New Life - Bohumil Hrabal

Title: Vita nuova - Bohumil Hrabal

Author: Bohumil Hrabal

Binding: Book & Other Item

EAN: 9789035119017

Condition: Good

Please note: Below is a general description of how we classify our condition types. If you would like a more precise picture or have specific questions, please send us a message and we will be happy to look into it for you.

Condition descriptions:
- As New: Hardly any signs of use, almost as new.
- Good: May show minor signs of use, such as some discoloration or a name on the endpapers, but generally no underlining or notes in the text.
- Fair: Book in fair condition. May show signs of use, such as discoloration, reading creases in spine, underlinings, notes, light soiling at edges, dog-ears, or a crooked spine.
- New: Book is new.

Description:
Bohumil Hrabal (1914-1997) died after falling from the window of the fifth floor of the hospital where he was admitted for rehabilitation. He probably lost his balance while feeding the pigeons. His end is so literary, so bizarre that it could have been a worthy conclusion to the autobiography that he wrote as his last major work at the beginning of the nineties and of which Weddings was the first part. In this autobiography, which he narrates through his wife Pipsi, Hrabal portrays himself as a grouch, a drunkard and an egoist who also goes his own way in marriage. But where in Weddings Pipsi still looked up to the phenomenon Hrabal with admiration, with whom she had been taken to the altar, we see in Vita nuova - which again takes place largely in the Prague district of Liben with its many pubs - disillusionment prevail. Hrabal does not allow himself to be domesticated as a family man and his erratic behaviour increasingly saddens Pipsi. She thinks back with longing to her first love, or she is impressed by the 'tender' barbarian, the graphic artist Vladimir Boudnik, Hrabal's bosom friend, who himself, however, becomes involved with the Slovakian Teklo, whom Pipsi cannot stand.

In Vita nuovo, which is divided into a large number of episodes, within which one or two stories unfold, Hrabal does not programmatically avoid following in Joyce's footsteps - using the full stop as a completely unnecessary punctuation mark, so that the story can be read in one breath, as it were.