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greyemk's review against another edition
4.25
I am absolutely in love with Hrabal’s writing style. My favorite stylist. (That said I did not like this translation as much as Michael Henry Heim’s translation of Too Loud A Solitude).
This is a weird dark and twisty little book about love, devotion, and death. Framed on the relationship of the author with his many cats. Definitely dark, not for the faint of heart.
I want to mention the use of repetition, repeated phrases and motifs throughout. Very interesting from a craft perspective, it reinforces the helpless feeling of the narrator and the small scope of the memoir, adding layers of meaning and intensity.
Lacks the meatiness of a novel but still definitely worth reading for the beautiful writing, the humor (king of comedy), the reflections snuck into the absurd anecdotes.
This is a weird dark and twisty little book about love, devotion, and death. Framed on the relationship of the author with his many cats. Definitely dark, not for the faint of heart.
I want to mention the use of repetition, repeated phrases and motifs throughout. Very interesting from a craft perspective, it reinforces the helpless feeling of the narrator and the small scope of the memoir, adding layers of meaning and intensity.
Lacks the meatiness of a novel but still definitely worth reading for the beautiful writing, the humor (king of comedy), the reflections snuck into the absurd anecdotes.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death
casparb's review against another edition
bohumil hrabal is rly cool but be warned this is not for cat-holics!!!!! uh oh !!!!
yar I am a fan of his style I want 2 read more but dear me
yar I am a fan of his style I want 2 read more but dear me
barefootmegz's review against another edition
1.0
Okay look, this is MY Goodreads profile and MY rating for MY records, so I GET to give it one star because I did not like the content - and the content detracted from the style and what I might’ve taken from it. Don’t come at me saying I can’t give a bad rating because the content disturbs me. I can and I will and I did.
I may still read other books by Hrabal. I just won’t recommend this one without noting a content warning.
I may still read other books by Hrabal. I just won’t recommend this one without noting a content warning.
chillcox15's review against another edition
5.0
Hrabal's raging struggle with and against the inevitability of nature, the pure sublime potency of moving through life, all channelled through his relationship with his beloved cats, the cats that he longs to cuddle with but, with their very nature, brings his life into a deadlock of frustration and mortifying action. Between this and people's reactions to Satantango, there's something frustrating to the bourgeois reaction to media that depicts people harming cats (both centered in Eastern Europe, but the fact that theres an entire list about books where cats are hurt/killed on this website shows that the issue is widespread). Look, I love my kitty more than most things, but uhh... there's a tsk-tsking to the relationship that others have to cats (and not all of these cats are well-heeled indoor domestics, either, that feels off. I really liked this book, but I'm also glad it wasn't much longer- its suicidal immensity of feeling that life can never escape the devastating strifes of impossible decisions is almost too much to bear.
cedarsob's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
allisnowharmed's review against another edition
4.25
reread but this time taking on the english translation because i'm due for an essay on this. the cycle of anxiety, guilt, attempted retribution + an unfulfilled prohpecy that, to my mind, remains so only because of the committed acts that beget the guilt. all the while trying to make sense of growing old.