Josef Škvorecký
Paperback | Pages: 592 pages Rating: 4.16 | 834 Users | 80 Reviews
List Books Toward The Engineer of Human Souls (Danny Smiřický)
| Original Title: | Příběh inženýra lidských duší |
| ISBN: | 1564781992 (ISBN13: 9781564781994) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Series: | Danny Smiřický |
| Characters: | Danny Smiricky |
| Literary Awards: | Angelus (2009) |
Commentary In Favor Of Books The Engineer of Human Souls (Danny Smiřický)
The Engineer of Human Souls is a labyrinthine comic novel that investigates the journey and plight of novelist Danny Smiricky, a Czech immigrant to Canada. As the novel begins, he is a professor of American literature at a college in Toronto. Out of touch with his young students, and hounded by the Czech secret police, Danny is let loose to roam between past and present, adopting whatever identity that he chooses or has been imposed upon him by History. As adventuresome, episodic, bawdy, comic, and literary as any novel written in the past twenty-five years, The Engineer of Human Souls is worthy of the subtitle Skvorecky gave it: "An Entertainment on the Old Themes of Life, Women, Fate, Dreams, The Working Class, Secret Agents, Love and Death."Declare Regarding Books The Engineer of Human Souls (Danny Smiřický)
| Title | : | The Engineer of Human Souls (Danny Smiřický) |
| Author | : | Josef Škvorecký |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 592 pages |
| Published | : | February 28th 2000 by Dalkey Archive Press (first published 1977) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. European Literature. Czech Literature |
Rating Regarding Books The Engineer of Human Souls (Danny Smiřický)
Ratings: 4.16 From 834 Users | 80 ReviewsPiece Regarding Books The Engineer of Human Souls (Danny Smiřický)
If Milan Kundera had gotten together with Orhan Pamuk to rewrite Snow with more of a postmodern flourish...Toss in 'the immigrant experience' and a dash of post-war paranoia, and we're getting close to this book. Absolutely loved the lit-classroom dialogues on literature and politics and the accompanying allusions and metaphors. I wasn't in love with his prose, however, as it was burdened from time to time (and time again) with cliche. Still a rich and resounding read.I have long fantasised about leaving the UK, but it wasnt until recently that I seriously considered the prospect. Indeed, a couple of weeks ago I took a trip to Prague, my favourite city, in order to feel the place as someone looking to live there [which obviously involves a different mind-set from that of someone going there on holiday]. To this end, I made an effort to speak to locals, of course, but focussed my attention on those who had moved from elsewhere. As you would expect, there is a
I can say no more just now but that this book is excellent. For people like me, I highly recommend it. I will do an extended review at a later date.
If you want to read about the Czech post war history- at home and in exile, read this. A great book.Full of humanity. Canadians will like it, too.
I actually approached this book with trepidation. It is thick, with almost six hundred pages of the usual hardbound size book. The title is imposing, the author's name has the same foreboding sound as that of Kafka, the cover shows a typewriter with a sheet of paper flying upwards off it stair-like, with a blurb by Milan Kundera ("Magnificent! A magnum opus!") who is himself not easy to understand.It turned out to be a delightful read, Czechoslovakia's answer to Azar Nafisi's "Reading Lolita in
A whirling epic from a master-in-pieces: a piece of wartime life manufacturing messerschmitts; a piece of life in Canadian exile as a professor teaching a cast of oddballs about Poe, Conrad, Lovecraft, and co; a piece of life hobnobbing with the spooked and strange émigré community; a piece of life in love with village girls and Scandinavian students; a piece of epistles of other lives in pieces; a piece of mind and no peace in mind. Ladies: let this mans splendid arms wrap themselves around
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