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Original Essays | May 1, 2013

Josh Hanagarne: IMG Seven Books That Actually Changed My Life

5 comments By Josh Hanagarne

I'd predict that 99 percent of the small talk in the staff elevator at my library involves the following question and its answers: "Are you reading... Continue »
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4 Burnside Literature- A to Z

Too Loud a Solitude

by

Too Loud a Solitude Cover

ISBN13: 9780156904582
ISBN10: 0156904586
Condition:
All Product Details

 

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Hanta has been compacting trash for thirty-five years. Every evening he resues books from the jaws of his hydraulic press, carries them home, and fills his house with them. Hanta may be an idiot, as his boss calls him, but he is an idiot with a difference — the ability to quote the Talmud, Hegel, and Lao-tzu.

In this baroque and winsome tale, Hrabal, whom Milan Kundera has called "our very best writer today," celebrates the power and the indestructibility of the written word.

Review:

"[An] absorbing fable about a man who educates himself with the discarded printed matter he collects." Publishers Weekly

Review:

"Hrabal's tale, so finely balanced between pathos and comedy, loses none of its power now that Czechoslovakia is free." Los Angeles Times

Review:

"An irresistibly eccentric romp, quick with the heart's life." New York Times Book Review

Synopsis:

Hantá rescues books from the jaws of his compacting press and carries them home. Hrabal, whom Milan Kundera calls “our very best writer today,” celebrates the power and the indestructibility of the written word. Translated by Michael Henry Heim.

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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 4 comments:
Peter Anderson, October 21, 2011 (view all comments by Peter Anderson)
Goodness, what a phenomenal little book this is. Powerful with so few words. Thoughtful, philosophical, touching, funny, and ultimately tragic. But though tragic, the conclusion makes perfect sense in light of the preceding narrative, and the narrator gains a fate which is greatly preferable to the unpalatable alternative that he otherwise faced. The book has shades of Knut Hamsun (the solitary, intellectual, reality-challenged narrator of Hunger), George Orwell (the stubborn permanence of the written word, a la 1984) and Franz Kafka (inhuman bureaucracies and the overall surreal tone), three writers whom I greatly admire, a list to which I now add Bohumil Hrabal. During my life I've only re-read a handful of books, but Too Loud a Solitude is one I will definitely be returning to, and probably more than once.
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juniper, January 1, 2011 (view all comments by juniper)
This slim novel comes from a bright mind. Nothing in it can be predicted. It is full of filth, shocks of beauty and enormous energy. It covers the entire range of human passions without judgment. It is mind-expanding and truly invents, in the most reserved and elite sense of that word. There is nothing comparable.
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venusinfauxfurz, May 5, 2007 (view all comments by venusinfauxfurz)
Simply a beautiful story. It grabs you on the first line and lets you down easily on the last.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780156904582
Author:
Hrabal, Bohumil
Publisher:
Mariner Books
Translator:
Heim, Michael Henry
Author:
Heim, Michael Henry
Location:
San Diego
Subject:
General
Subject:
Fiction
Subject:
General Fiction
Subject:
General Fiction
Subject:
Literature-A to Z
Copyright:
1992
Edition Number:
1st Harvest/HBJ ed.
Edition Description:
Harvest/HBJ
Series:
Harvest in translation
Series Volume:
Nr. 4394
Publication Date:
19920431
Binding:
TRADE PAPER
Language:
English
Pages:
112
Dimensions:
8 x 5.31 in 0.25 lb
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Related Subjects

» Fiction and Poetry » Literature » A to Z

Too Loud a Solitude Sale Trade Paper
0 stars - 0 reviews
$5.98 In Stock
Product details 112 pages Harvest Books - English 9780156904582 Reviews:
"Publishers Weekly Review" by , "[An] absorbing fable about a man who educates himself with the discarded printed matter he collects." Publishers Weekly
"Review" by , "Hrabal's tale, so finely balanced between pathos and comedy, loses none of its power now that Czechoslovakia is free."
"Review" by , "An irresistibly eccentric romp, quick with the heart's life."
"Synopsis" by ,
Hantá rescues books from the jaws of his compacting press and carries them home. Hrabal, whom Milan Kundera calls “our very best writer today,” celebrates the power and the indestructibility of the written word. Translated by Michael Henry Heim.
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