics and they had some Stupid fellow sent by….actually I do not know his exact affiliation, just that he was in some kind of higher function, high enough for him to be suitable…when in Timisoara, he went with the head of the local Tourist office and the Chinese leaders to dinner and given that they were all crappy nomenclature among themselves, I excused myself and went on my own, to meet a girl and the next morning, I found there was big trouble, the Chinese were to wait in the bus for who knows…hours, maybe, because the Stupid fuck from the center and the local idiot found in the morning that they had agreed at night, after many drinks probably, to settle the bill one way, but it was not good in daylight…I fixed the problem, because I knew that in light of the grade, the rank of the fucking communists, there was no limit on how much we spend and what they can have and said at the restaurant that we will pay and they do not need to spend hours to see how many portions of file, beef, catfish and whatever there had been, just put 1300 bottle of champagne…I am kidding, but I said put whatever, drinks because it is easier and make it fast so that we get the hell out of here and avoid destroying any work done so far, by keeping the friends of Mao in the parking lot, for the rest of the day!
In conclusion, Rates of Exchange is that rare Superb Work that gives you Immense Delight, while at the same time dealing with calamitous issues, putting on canvas the atrocities of brutal, sadistic regimes, while looking at the humans that have had to suffer the immense benefits of Marxism…to add to what I have said, you have some thoughts written over the last couple of days, on the divine, mesmerizing, hilarious chef d’oeuvre…
What about the alternative universe in which he married the Queen of Beauty and went on to live forever happy, as in the cliché fairy tales, then added on top of that and read a lot, becoming a sort of a wise man of – at least some corner – the internet, involved in volunteer work, wealthy enough to sustain a life of comfort, surely with a degree of philanthropy, charity work, socializing with the good – turning some of the bad into the aforementioned – making time for the required rituals of exercise – seeing as the consort is the Queen…well, not that queen, he will have a lot of sexual intercourse and two alternatives come to mind, one is the Fidel version, as in the Witches of Eastwick, with Jack Nicholson, for some reason the movie seems to be better that the book, albeit this reader has been exuberant with all the books in the Rabbit series http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/07/r...
The other option would be the Wild West option, in which the Queen and the consort would get tired of each other – to which degree, we can explore it if we Analyze This, without Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal, in some short story version, or just shooting the breeze here – experiencing the Honeymoon Effect, Coolidge Effect, or a combination of this and other psychological phenomena combined – come to think of it, there is also the Pygmalion Effect to be considered and based on that, we would have another outcome, but let us move on and apply one of the Jordan Peterson rules, be clear in what you say, which is does not sound like this, but anyway, let us move the hell out of here…
It can then be a free for all and in an open relationship or marriage, she would have sex with many, the trouble could be that they would be many more than he has, and they just have a fruitful marital equanimity nevertheless and jealousy, envy would not be involved…knowing him, that seems less likely, although other developments could deny, or better said stifle the initial fervent opposition to his consort having coitus with other men…with time, views can change on this and as mentioned, both parties are prone to see the attraction of the other fade, as studies show, by the time they will have been together for two years…
As Proust has said, we want what we do not have…incidentally, I am reading a stupendous, Hideous Kinky novel, Rates of Exchange by Malcolm Bradbury, in which Angus Petworth, the main character, meets with the second secretary of the British Embassy in Slaka, Felix Steadiman, the one in charge with traffic accidents, and among the things they discuss is the visits the diplomat makes to the British subjects that end up in prison – one has hit a peasant on the road…the attitude in this East European country, behind the Iron Curtain in 1981, is for the pedestrians to run to meet and collide with fast driving vehicles, and at the same time the drivers have an urge and drive faster to get them…which is amusing or abominable, perhaps both, but it reminds this reader of what he has seen in his own land…which has so much in common with fictional Slaka.
Felix Steadiman mentions, in his stuttering speech that gives occasion to many hilarious moments – the book itself is absolutely mirthful, and the Perfect Example of what I want to read always, spend infinite hours engrossed in and somehow the image of Eden…heaven sounds boring on many levels, but if it would have an immense dose of Rates of Exchange, White Man Falling, Lucky Jim and other such divine, angelic magnum opera, then there would be only a need to fill in say 25 percent of the rest of eternity and that would be indeed paradisiacal- such as when Steadiman says…just ask me for ass…ass…assistance…
The employee of the Embassy is just one of the mirth inducing personages, for attached to his stutter – and in itself I know it is not allowed to laugh at an impediment, but it is the alignment of propositions and words that would otherwise not be uttered, but as part of the fragments of speech they are in the open - he has quite a few other amusing traits, such as the furious speed with which he drives – in spite of being in charge with the traffic accidents – the wipers he takes off from the car, because stealing is illegal here, but natives have a way of appropriating things – though why do they do this with wipers, when they have so few cars is a mystery – he does not know where he is, loses track of the parked car and climbs a wall to get to it, then he offers a tour to the visiting doctor Petworth – called Pervert at the hotel and all sorts of other names by locals – and shows that he does not know a building from another, after spending three years in the city.
