The Little Town Where Time Stood Still

by Bohumil Hrabal

Other authorsJoshua Cohen (Introduction), James Naughton (Translator)

Paperback, 2015

Status

Available

Call number

813

Genres

General Fiction

All Topics

Fiction

Collection

Your library

Publication

NYRB Classics (2015), 321 pages

Description

"In the 1930s Europe is tangoing to the tune of a new age, but in rural Czechoslovakia golden-haired Maryska dances to a rhythm all her own. Not even her husband, Francin the brewery manager, can control her as Maryska shocks the populace with her scandalous behavior, and incurs the disapproval of a sheltered little town that is blissfully unaware of the cataclysmic world events that are about to engulf it. As World War II draws to a close, Maryska and her neighbors appear to have survived unscathed, but the new Communist political order creates tensions that tear through the social fabric in previously unimaginable ways. The Little Town Where Time Stood Still is Bohumil Hrabal's poignant, hilarious evocation of the passing of an era and the sweetness of love, lust, and life"--… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member ggodfrey

I'd read Too Loud a Solitude previously and found it enchanting--The Little Town Where Time Stood Still is equally brilliant and ranks as one of the most fun novels I've run across; actually there are two novellas combined into one book, the first told from the POV of Mary, the second by her young

son. Mary's one of the most singularly bizarre narrators ever, and her whimsical tale reads like a fable tinged with eroticism and joy. She and her husband's brother Pepin (another amazing character) get into all kinds of trouble due to soft-headedness and restlessness and an ingenuity for chaotic behavior. Mary's husband Francin tries to hold the world together, and her father smashes furniture in repeated rages, and her son gets a tattoo at a tender age and various pets are hurt or killed while Germany invades, occupies, and then the Iron Curtain descends and yet things somehow remain ridiculous. Underneath it all run political critiques of fascism and Stalinism which are as entertaining as they are enlightening. I situate Hrabal somewhere between Garcia-Marquez, Borges, and Bruno Schultz. Great, great stuff.

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LibraryThing member soylentgreen23

I didn't realise when I ordered a stack of Hrabal books online that this is the sequel to 'Cutting It Short' and features the same set of characters - so it's quite serendipitous that I left my daughter to select the order in which I read them, and she choose... wisely.

This is just tremendous work;

Mary is in it a little less than in 'Cutting it Short' but Uncle Pepin is just as loud, arrogant, and magnificent as ever, and Francin even gets to play a bigger, more interesting role.

A joy to read from start to finish - I only wish there was more...

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