RachaelSage's Reviews > The Thing about Prague…

Good God, I am relieved to be finished with this tedious book. I picked it up after a trip to Prague, having once lived in Sweden for about the same amount of time and thinking I might find some relatable insights here, or at least entertaining thoughts on culture clashing– Ms. Weiss being Australian and me being American and both of us having moved to relatively cold and quiet northern cultures.

This book is devoid of valuable insight and reads, instead, like the author's bitter journal pages from a time in her life that she loathes. Writing such pages to process and vent is one thing– publishing them into a book about "living in Prague" is wholly different. There are a couple of interesting stories here but, unfortunately, there is little editing (despite the fact that the author goes on and on about being an editor), and so stories seldom connect to the reader or back to the original theme of the book as laid out on the back cover.

At times (too many times) it feels like you're out for drinks with that one acquaintance who never stops talking about themselves, who complains about EVERYTHING, and who is not remotely above bad-mouthing everyone she's ever met in order to make herself feel superior.

Skip it. Read a book about the history of Prague and the Prague Spring instead. Or screw it– just read Kafka.