He asks for advice on what book to give to the British citizen waiting in jail for the sentence on hitting the peasant and he says he thought of Proust, but he mentions that he is a truck driver, Petworth disagrees with the Proust choice…however, sometime later, the Greatest Writer of All Time – for yours truly – comes as a choice again, after they will have all been involved in massive wrongdoing and then the length of the twelve Volumes of A La Recherche will not be half enough for the duration of the prison term…Budgie, the wife of Felix Steadiman is a very unsettled, dissatisfied, horny, voracious woman, who has her hands on Angus Petworth almost from the moment he steps into the apartment, making it clear that she is too lonely and disabused – the couple take trips out of Slaka to be able to shout and fight, for inside the communist tyranny, they spy and record everything to be used as blackmail, so they do not want their quarrels to imperil the career of Felix…
First, Budgie sends her spouse to take a shower, so that she can manhandle the guest, caressing him, putting hands in trouser pocket, on hair, only to have the husband return, because there is no water – as in other communist heavens, you would have nothing…food, water, electricity, everything was in short supply or unavailable – and see the wife at her usual game – he would later say that this is something she does, she wants to offer some spark in the dull life of the secret agents that listen in all the time and other such dubious, absurd explanations – which will continue during dinner with guests, brought in for a special treat and a secret…sausages from Britain, brought through the diplomatic bag and presented as a celebration at the meal…when the guests depart, Budgie keeps Angus with her, while the husband is driving the maid home, and she is clear about the coital intentions…it is to be on the table, or on the floor.
Nonetheless, Felix comes home and insists on separating his wife from her prey and because she does not relent easily – perhaps not at all – he has to grab the man – he would apologize later and the fun is limitless…he says sorry, I did not know I was so fit – and in the process, he tears the best suit of the official visitor to Slaka, splits his lip and causes injury which would have to be justified later, when he meets the official guide, Marisja Lunijova, who will hear that her assignment had walked into a door…
‘Why is Slaka like America…Because in America you can criticize America, and in Slaka you can criticize America too…Why is Slaka like America…Because in America you can’t buy anything with vloskan, and in Slaka you can’t buy anything with vloskan either’…there are these, other jokes and so many aspects of Rates of Exchange that echo into our lives…those who have lived in a country like Slaka, recognize characters, buildings, rules, tyranny and our whole lives in this marvelous, hilarious, fabulous chef d’oeuvre…take the character of the Katya Pricip…she has a vital feature with someone who has been crucial in my own life, has actually changed it radically, I guess, a prominent figure here – and our land seems to have inspired at least part of the face of fictional Slaka, there is at least one person who gives credit to Romania as inspiring Bradbury, though it is noted that the language is Slavic and the names of the humans in the book is also different from what we have here, besides we do not use Cyrillic signs…
Katya Pricip is a liberal, though cautious, rebellious, but with an important network and a protector that is placed high in the politburo, handsome, voracious, enticing, curious, magical realist, creator of stories, personages and interested in real people – especially in a country where reality is so perverted and each has to live his or her story, as she says and not be a minor player in somebody else’s narrative – amusing and provocative, she is the one who appears at an official lunch given in the honor of the main character, Doctor Angus Petworth, professor of English, arrived in Slaka at the invitation of the Ministry of Culture – though there seems to be some confusion in a few quarters, where they think they are dealing with another expert, the other Petworth teaching sociology – and treated with deference and pomp.
