Mark Glover's Reviews > The Thing about Prague: How I gave it all up for a new life in Europe's most eccentric city

Me, Myself and Prague was a book I stumbled upon in a secondhand bookshop and being very much a fan of the city and having imagined myself undertaking the similarly romantic notion to move there at some stage and write the great novel was immediately captured by the story being told. While the first book was more about someone making tentative progress in a city which still had the ability to enchant, confuse and surprise them, The Thing About Prague is very more about someone coming to terms with being in their 40's having never achieved many of the things that one is expected to have achieved at such an age.Being of a similar age and similar situation I found much to relate to in the book especially with regards the sense of being equally stifled but at the same time contented in the face of denying the expectation. What Weiss does very effectively in this book is highlight the fact that such a compromise is not by its nature a sacrifice but rather a choice and with every choice their are moments when you doubt its validity or feel its weight. Unlike its prequel the book is less of a guide to the city and its people and a lot of the story is fairly episodic but it works simply because you grow to like the narrator and it is infused with humor and healthy dose of sceptic hindsight. It is shame that her books aren't as well known as perhaps Sarah Turnbull's Almost French or Mary Moody's books as they are equally as compelling in offering a view of what it is like to live, love and to be entranced with a foreign culture. In some ways this sequel offers a more realistic view of what it is like to live long term in a different country, the realism that can only be seen once the blinkered romantic view has fallen away and one is faced with the harsh reality of starting again with career, friendships and finding ones place. There is definitely a resonance with Mary Moody's later books in her series about France and it offers the same foot in both camps view that seems to be inevitable when one has the choice. I hope that it gets wider notice than its predecessor as it is well written and a rarity in offering a western view of a city that has entranced and continues to entrance many.