Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
Abacus (1990), Paperback, 96 pages
Description
For gauche young apprentice Milos Hrma, life at the small but strategic railway station in Bohemia in 1945 is full of complex preoccupations. There is the exacting business of dispatching German troop trains to and from the toppling Eastern front; the problem of ridding himself of his burdensome innocence; and the awesome scandal of Dispatcher Hubicka's gross misuse of the station's official stamps upon the telegraphist's anatomy. Beside these, Milos's part in the plan for the ammunition train seems a simple affair. CLOSELY OBSERVED TRAINS, which became the award-winning Jiri Menzel film of the 'Prague Spring', is a classic of postwar literature, a small masterpiece of humour, humanity and heroism which fully justifies Hrabal's reputation as one of the best Czech writers of today.… (more)
Media reviews
This slim book, 91 pages of strikingly wide margins, constitutes no more than a novella, but is full of incident. It also treats of those novelistic big issues, love, sex and death.
In early 1945 various railway workers play out their lives against a backdrop of military and passenger train
Graduate trainee Miloš Hrma comes from a long line of eccentrics, one of whom tried to stop the German invasion in 1939 by the power of hypnosis alone - before being crushed by a tank. In his private life Miloš is troubled in his relationship with his girlfriend Masha by a lapse of physical prowess at a crucial moment.
The station is a surprisingly sexualised environment – the Station Master’s oilcloth covered couch has been ripped in several places during an illicit liaison and Dispatcher Hubrićka has used the station’s official stamps scandalously - to imprint the female telegraphist’s buttocks.
The feel of the passages dealing with these aspects of people’s lives is akin to magic realism but of course along with these there are always in the background the train movements, which the workers keep under close surveillance, to consider.
I know no Czech and consequently have not read the original so cannot say how true it was, but the translation read easily. A slight familiarity with German or Latin may occasionally help the reader with the few quotes from those languages which are included but the context makes most of them obvious and the important one is later rendered in English.
In Closely Observed Trains Hrabal has written a fine novella, an impressive work about how life carries on even in trying circumstances - and also an observation on the futility and arbitrariness of war.
In early 1945 various railway workers play out their lives against a backdrop of military and passenger train
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movements through their strategic location, a small railway station in Bohemia. The novella’s denouement takes place against the fire-bombing of Dresden lighting up the night sky.Graduate trainee Miloš Hrma comes from a long line of eccentrics, one of whom tried to stop the German invasion in 1939 by the power of hypnosis alone - before being crushed by a tank. In his private life Miloš is troubled in his relationship with his girlfriend Masha by a lapse of physical prowess at a crucial moment.
The station is a surprisingly sexualised environment – the Station Master’s oilcloth covered couch has been ripped in several places during an illicit liaison and Dispatcher Hubrićka has used the station’s official stamps scandalously - to imprint the female telegraphist’s buttocks.
The feel of the passages dealing with these aspects of people’s lives is akin to magic realism but of course along with these there are always in the background the train movements, which the workers keep under close surveillance, to consider.
I know no Czech and consequently have not read the original so cannot say how true it was, but the translation read easily. A slight familiarity with German or Latin may occasionally help the reader with the few quotes from those languages which are included but the context makes most of them obvious and the important one is later rendered in English.
In Closely Observed Trains Hrabal has written a fine novella, an impressive work about how life carries on even in trying circumstances - and also an observation on the futility and arbitrariness of war.
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User reviews
LibraryThing member ablueidol
Closely Observed Trains written by Bohumil Hrabal is considered one of the greatest Czech and European writers of the 20th century. His books are translated into 27 languages. The short novel was the basis of one of the most popular new wave movies made in the 60’s. He died in the late 1990’s
However this is not some worthy political diatribe but an earthy sensual satire that contrasts the bumbling humour of the Czechs and the crudity and repression of the local Nazis as the German front collapse at the end of the war. The opening scene is of a shot down aeroplane wing fluttering into the town and causing panic in the streets. From this we learn about the Hrma family, Great Grandfather who had a war pension from 18 and would drink a bottle of rum and smoke a pack of cigars a day in from of the local workers to show how easy he had it until finally beaten to death in his 80’s, a grandfather who tried to hypnotise the Germans invaders to stop, and a father who had served on the railways for 25 years before he retired to be the village holder of lost and abandoned objects.