The communist of that land and ours were very concerned with their image and wanted to show the West that they are so fucking wonderful – the guide, Marisja Lubijova, and many others keep talking about the glory of communism and the strike in Britain, comparing the joy of the dictatorship – they never call it that, evidently – with the abyss of capitalism, when the reverse is true and the jokes at the beginning and a myriad others perfectly reflect this –and Doctor Petworth is supposed to imbibe all the magnificence of life in Slaka and go back home to share his fantastic experience with the rest of Britain…
Katya Pricip is one of the few that poke holes into this fresco of abundance, merriment and complete success – there is the absurd, ludicrous Plitplov that plays a dubious game of hide and seek, alternating between criticism of the regime and cautious actions – because she apparently falls for the different, outré Angus Petworth – falling in love might be too much to say – and she keeps teasing him, though she insists on the fact that approaching a foreigner is dangerous – it had to be reported to the authorities in reality – and she alternates between taking hold of him, attending his lecture the following day and staying away, which would be so much wiser…eventually, she comes at the university and…kidnaps the official guest…
While they are all debating where to have lunch – there is the minor issue that there is a shortage of food – which we have experienced so thoroughly in the ‘real life’ because we could not find Anything without a long wait and the majority of items where simply not available…hence the validity of you cannot buy anything with the local currency, which made us so much like America, on that score – the writer takes the visitor with her – to explain among other things the real story of Stupid, which she had invented to explain pumpkin and a few other things – to a special lunch and then to her studio, one room apartment – people are allowed only ten meters or so per individual, and even the flat she has denotes a privileged position…
Katya Pricip had been married four times – men in that country, ours and presumably through the communist east were less interested in their women, than in being with the other men, if not sexually, and they share a more macho, rather barbaric attitude…this is what I get from the magnum opus, but it
10 out of 10
Rates of Exchange is a Booker Prize finalist and a stupendous, hilarious, intriguing, sardonic, exquisitely entertaining, accurate, satirical, adored by this reader, who has been acquainted with Malcolm Bradbury – more in the manner in which omniscient Plitplov is so familiar with the hero, Angus Petworth, who has no idea of the existence of the former – though the reading of History Man http://realini.blogspot.com/2014/06/h... Rates of Exchange was considered explosively funny, but on top of that, it is extraordinarily accurate, in its description of Slaka, a country that combines elements from my own land and countries trapped across the wrong side of the Iron Curtain…
One of the fantastic aspects of the Magnum opus is that it is so easy to read it and see that it reads at times as a diary, for most of the things that happen in the chef d’oeuvre have either taken place in the life of the under signed, or he knows of friends that have experienced – at least – similar stories…first of all, I have been a tour guide in the communist regime – and then went on with my own business, in the same filed – so I must identify with Marisja Lubijova on some level, though she is the opposite of what I was…while the personage keeps singing the praises of the regime – look at our workers, peasants, achievements, industry and all other false claims of the regime – the real me was telling the guests the jokes that we read in the masterpiece and others, pointing out that this is not the advertised heaven, but hell…
There is even that long joke – you can find it on the blog, or just ask for it…remember to subscribe, like, share, all that paraphernalia, to get more of our savory commentary – wherein Ceausescu is going to America – in my AT&T activity, I coupled it with AT&T, phones, their headquarters, whenever I attended team buildings and we were required to make reports, but in my case, in the last part, not getting paid for the work…that is another story though – and he talks on the phone with heaven, then at home he contacts hell –as the only place where he knows anybody – and at the end we discover that this is…well, Hell
Doctor Angus Petworth, the expert in languages invited by the Ministry of Culture of Slaka will have incredible, mirthful experiences in the country, starting with the flight on which he has different stewardesses than was the norm on western planes at that time, women with hair in their nostrils and an approach that said stay away and not come up and buy, which is of course at the center of services in capitalism…at customs, he is almost arrested, but then he is embraced in the tradition of the country – on the way out, they will intentionally break the only gift he will have bought – and then given the local raqi, a drink that appears similar, if not identical with our own tzuica or palinca and it can also be based on slivovitz or other specialties of our region…
At the exit from the customs area, there appears to be nobody expecting him, though he is approached then – and repeatedly throughout his two weeks stay, reminding me that there was yet another joke with changing money, presumably happening everywhere in communist paradise, even at Peter’s gate…if you know, remind me the details, for I have forgotten it, not having any tourists to tell it for the past…let us not place number of years here that will affect the impression of youth gathered from the Elixir offered in Rates of Exchange – by people wanting to change money, get dollars for sex (chaka, chaka) and by the controversial, changing, intriguing, ever changing figure of Professor Plitplov…
There are quite a few dimensions to this analytical, panoramic, extraordinary take on Slaka, communism, tyranny, for it is not all mirth and humor – albeit that is such a Joy, an absolute delight to take from the novel – it takes a hard look at the fake claims made by the communists, the shortage or complete absence of anything – the hero has to take a dump and there is no toilet paper in the otherwise expensive, leading hotel of the capital – the happiness enjoyed by the citizens – who would nevertheless rise up, only to be shot and killed, without the official visitor to be allowed in those areas where murders took place, his last legs of his journey being cancelled – in theory, but in practice they seem to be quite low, the misery of their life being limited to a very small place, if they get an apartment, advancements would be made ‘on their knees, or for some on their back’, as a reference that immorality reigned and some characters will have to have relations – carnal and otherwise improper, against the Categorical Imperative principle – with various apparatchiks that will ensure protection..
