BOTM Nov 2019 - The Little Town Where Time Stood Still

[Kelly_Hunsaker_reads]

No spoilers before November please!

[Kelly_Hunsaker_reads]

The Little Town Where Time Stood Still contains two linked narratives by the incomparable Bohumil Hrabal, whom Milan Kundera has described as “Czechoslovakia’s greatest writer.” “Cutting It Short” is set before World War II in a small country town, and it relates the scandalizing escapades of Maryška, the flamboyant wife of Francin, who manages the local brewery. Maryška drinks. She rides a bicycle, letting her long hair fly. She butchers pigs, frolics in blood, and leads on the local butcher. She’s a Madame Bovary without apologies driven to keep up with the new fast-paced mechanized modern world that is obliterating whatever sleepy pieties are left over from the defunct Austro-Hungarian Empire. “The Little Town Where Time Stood Still” is told by Maryška and Francin’s son and concerns the exploits of his Uncle Pepin, who holds his own against the occupying Nazis but succumbs to silence as the new post–World War II Communist order cements its colorless control over daily life. Together, Hrabal’s rousing and outrageous yarns stand as a hilarious and heartbreaking tribute to the always imperiled sweetness of lust, love, and life.

[Kelly_Hunsaker_reads]

Bohumil Hrabal (1914–1997) was born in Brno, Moravia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. More interested in poetry and the life of the brewery managed by his stepfather than in his studies, Hrabal eventually enrolled in the law faculty at Charles University in Prague. The Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939 led to the closing of the universities and Hrabal did not complete his degree until 1946. Not inclined to practice law and unable to find a publisher for his poetry once the Communist Party came to power in 1948, Hrabal held a long series of odd jobs, including notary clerk, warehouseman, railroad worker, insurance agent, traveling salesman, foreman in a foundry, wastepaper recycling center worker, and stagehand. In 1962 he became a full-time writer, but due to government restrictions was obliged to publish much of his work in underground editions or abroad. The motion-picture adaptation of his novella Closely Watched Trains brought Hrabal international recognition, including the 1967 Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language Film, but only in 1976 was he “rehabilitated” by the government and permitted to publish select works. By the time of his death—he fell from a fifth-floor window in a Prague hospital, apparently trying to feed the birds—Hrabal was one of the world’s most famous Czech writers and the author of nearly fifty books. Among his other works available in English translation are I Served the King of England, Too Loud a Solitude, Harlequin’s Millions, and Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age (published as an NYRB Classic).

[Rosemarie]

I will be reading this in the second half of this month. The book I own has a very interesting cover.

[Kelly_Hunsaker_reads]

I am trying to get it from the library...

[Gail]

Great cover....I have an e-book so no real cover....

[Rosemarie]

I have read the first four chapters in the first story in the book, and so far I am not loving it!
I will read all of it, since I nominated it, so I sure hope it gets better.
Maryska is one crazy woman!

[Rosemarie]

I have read 9 chapters so far and this book has proved to be a real disappointment. But I will persevere. I do hope it gets better!

[Rosemarie]

In the last chapter of the first story, we learn what the title Cutting it Short means.

I will be starting the second story, the title of the book soon.

[Rosemarie]

Well, I finished the book. I didn't enjoy it very much, caused in part by the translation, in part by the failed attempt to write humour and also by some pretty gross scenes.
I rated it two stars, which means it was just barely okay.
A lot of goodreads members rated it much higher, but the book just wasn't for me.

[Gail]

I am only at about 10% and it is so strange because it as if the author is writing slapstick comedy. One rarely reads slapstick, which to get the full impact, is all about timing....you can’t really control timing in a book. I can’t help but wonder if I am missing much in translation. Maybe many of the slapstick tropes are plays on common themes or fairytales in Czech? At any rate, I am going to continue for awhile.

[Rosemarie]

I don't if there is more than one translation, but the one I read was terrible. It is set in Bohemia, but he gives one of the character's a Scots accent--why?

[Kelly_Hunsaker_reads]

Rosemarie wrote: "I don't if there is more than one translation, but the one I read was terrible. It is set in Bohemia, but he gives one of the character's a Scots accent--why?"

I think I am going to skip it. I am so sorry you didn't enjoy it Rosemarie, but I am glad that you were so honest. I would have to buy it to read it and my book budget is tiny so I dont want to waste it.

[Kelly_Hunsaker_reads]

Gail wrote: "I am only at about 10% and it is so strange because it as if the author is writing slapstick comedy. One rarely reads slapstick, which to get the full impact, is all about timing....you can’t reall..."

I hate slapstick even in movies, so this doesn't sound good. It might be better on audibook, but that hasn't been recorded.

[Rosemarie]

I tried reading books by Milan Kundera and didn't like them either. But I did like The Good Soldier Svejk. That was a fun read.
Another thing about the Hrabal book is the language. I am not a prude, but the language in this book was really coarse at times.
I am going to try one more book by this author, from the library, with a different translator and a different theme-books.

[Gail]

I finished reading the book The Little Town Where Time Stood Still and it did leave me with a clear nostalgia that the author had for the old times when he was growing up in a brewery as the step-son of the manager. Also, the author really did have an Uncle called Pepin.
I do not know if it was a translation problem or a particular way of looking at the world or a culture specific humor but it was very difficult for me to appreciate this book. The author does have a visual style but many of the visual vignettes didn’t seem to add up to much except a joke. I did like the story of Maryska climbing the brewery tower and her long blond hair blowing in the wind causing the firemen to come to the rescue. I thought some of the parallel lives of the two brothers; Pepin the lewd, full of life working man and former solder of Austria compared to his fearful decent brother the brewery manager, was well displayed but I didn’t think the narration was particularly well done as I didn’t get any sense of a very young man only the old man the author became. The final chapters which sum up the old times and the lives we have seen in the book were well done but there was a lot of book to get through to get to those chapters.
I am glad I got a glimpse of the Czech Republic in the old times (when it was not called the Czech Republic) but other than that, I think I missed the core of the book because many believe our author is one of the greatest Czech authors.

[Rosemarie]

I found the final chapters showed the nostalgia that the author felt, but they didn't have that much in common with the rest of the book.

[Gail]

Yes, I agree with you, Rosemarie. It is almost as if he needed to give us all those vignettes so that you would understand the last chapters but it wasn't a good balance for me. I was left feeling as if I just didn't get it.

[Rosemarie]

I'm glad I'm not the only one. I am sure this book lost a lot in translation.