And finally we meet Milos Hrma the teenage railway apprentice on the way to work at the local railway station after a 3 month sick leave. He is acutely aware of the town’s view that the whole family are scroungers and wastrels. The sick leave was because he had tried to commit suicide after failing to “rise to the occasion” with his first love as he feared that the eyes of the town were on him.
Milos is one of Hrabal's "wise fools" - simpletons with occasional or inadvertent profound thoughts - who are also given to coarse humour, lewdness, and a determination to survive and enjoy oneself despite harsh circumstances. As he rejoins work he walks into a crisis. It appears that the station dispatcher –a sex mad woman’s man had used the entire official stamps one night to stamp the bum of the female telegraphist. As these were in German, this prompts the investigation of the way that the station was being run much to the frustration of the bumbling pigeon fancier station master ambitions. In the resulting chaos of events Milos gets to achieve sexual maturity and political maturity as he finally makes a moving and heroic stand against the Germans.
The novel is less then 100 pages but each of the characters spring of the page and the underlying politics are hinted rather then laid on with a trowel. For example the horror of this time is mainly conveyed with subtle quiet descriptions of the trains and their passengers passing through the station- a hospital train from the front passing a train with fresh troops on the way to the front or the state of the animals stranded on delayed trains. Its real targets were off course the Communists and the need to take a stand against them which the Czechs did in 68 and in the 90’s to gain their freedom in the velvet revolution. But don’t worry about the politics. Instead enjoy the story and writing that paints pictures in your mind with memorable scenes and humour leaving you desperate to see the film and read more of his books. Highly recommended.
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possibly by suicide and had to struggle through the long oppression of the communist regime with many of his books having to be smuggled out to be published.However this is not some worthy political diatribe but an earthy sensual satire that contrasts the bumbling humour of the Czechs and the crudity and repression of the local Nazis as the German front collapse at the end of the war. The opening scene is of a shot down aeroplane wing fluttering into the town and causing panic in the streets. From this we learn about the Hrma family, Great Grandfather who had a war pension from 18 and would drink a bottle of rum and smoke a pack of cigars a day in from of the local workers to show how easy he had it until finally beaten to death in his 80’s, a grandfather who tried to hypnotise the Germans invaders to stop, and a father who had served on the railways for 25 years before he retired to be the village holder of lost and abandoned objects.
And finally we meet Milos Hrma the teenage railway apprentice on the way to work at the local railway station after a 3 month sick leave. He is acutely aware of the town’s view that the whole family are scroungers and wastrels. The sick leave was because he had tried to commit suicide after failing to “rise to the occasion” with his first love as he feared that the eyes of the town were on him.
Milos is one of Hrabal's "wise fools" - simpletons with occasional or inadvertent profound thoughts - who are also given to coarse humour, lewdness, and a determination to survive and enjoy oneself despite harsh circumstances. As he rejoins work he walks into a crisis. It appears that the station dispatcher –a sex mad woman’s man had used the entire official stamps one night to stamp the bum of the female telegraphist. As these were in German, this prompts the investigation of the way that the station was being run much to the frustration of the bumbling pigeon fancier station master ambitions. In the resulting chaos of events Milos gets to achieve sexual maturity and political maturity as he finally makes a moving and heroic stand against the Germans.
The novel is less then 100 pages but each of the characters spring of the page and the underlying politics are hinted rather then laid on with a trowel. For example the horror of this time is mainly conveyed with subtle quiet descriptions of the trains and their passengers passing through the station- a hospital train from the front passing a train with fresh troops on the way to the front or the state of the animals stranded on delayed trains. Its real targets were off course the Communists and the need to take a stand against them which the Czechs did in 68 and in the 90’s to gain their freedom in the velvet revolution. But don’t worry about the politics. Instead enjoy the story and writing that paints pictures in your mind with memorable scenes and humour leaving you desperate to see the film and read more of his books. Highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member thorold
It's probably stating the obvious, but there's a Svejkian feel to this novella: the contrast of mischievous, physical humour with the death and destruction of the closing stages of World War II make the comparison inevitable. And a railway is a world of hierarchies, procedures and subtle
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subversions very like the army. Show Less
LibraryThing member Niecierpek
A short novella set during WWII tells the story of a few people from a small town in Czechoslovakia through which ‘closely watched trains’- German trains with troops and ammunition pass through. The main character, Milos Hrma, is trying to regain his self- image after his first –
Intelligent and satirical, and alternately high and low-brow, funny and poignant, it is a beautifully told story about the bravery and courage of common people.
