A review by gdaly18
Closely Watched Trains by Bohumil Hrabal

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.