What does it mean to be free? How can we be expected to cope with a world where old limits have disappeared? And which of the many lives we live, choices we make, and identities we adopt is really our true self? Klíma, himself extensively censored during the Cold War, investigates these big questions with a paradoxical authority, stylistic sureness of touch, and potent insight that empower his refusal to draw conclusions or to moralize. A surrealist, almost magical-realist, imagination is blended with deft satire and black humor. While the experience handled by Klíma — 1989’s Velvet Revolution — is obviously Czech, the setting is trans-national and the messages are universal.

The novel tells the story of Pavel, a commitment-phobic cameraman working for a restrictive and corrupt regime. He distorts the truth on a daily basis and dreams of a freedom where his talents and his true self have free rein. When he gains that “impossible” freedom, the novel explores who he becomes and the ever-complex mismatch between ideals and actions. Multiple narratives interweave in Pavel’s story: a president in an imagined labyrinth of senility, an abstract screenplay that Pavel one day hopes to write, a blurred tale of long-lost love, even a hostage drama. But the heart of the novel is Pavel himself: compromised, mediocre, aimless, flawed, yet ultimately very human. — Theodora Sutcliffe in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die

Thanks so much for your donation Vasha!

This book is now part of the 1001-library. If you want to take this book from the library but don't know how to proceed, please refer to the 1001-library bookshelf.

I am adopting this 1001-Library book for storage. It is available for check-out!

This book is now back on the 1001 library bookshelf and can be borrowed by PMing svoight:)

If you want to take this book from the library but don't know how to proceed, please refer to the library bookshelf.

Released to a fellow 1001-Library member, enjoy!

Hi. I know it's been a while since I've visited BookCrossing, and this book was sent to me three years ago - I apologize profusely for having taken this long to write a journal entry.

A lot has happened in the past three years: I went back to school for my last year of school; finished my thesis but unfortunately got incomplete grades in three other subjects so I wasn't able to graduate still; I applied for and got my first job as a junior copywriter at a media advertising agency, which lasted about a year; then I met the love of my life (yes), got pregnant, gave birth to a wonderful baby boy we named Audio (not kidding), and now I'm a stay-at-home mom. :)

Anyway, since three years ago when these books were sent to me, they've travelled to San Francisco via my aunt's house, got inside a balikbayan box that made its way to my first boardinghouse - where some were read, and some were not - moved with me to my next boardinghouse, where they were promptly left, along with everything else that I owned, when I sort of ran away after finding out I was pregnant. I just got all of my stuff back last December, and it is only recently that I finally accepted the fact that, much as I want them to stay with me a little bit more, these books deserve better homes.

And so I passed it on to Beverly B., along with five other BC books, as a freebie together with my non-BC books that she bought from me online, where I had a booksale. Hello Bevs, I hope you enjoy this book, and be kind enough to journal its arrival at your doorstep. :)