More is said in the comments bellow, this being one premiere, a note that is not just longer than the usual personal production, but three times as loquacious, for as mentioned, this particular magnum opus has not only offered jocularity, outstanding merriment, but it is also as an autobiographical book on many levels, given that I had to take people around the country, with dubious characters all around, just as in the book and both details and the big picture are extremely Accurate…take the instance when Petworth is giving a lecture at one of the universities and then the question of funds is raised, when they have to think lunch…it has happened to me in Timisoara, where I was guiding a group of Chinese apparatchiks…because they were so high up, I was more in charge of the logistics and they had some Stupid fellow sent by….actually I do not know his exact affiliation, just that he was in some kind of higher function, high enough for him to be suitable…when in Timisoara, he went with the head of the local Tourist office and the Chinese leaders to dinner and given that they were all crappy nomenclature among themselves, I excused myself and went on my own, to meet a girl and the next morning, I found there was big trouble, the Chinese were to wait in the bus for who knows…hours, maybe, because the Stupid fuck from the center and the local idiot found in the morning that they had agreed at night, after many drinks probably, to settle the bill one way, but it was not good in daylight…I fixed the problem, because I knew that in light of the grade, the rank of the fucking communists, there was no limit on how much we spend and what they can have and said at the restaurant that we will pay and they do not need to spend hours to see how many portions of file, beef, catfish and whatever there had been, just put 1300 bottle of champagne…I am kidding, but I said put whatever, drinks because it is easier and make it fast so that we get the hell out of here and avoid destroying any work done so far, by keeping the friends of Mao in the parking lot, for the rest of the day!
In conclusion, Rates of Exchange is that rare Superb Work that gives you Immense Delight, while at the same time dealing with calamitous issues, putting on canvas the atrocities of brutal, sadistic regimes, while looking at the humans that have had to suffer the immense benefits of Marxism…to add to what I have said, you have some thoughts written over the last couple of days, on the divine, mesmerizing, hilarious chef d’oeuvre…
What about the alternative universe in which he married the Queen of Beauty and went on to live forever happy, as in the cliché fairy tales, then added on top of that and read a lot, becoming a sort of a wise man of – at least some corner – the internet, involved in volunteer work, wealthy enough to sustain a life of comfort, surely with a degree of philanthropy, charity work, socializing with the good – turning some of the bad into the aforementioned – making time for the required rituals of exercise – seeing as the consort is the Queen…well, not that queen, he will have a lot of sexual intercourse and two alternatives come to mind, one is the Fidel version, as in the Witches of Eastwick, with Jack Nicholson, for some reason the movie seems to be better that the book, albeit this reader has been exuberant with all the books in the Rabbit series http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/07/r...
The other option would be the Wild West option, in which the Queen and the consort would get tired of each other – to which degree, we can explore it if we Analyze This, without Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal, in some short story version, or just shooting the breeze here – experiencing the Honeymoon Effect, Coolidge Effect, or a combination of this and other psychological phenomena combined – come to think of it, there is also the Pygmalion Effect to be considered and based on that, we would have another outcome, but let us move on and apply one of the Jordan Peterson rules, be clear in what you say, which is does not sound like this, but anyway, let us move the hell out of here…
It can then be a free for all and in an open relationship or marriage, she would have sex with many, the trouble could be that they would be many more than he has, and they just have a fruitful marital equanimity nevertheless and jealousy, envy would not be involved…knowing him, that seems less likely, although other developments could deny, or better said stifle the initial fervent opposition to his consort having coitus with other men…with time, views can change on this and as mentioned, both parties are prone to see the attraction of the other fade, as studies show, by the time they will have been together for two years…
As Proust has said, we want what we do not have…incidentally, I am reading a stupendous, Hideous Kinky novel, Rates of Exchange by Malcolm Bradbury, in which Angus Petworth, the main character, meets with the second secretary of the British Embassy in Slaka, Felix Steadiman, the one in charge with traffic accidents, and among the things they discuss is the visits the diplomat makes to the British subjects that end up in prison – one has hit a peasant on the road…the attitude in this East European country, behind the Iron Curtain in 1981, is for the pedestrians to run to meet and collide with fast driving vehicles, and at the same time the drivers have an urge and drive faster to get them…which is amusing or abominable, perhaps both, but it reminds this reader of what he has seen in his own land…which has so much in common with fictional Slaka.
Felix Steadiman mentions, in his stuttering speech that gives occasion to many hilarious moments – the book itself is absolutely mirthful, and the Perfect Example of what I want to read always, spend infinite hours engrossed in and somehow the image of Eden…heaven sounds boring on many levels, but if it would have an immense dose of Rates of Exchange, White Man Falling, Lucky Jim and other such divine, angelic magnum opera, then there would be only a need to fill in say 25 percent of the rest of eternity and that would be indeed paradisiacal- such as when Steadiman says…just ask me for ass…ass…assistance…
The employee of the Embassy is just one of the mirth inducing personages, for attached to his stutter – and in itself I know it is not allowed to laugh at an impediment, but it is the alignment of propositions and words that would otherwise not be uttered, but as part of the fragments of speech they are in the open - he has quite a few other amusing traits, such as the furious speed with which he drives – in spite of being in charge with the traffic accidents – the wipers he takes off from the car, because stealing is illegal here, but natives have a way of appropriating things – though why do they do this with wipers, when they have so few cars is a mystery – he does not know where he is, loses track of the parked car and climbs a wall to get to it, then he offers a tour to the visiting doctor Petworth – called Pervert at the hotel and all sorts of other names by locals – and shows that he does not know a building from another, after spending three years in the city.
