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36+ verk 82 medlemmar 5 recensioner

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Verk av Jiří Kratochvil

Een bedroefde God (2000) 7 exemplar
Dame de Coeur (2009) 5 exemplar
Canto en medio de la noche (1992) 5 exemplar
Avion (Czech Edition) (1995) 3 exemplar
Brněnské povídky (2007) 2 exemplar
Bakšiš 2 exemplar
Lehni, bestie! (2005) 2 exemplar

Associerade verk

Best European Fiction 2012 (2011) — Bidragsgivare — 72 exemplar

Taggad

Allmänna fakta

Vedertaget namn
Kratochvil, Jiří
Namn enligt folkbokföringen
Kratochvil, Jiří
Födelsedag
1940-01-04
Kön
male
Nationalitet
Czech
Bostadsorter
Brno, Czech Republic
Yrken
writer
Relationer
Harris, Jane (spouse)
Priser och utmärkelser
Jaroslav Seifert Prize (1999)
Agent
Dana Blatná

Medlemmar

Recensioner

Brno, años cincuenta. En pleno terror estalinista, una joven pintora es asesinada tras un interrogatorio de la policía secreta. Su hermano, un arquitecto especializado en diseñar edificios de mal gusto para los gerifaltes comunistas, jura venganza. Un día, por casualidad, descubre un sótano abovedado situado justo debajo de su edificio, en el centro de Brno, y es entonces, tras recordar un relato de Nabokov, a quien conoció en su infancia, cuando se propone encerrar allí al responsable de la muerte de su hermana. No obstante, su particular campaña de venganza privada se le va de las manos y las consecuencias se vuelven imprevisibles. Con esta historia de crímenes con trasfondo político, Kratochvil, considerado el escritor checo más importante de la era post-Kundera, crea una parábola laberíntica cargada de un humor negro de altísima graduación.… (mer)
 
Flaggad
Natt90 | 1 annan recension | Feb 24, 2023 |
Una alegoría universal sobre la infancia, la pérdida, la búsqueda del padre y de la propia identidad en la Checoslovaquia comunista. En el marco de una fantasmagórica ciudad de Brno, bajo la constante vigilancia de un kafkiano Ellos, nos introducimos en un laberinto de vidas al límite que se entreveran con los convulsos acontecimientos históricos que atravesará el país a lo largo de esas décadas.
 
Flaggad
Natt90 | Jan 15, 2023 |
I haven't read much Czech literature, only the usual Kafkas and Josef Skvorecky's The Cowards (see my review) so I turned to Michael (The Complete Review) Orthofer's Guide to Contemporary World Fiction (2016) for some guidance in interpreting Jiří Kratochvil's The Vow: A Requiem for The Fifties (published in Czech as Slib in 2009). Alas, Jiří Kratochvil (b.1940) doesn't get a mention and this is probably because The Vow is the first of his books to be translated into English, and it's taken until 2021 for that to happen...

As you can see from his page at Goodreads, and his Wikipedia page Kratochvil is a prolific Czech writer. In 1991 he was awarded the Tom Stoppard Prize for his book Medvědí román ("A Bear's Novel") and in 1999 he was awarded the Jaroslav Seifert Prize.

The Vow is a very interesting book, but it's challenging. Set in Brno under the Soviets, it uses postmodern techniques to excoriate the culture of surveillance and to show how everyone was a perpetrator, everyone was to blame, and everyone answers to someone in power, though that of course was mostly the state.

The novel uses multiple narrators offering different perspectives. There is some third person omniscient narration, but the central characters also get a voice: the architect Kamil Modracek, the private investigator Dan Koci who becomes a 2nd lieutenant in the surveillance apparatus, and Modracek's ill-fated sister amongst others. Truth be told, it's not always easy to know who the narrator is, but it usually becomes clear in due course.

The novel begins with Modracek admitting his collaboration with the Nazis. As the translator Charles S Kraszewski says in the introduction, all interrogators know that an honorable man can be brought to his knees by threats to the ones he loves. Modracek builds a villa with the Nazi symbol clearly visible from above, and he likewise submits to designing boring Soviet buildings to comply with the new regime in order to protect his sister. (Her 'crime; is that she's an abstract artist, not conforming to Soviet rules about artistic expression.)

He is devastated when he learns that she has died in custody after interrogation by Laska, and he blames himself.
My sister was, most probably, the most important being in my life. Even in childhood, and ever onwards, I felt for her something more than the mere responsibility of an older brother. And because I received the news of death the way I did: dully, unmoved, in a stupor; because I was unable to resist when they commanded me not to open the casket, warned me not to break the seal which they'd locked her in, for the rest of my life I will be justly locked up in my own prison of stupor. As punishment for not protecting my little sister, for not being able to stand up to them. (p.129)

(You can see in that extract, how the translator's choice of English words is so carefully nuanced. He chooses 'mere responsibility' instead of 'ordinary', subtly dismissing the usual responsibility of an older brother as something inferior to how he feels. He chooses 'commanded me' rather than 'ordered' with its implications of an implacable hierarchy: anyone can give an 'order' but a 'command' can only be made by a superior to a subordinate and there is an expectation of unquestioned compliance. He chooses 'warned me' instead of 'told me' with its intimations of unpalatable consequences that make Moracek suppress his desire to view his sister's body. Only a translator with a masterful command of English can make subtle distinctions like this.)

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2022/10/23/the-vow-a-requiem-for-the-fifties-by-jiri-kr...
… (mer)
 
Flaggad
anzlitlovers | Oct 22, 2022 |
Text příjemně plyne, věty se čtou samy. Tolik ke kladům. Jinak na mě však kniha působila jako grafomanské cvičení bez účelu.
 
Flaggad
Wuzzy | May 25, 2017 |

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Statistik

Verk
36
Även av
2
Medlemmar
82
Popularitet
#220,761
Betyg
½ 3.5
Recensioner
5
ISBN
41
Språk
5

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