Synopses & Reviews
Through four sensuous tales, a young man traces his harsh coming of age in Czechoslovakia, where faith in love, country and human kindness must hold out against increasing political disillusionment. His first affections move from a young kitchen girl in the Jewish ghetto who fills his glass tall with scarce milk to a restless married woman, an undercover spy, and a frail woman who can't escape her past suffering. It is Ivan Klíma's keen, ironic eye and naive, lyrical timbre that suffuses these stories with their richness of detail. Klíma's work was banned in his native Czechoslovakia, where he was published in .
Review
"What distinguishes . . . is Klíma's deft and humorous telling and his ability to weave several complex threads of thought into the basic simplicity of his stories." San Francisco Chronicle
Review
"An ecstatic vertigo is the main feeling that suffuses . . . . These stories carry the burning authority and desperate eloquence of a survivor." New York Times Book Review
Review
"Klíma's stories are indirect and unfailingly graceful." Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
"The voice [in these stories] is clear and intelligent and brave. Mr. Klíma has climbed the mast." --