He asks for advice on what book to give to the British citizen waiting in jail for the sentence on hitting the peasant and he says he thought of Proust, but he mentions that he is a truck driver, Petworth disagrees with the Proust choice…however, sometime later, the Greatest Writer of All Time – for yours truly – comes as a choice again, after they will have all been involved in massive wrongdoing and then the length of the twelve Volumes of A La Recherche will not be half enough for the duration of the prison term…Budgie, the wife of Felix Steadiman is a very unsettled, dissatisfied, horny, voracious woman, who has her hands on Angus Petworth almost from the moment he steps into the apartment, making it clear that she is too lonely and disabused – the couple take trips out of Slaka to be able to shout and fight, for inside the communist tyranny, they spy and record everything to be used as blackmail, so they do not want their quarrels to imperil the career of Felix…
First, Budgie sends her spouse to take a shower, so that she can manhandle the guest, caressing him, putting hands in trouser pocket, on hair, only to have the husband return, because there is no water – as in other communist heavens, you would have nothing…food, water, electricity, everything was in short supply or unavailable – and see the wife at her usual game – he would later say that this is something she does, she wants to offer some spark in the dull life of the secret agents that listen in all the time and other such dubious, absurd explanations – which will continue during dinner with guests, brought in for a special treat and a secret…sausages from Britain, brought through the diplomatic bag and presented as a celebration at the meal…when the guests depart, Budgie keeps Angus with her, while the husband is driving the maid home, and she is clear about the coital intentions…it is to be on the table, or on the floor.
Nonetheless, Felix comes home and insists on separating his wife from her prey and because she does not relent easily – perhaps not at all – he has to grab the man – he would apologize later and the fun is limitless…he says sorry, I did not know I was so fit – and in the process, he tears the best suit of the official visitor to Slaka, splits his lip and causes injury which would have to be justified later, when he meets the official guide, Marisja Lunijova, who will hear that her assignment had walked into a door…
‘Why is Slaka like America…Because in America you can criticize America, and in Slaka you can criticize America too…Why is Slaka like America…Because in America you can’t buy anything with vloskan, and in Slaka you can’t buy anything with vloskan either’…there are these, other jokes and so many aspects of Rates of Exchange that echo into our lives…those who have lived in a country like Slaka, recognize characters, buildings, rules, tyranny and our whole lives in this marvelous, hilarious, fabulous chef d’oeuvre…take the character of the Katya Pricip…she has a vital feature with someone who has been crucial in my own life, has actually changed it radically, I guess, a prominent figure here – and our land seems to have inspired at least part of the face of fictional Slaka, there is at least one person who gives credit to Romania as inspiring Bradbury, though it is noted that the language is Slavic and the names of the humans in the book is also different from what we have here, besides we do not use Cyrillic signs…
Katya Pricip is a liberal, though cautious, rebellious, but with an important network and a protector that is placed high in the politburo, handsome, voracious, enticing, curious, magical realist, creator of stories, personages and interested in real people – especially in a country where reality is so perverted and each has to live his or her story, as she says and not be a minor player in somebody else’s narrative – amusing and provocative, she is the one who appears at an official lunch given in the honor of the main character, Doctor Angus Petworth, professor of English, arrived in Slaka at the invitation of the Ministry of Culture – though there seems to be some confusion in a few quarters, where they think they are dealing with another expert, the other Petworth teaching sociology – and treated with deference and pomp.
