Reviews

Otra obra llena de ternura y humanidad de este autor checo, que sabe combinar perfectamente las pequeñas historias cotidianas de gente corriente con los grandes eventos o contextos históricos. Es un libro que para mí va de menos a más y donde la poesía y al mismo tiempo la sencillez de su estilo, nos hablan de la juventud, del deseo, de la entrada en la edad adulta y de la resistencia al invasor.

karinlib's review against another edition

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3.0

I am not really sure what I think of Hrabal, I had read another book by him ([b:Too Loud a Solitude|87280|Too Loud a Solitude|Bohumil Hrabal|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1359996651l/87280._SY75_.jpg|284719]), and sort of liked it, but I didn't love it. I had tried to read [b:The Little Town Where Time Stood Still|87285|The Little Town Where Time Stood Still|Bohumil Hrabal|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1421011966l/87285._SY75_.jpg|1868927], but found that the introduction was better than the book.

Closely Watched Trains is better than the two I just mentioned, and I can see why it was made into a movie. The ending is amazing

zamaszystyoj's review against another edition

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dark funny reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

narwhalpodruhe's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

chillcox15's review against another edition

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5.0

A very interesting experience to go from Hrabal's later work, which has pulled its narrative techniques much farther away from plot structures, back to this early classic. While that type of narratology that I really like in something like All My Cats can be found here, its in service of a noir-tinged black comedy of sex and fascism. An excellent, unique portrait of WWII.

bluestarfish's review against another edition

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4.0

Closely Observed Trains is a coming of age novella about the young railway traffic apprentice Miloš Hrma. In German occupied Czekoslovakia he watches trains and feels closely watched. The station is also under observation after Dispatcher Hubička gains notoriety for unorthodox uses of the station's official stamps. Young Hrma is taken with the pretty Masha and "the burden of ridding himself of his burdensome innocence", as the backcover blurb would have it, and so the war seems secondary and in the background to his life - until it isn't. The characters are larger than life while also somehow being such a part of their own stories and narratives that when the story touches on reality it feels a surprisng intrusion yet somehow inevitable. Very interesting to read something from this Czech author.

Translated by Edith Pargeter.

gdaly18's review against another edition

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5.0

The introduction to this book compares the author's style to both Faulkner and silent movies and I am not sure I could offer a more succinct or accurate comparison myself. The way the book is interspersed with flashbacks that often blend with the present, was very much like something out of Faulkner's works (although I liked it quite a bit better than I liked any Faulkner). As for the silent movies, the character has this voice that, for me, captured the sense of subtle, often absurd, humor that silent movies sometimes had, and that contemporary movies seem too often to be greatly lacking. While I would say that it is not the kind of humor I think most would find funny, it was beautifully dark and satirical and so subtle that at times I wasn't sure whether to laugh or be shocked or whether the effect was meant to be melancholy and I was just morbidly amused. The narrative also had this strange effect of swelling up and down, one moment being laughably absurd and the next evoking this feeling of deep existential dread. Is it for everyone? Maybe not. Is it weird that I find incredibly morbid things hysterically funny? Probably. Did I love this? Absolutely.

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