Highly recommended.
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devastating– sexual experience. Intelligent and satirical, and alternately high and low-brow, funny and poignant, it is a beautifully told story about the bravery and courage of common people.
Highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member vaellus
Like a winter's dream in a small Czechoslovakian town near the German border. Despite the novella's shortness it evokes a remarkably deep sense of lifelikeness. The story, the characters, the episodes, the writing, all simple, bittersweet and poetic. It is incredible how Hrabal managed to include
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the breadth of the Second World War in this little book without the war ever leaving the private thoughts and pursuits of the book's characters in its shadow. The war crosses the center stage a few times in the form of German military trains, but these trains are also integral to the story as a whole. Show Less
LibraryThing member wandering_star
This is a novella set in Bohemia during World War Two and focused on Milos, a young man who works in a station through which trains pass to and from the front (the trains of the title) carrying German soldiers, arms and ammunition, and so on. The background is worn lightly - the overall tone of the
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book is light and slightly surreal. And the book is packed with very vivid images - for example, after a German plane crashes near the village, Milos meets the villagers on their way back from stripping it of anything useable or saleable. But the serious underlying issues - both personal and political - gradually become impossible to ignore. A short book, but a thought-provoking one. Show Less
LibraryThing member Lunarreader
A short novel by this special author. Reflections on being a man, how to handle woman, resistance in the war and so forth. Kind of ridiculous at times, reflective on other moments, slapstick in the rest. Not clear to me if the author meant it to have comical aspects, but probably yes.
Sarcasm on
Sarcasm on
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the state's organisation, fear of the German soldiers occupying Czechoslovakia and in the same time taking up courage to sabotage them and laughing with them in rare moments. The protagonist is not easy to catch, neither is the author. Giving signals to the passenger, army and other trains is the finest allegory i saw on getting all things in your life sorted out. Show Less
LibraryThing member soylentgreen23
A beautifully crafted little book on the horrors of war, and how it can so dramatically rob life of its innocence.
LibraryThing member jwhenderson
This dramatic and moving tale from the pen of Bohumil Hrabal is almost poetic in its sparse intensity. His story tells the fate of young Milos Hrma, an apprentice signalman, who must deal with his own shortcomings even as he faces the onset of the German army. Hrabal conveys the fate of his native
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Czechoslovakia as represented by the heroism of the protagonist of this beautiful novella. Show Less
LibraryThing member DRFP
An entertaining novella but one that, for me, failed to really impact. Hrabal's sense of humour is very good but his manner of writing made the war feel quite remote and any sort of sadness or anger I was ultimately supposed to feel never rose within me.
Given its slightly disjointed narrative (it
Given its slightly disjointed narrative (it
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taking perhaps half the story to find out why Milos tried to kill himself) and clunky translation I feel that perhaps Closely Observed Trains will have more impact on a second reading. But after this first one I can't say I found it particularly brilliant. Show Less
LibraryThing member Kristelh
Czech work of literature translated by Edith Pargeter, Published in 1965. A book of socialist realism, tells the story of a young apprentice railroad worker during WWII around the time of the bombing of Dresden. This short novella, 85 pages is pretty powerful story of a young man who doubts his own
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masculinity and has just returned to his post after a suicide attempt. Show Less
LibraryThing member yarb
Grabbed this from the library the day after watching the classic film version directed by Jiří Menzel. This is a superb novella. Comical and ghastly scenes in and around an unimportant railway halt in the final chaotic days of WWII. The narrator’s anxiety over his sexual awakening parallels the
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turbulence of the ongoing German retreat amid partisan countermeasures. The morally constipated stationmaster breeds (Polish, not German) pigeons; his wife fattens geese and gives off babushka vibes. Dispatcher Hubička is bald, plain, and a magnet for the ladies, famously applying the station’s range of stamps to the behind of the telegraph girl. Under it all is a collective profound, merciless hatred for the German occupiers and their barbarous ways, and a wish for them to be gone. The ending differs from the film version and is far better, I think. Show Less
Subjects
Language
Original publication date
1965 (Czech)
Physical description
128 p.; 7.64 inches
ISBN
0349101256 / 9780349101255