The communist of that land and ours were very concerned with their image and wanted to show the West that they are so fucking wonderful – the guide, Marisja Lubijova, and many others keep talking about the glory of communism and the strike in Britain, comparing the joy of the dictatorship – they never call it that, evidently – with the abyss of capitalism, when the reverse is true and the jokes at the beginning and a myriad others perfectly reflect this –and Doctor Petworth is supposed to imbibe all the magnificence of life in Slaka and go back home to share his fantastic experience with the rest of Britain…
Katya Pricip is one of the few that poke holes into this fresco of abundance, merriment and complete success – there is the absurd, ludicrous Plitplov that plays a dubious game of hide and seek, alternating between criticism of the regime and cautious actions – because she apparently falls for the different, outré Angus Petworth – falling in love might be too much to say – and she keeps teasing him, though she insists on the fact that approaching a foreigner is dangerous – it had to be reported to the authorities in reality – and she alternates between taking hold of him, attending his lecture the following day and staying away, which would be so much wiser…eventually, she comes at the university and…kidnaps the official guest…
While they are all debating where to have lunch – there is the minor issue that there is a shortage of food – which we have experienced so thoroughly in the ‘real life’ because we could not find Anything without a long wait and the majority of items where simply not available…hence the validity of you cannot buy anything with the local currency, which made us so much like America, on that score – the writer takes the visitor with her – to explain among other things the real story of Stupid, which she had invented to explain pumpkin and a few other things – to a special lunch and then to her studio, one room apartment – people are allowed only ten meters or so per individual, and even the flat she has denotes a privileged position…
Katya Pricip had been married four times – men in that country, ours and presumably through the communist east were less interested in their women, than in being with the other men, if not sexually, and they share a more macho, rather barbaric attitude…this is what I get from the magnum opus, but it
January 18, 2009
When I first picked this one up I was a bit bored by the vaguely humorous, tongue-in-cheek , but way out-of-date travelog about a thinly disguised Eastern European Communist capital named Slaka (probably Prague) during the Cold War. But I perked up when Bradbury introduced his hero, a biddable English linguist from a minor university named Angus Petworth. Petworth is going on one of many cultural exchange trips he has made with the British Council, only this time to a country with no British Council office to supervise his trip in place. Many of the sources of humor in this book are satiric and focused on stereotypes of communist satellites, but on top of that Petworth is funny all by himself and redeems the novel for a contemporary reader unfamiliar (or tired of) Communist stereotypes.
The sources of humor are many:
• The linguistic battles and in-jokes of the 70ies and 80ies that surround Petworth’s professional life: “a rich international sub-language—he would call it an idiolect—composed of many fascinating terms, like idiolect, and sociolect, langue and parole, signifier and signified, Chomsky and Saussure, Barthes and Derrida, not the sort of words you say to everybody, but which put [Petworth:] immediately in touch with the vast community of those of his own sub-group…”
• The stereotypical “types” in Slaka: the heavies, dissidents, the professors trying to walk a thin line and those trying to convert the visitor to Marxism. Those extolling the virtues of the socialist state and those trying to impress with their experience of the West.
• The language itself. Much of the text is monologue (or comic dialogue with Petworth supplying the straight lines) in what most will recognize as the typically mangled syntax associated with Eastern Europeans. In addition, the country itself is having a language crisis and the spelling of words changes overnight, causing the name of the official newspaper as well as words on prominent signs to change overnight. In fact, the changing words signal changes in regime, which of course the politically innocent Petworth (dubbed as is “not a character in the world historical sense”) doesn’t recognize.
• A certain reflexiveness, an awareness on the part of the narrator and of Petworth that the characters in the story are characters in a story.
• The recognizable appurtenances of Communist countries: the listeners (no unemployment because so many are employed spying on others), the bureaucracy, the abbreviated and capitalized names of offices and programs (COSMOPLOT, HOGPo) to say nothing of "The Park of Brotherhood and Friendship with the Russian Peoples" and the portraits of Lenin and Marx and Breshnov alongside the local leaders.
• Petworth’s name: he is called Petwit, Petwurt, Pitvit (perilously close to nitwit), Petwet, and even Pervert.
• Other names: Professor Rom Rom, Mr. Plitplov, Steadiman (the husband and wife together are called Steadimen). The hard currency store is Wicwok.
• The woman who chase Petworth: the magical realist novelist named Katya Princip for whom he falls, the wife of the English Cultural attaché named Budgie Steadiman, his official guide Marisja Lubijova. Petworth as "lover" and especially as "loved and desired" is hilarious.
• Petworth’s lectures: One is on the difference between “I haven’t got” and “I don’t have” in English….
• A certain “Homeric ring” when epithets are applied to repeated themes, like “the dark wife” for Petworth’s wife back home in England. Recurring minor themes like the whispers of “do you want to change money” all travelers are warned against.
• Echoes of Western literary favorites: “in the room professors come and go talking of TS Eliot”, “But that was in another country and the wench now has tenure”, ”A line of short stout lady professors sit in the front row, thinking Marxist thoughts and knitting”.
Those who get the academic humor and those who remember the rigmarole of visiting a Communist country will probably enjoy this book more than others. As well those who appreciate writing that sacrifices anything for wit.
The sources of humor are many:
• The linguistic battles and in-jokes of the 70ies and 80ies that surround Petworth’s professional life: “a rich international sub-language—he would call it an idiolect—composed of many fascinating terms, like idiolect, and sociolect, langue and parole, signifier and signified, Chomsky and Saussure, Barthes and Derrida, not the sort of words you say to everybody, but which put [Petworth:] immediately in touch with the vast community of those of his own sub-group…”
• The stereotypical “types” in Slaka: the heavies, dissidents, the professors trying to walk a thin line and those trying to convert the visitor to Marxism. Those extolling the virtues of the socialist state and those trying to impress with their experience of the West.
• The language itself. Much of the text is monologue (or comic dialogue with Petworth supplying the straight lines) in what most will recognize as the typically mangled syntax associated with Eastern Europeans. In addition, the country itself is having a language crisis and the spelling of words changes overnight, causing the name of the official newspaper as well as words on prominent signs to change overnight. In fact, the changing words signal changes in regime, which of course the politically innocent Petworth (dubbed as is “not a character in the world historical sense”) doesn’t recognize.
• A certain reflexiveness, an awareness on the part of the narrator and of Petworth that the characters in the story are characters in a story.
• The recognizable appurtenances of Communist countries: the listeners (no unemployment because so many are employed spying on others), the bureaucracy, the abbreviated and capitalized names of offices and programs (COSMOPLOT, HOGPo) to say nothing of "The Park of Brotherhood and Friendship with the Russian Peoples" and the portraits of Lenin and Marx and Breshnov alongside the local leaders.
• Petworth’s name: he is called Petwit, Petwurt, Pitvit (perilously close to nitwit), Petwet, and even Pervert.
• Other names: Professor Rom Rom, Mr. Plitplov, Steadiman (the husband and wife together are called Steadimen). The hard currency store is Wicwok.
• The woman who chase Petworth: the magical realist novelist named Katya Princip for whom he falls, the wife of the English Cultural attaché named Budgie Steadiman, his official guide Marisja Lubijova. Petworth as "lover" and especially as "loved and desired" is hilarious.
• Petworth’s lectures: One is on the difference between “I haven’t got” and “I don’t have” in English….
• A certain “Homeric ring” when epithets are applied to repeated themes, like “the dark wife” for Petworth’s wife back home in England. Recurring minor themes like the whispers of “do you want to change money” all travelers are warned against.
• Echoes of Western literary favorites: “in the room professors come and go talking of TS Eliot”, “But that was in another country and the wench now has tenure”, ”A line of short stout lady professors sit in the front row, thinking Marxist thoughts and knitting”.
Those who get the academic humor and those who remember the rigmarole of visiting a Communist country will probably enjoy this book more than others. As well those who appreciate writing that sacrifices anything for wit.
July 21, 2012
The hero (I use the word ironically) of this story, Angus Petworth, goes to Slaka and comes home again. (He is a linguist who’s asked to give lectures, and this is a very routine trip for him, so he thinks.) While there, he meets the novelist Katya Princip who tells him that he is in a story with her. She means the kind of stories that she writes, ones based on folktales. She has cast him in the role of the young prince who goes into a strange forest, and herself in the role of the witch he meets there—as she points out, it is often hard to tell whether a witch is good or bad at first meeting, but she insists she is a good witch. But it turns out that all expectations that a reader has in this narratively subversive novel are doomed to disappointment (as Petworth is doomed to disappointment). This is not a hero tale: as is well known, a hero is expected to return from his journey having proved himself and bring back something of value. Though Katya Princip tries to encourage Petworth to develop a "sense of existence", in fact he returns home feeling just as empty as when he left (worse, even, since he now knows that he is missing the sense of existence). And he fails to bring back an object of value; it is true, this is not his fault, but then he has never been in control of events for one moment. He has always been completely passive. No wonder it is a failed hero tale.
Another possible narrative model is provided by the legend of St. Valdopin, whose body was bought back by his countryfolk for an equal weight of gold, the scales finally being tipped by the very small contribution of an old woman. This comes close to truth, for commerce is everywhere in Slaka, unsurprisingly (this, in a country that boasts of its rational economy). Yet, if the relationship of Petworth and Princip is transformed into a transaction, it is a deal that ends up bringing no advantage to either party, since Princip, unlike the old woman, cannot buy honor for her country, and she cannot (though she tries) give Petworth what he needs either.
What about the narrative provided by Petworth’s most reliable lecture, "English as a Medium of International Communication"? Although most of the people Petworth meets speak English, international communication most definitely does not go smoothly. In fact, Petworth is left bewildered in Slaka. He is a linguist who completely fails to learn any of the local language and doesn’t even try to; more importantly, there are language-related events going on in the country, apparently of great moment, yet he sees little of them and understands nothing. The ways he knows to talk linguistics, in terms of Derrida and Saussure, are utterly inadequate to give him any insight into the situation. We know from the appendix that Petworth made that lecture into a book after his return, another sign that he learned nothing.
The novel is not a comedy in the classic sense, since it does not end with lovers uniting. Instead it ends with Petworth returning to his wife, from whom he is, and will presumably remain, totally estranged. The possibility of a better, truer love was raised in Slaka, then dissipated, illusory. As if in a comic Bildungsroman, Petworth had various sexual adventures, but he did not learn or grow from them; he’s too old for that genre anyway.
So, not only does all possibility of accomplishment or growth fail for the protagonist, the narratives that might belong to various genres all end in failure too. Subversion of expectations is a form of humor; a bitter humor here. To be sure, there are plenty of other reasons to laugh in this book—for instance, it makes abundant use of sexual farce, and there is the reliable subject of the discomforts of a traveler in a foreign country which is not at all suited to journeying in comfort. But from Petworth’s point of view, the story is nearly a tragedy—just the fact that he has been aware that his life is empty, and returns with that emptiness unrelieved, is enough. So the closest I can come to describing it is as a laughing tragicomedy.
Another possible narrative model is provided by the legend of St. Valdopin, whose body was bought back by his countryfolk for an equal weight of gold, the scales finally being tipped by the very small contribution of an old woman. This comes close to truth, for commerce is everywhere in Slaka, unsurprisingly (this, in a country that boasts of its rational economy). Yet, if the relationship of Petworth and Princip is transformed into a transaction, it is a deal that ends up bringing no advantage to either party, since Princip, unlike the old woman, cannot buy honor for her country, and she cannot (though she tries) give Petworth what he needs either.
What about the narrative provided by Petworth’s most reliable lecture, "English as a Medium of International Communication"? Although most of the people Petworth meets speak English, international communication most definitely does not go smoothly. In fact, Petworth is left bewildered in Slaka. He is a linguist who completely fails to learn any of the local language and doesn’t even try to; more importantly, there are language-related events going on in the country, apparently of great moment, yet he sees little of them and understands nothing. The ways he knows to talk linguistics, in terms of Derrida and Saussure, are utterly inadequate to give him any insight into the situation. We know from the appendix that Petworth made that lecture into a book after his return, another sign that he learned nothing.
The novel is not a comedy in the classic sense, since it does not end with lovers uniting. Instead it ends with Petworth returning to his wife, from whom he is, and will presumably remain, totally estranged. The possibility of a better, truer love was raised in Slaka, then dissipated, illusory. As if in a comic Bildungsroman, Petworth had various sexual adventures, but he did not learn or grow from them; he’s too old for that genre anyway.
So, not only does all possibility of accomplishment or growth fail for the protagonist, the narratives that might belong to various genres all end in failure too. Subversion of expectations is a form of humor; a bitter humor here. To be sure, there are plenty of other reasons to laugh in this book—for instance, it makes abundant use of sexual farce, and there is the reliable subject of the discomforts of a traveler in a foreign country which is not at all suited to journeying in comfort. But from Petworth’s point of view, the story is nearly a tragedy—just the fact that he has been aware that his life is empty, and returns with that emptiness unrelieved, is enough. So the closest I can come to describing it is as a laughing tragicomedy.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 16, 2015
Mid 2. For the first 100 pages or so, the farce crafted by the author has appeal, with this reader impressed at the author's acerbic wit. Yet, as the novel progresses, the repetitive nature of the exchanges and one-dimensional parody of the Eastern Bloc becomes tiresome.
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August 7, 2011A must for language learners AND anybody interested in life under communist rule in Eastern Europe. The scenes describing the hero's arrival at the airport are classic.
November 24, 2017
'Rates Of Exchange' is excellent and left me wanting to know more about Slaka. When I read 'Why Come To Slaka' I found it a little disappointing because it didn't go in the direction I wanted it to. I want there to be more world-building but instead Bradbury chose to make it kind of satirical, which does fit with the original idea of the novel but still. The novel would be five stars on its own and 'Slaka' three, so the four-star rating is an average.
December 16, 2010
This book is absolutely hilarious, and pretty accurately depicts the confusion one feels being a foreigner in a land where one doesn't speak (or can barely speak) the language. It also does an excellent job of depicting the absurdities of life in a Soviet era country (albeit a fictional one). Also, it is unabashedly, fabulously British. I only wish that some of the loose ends had been tied up a little better. Still, an enjoyable read, especially for those of us who love travelling in the former Soviet Union!
August 9, 2013
Just read this again.
It's funny, because it's true. Having spent a few months in one of the Eastern Bloc countries in the 80's, much of this story rings true to me, making this absolutely hilarious.
It's funny, because it's true. Having spent a few months in one of the Eastern Bloc countries in the 80's, much of this story rings true to me, making this absolutely hilarious.
April 9, 2016
Re-defines 'funny'. Loved it.
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