How I Came to Know Fish (1974) is Ota Pavel's magical memoir of his childhood in Czechoslovakia. Fishing with his father and his Uncle Prosek - the two finest fishermen in the world - he takes a peaceful pleasure from the rivers and ponds of his country. But when the Nazis invade, his father and two older brothers are sent to concentration camps and Pavel must steal their confiscated fish back from under the noses of the SS to feed his family. With tales of his father's battle to provide for his family both in wealthy freedom and in terrifying persecution, this is one boy's passionate and affecting tale of life, love and fishing.
--This text refers to the
Kindle Edition
edition.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Pavel's poignant autobiographical stories based on his childhood in bucolic, pre-war Czechoslovakia include beautiful descriptions of the countryside and reminiscences about his father's infectious passion for fishing. ``The hurried, tremulous quality of the prose suggests Pavel's emotional turmoil, but perhaps it is a result instead of a desire to capture his memories as they tumbled forth,'' said PW.
Copyright 1991 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Several of these interconnected, intensely poignant stories evoke the author's comic fishing trips with his charming father, a champion traveling salesman and avid fisherman. Other pieces evoke the German occupation of Czechoslovakia. In "The Death of Beautiful Deer," the father poaches a deer to give his sons a last good meal before their departure to a concentration camp. In another story, before he is himself deported, the father again risks his life to fish for carp in a pond that as a Jew he no longer owns. This first English translation of Pavel's work captures the magic of his touchingly poetic, bittersweet tales about the joys of fishing, the beauty of nature, and the strength we derive from it. Recommended for public libraries and libraries collecting East European fiction.
- Marie Bednar, Pennsylvania State Univ. Libs., University Park
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
- Marie Bednar, Pennsylvania State Univ. Libs., University Park
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fishing against a backdrop of war.,
By A Customer
This review is from: How I Came to Know Fish (Paperback)
This gentle, unassuming book is one of the most powerful I have ever read. It is the story of a young boy's experiences with life as his days change from idyllic afternoons of fishing to the realities of WWII. Much more than a book about fishing, though it contains many wonderful espisodes about fish and fishing, it is a recounting of the hardships, terrors, and ultimate kindnesses that populate war. As you will learn, fish and fishing became the metaphor for freedom for Ota Pavel.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
more than a fishing book,
By jdennis@traverse.com (northern Michigan) - See all my reviews
This review is from: How I Came to Know Fish (Paperback)
I fell quickly and completely in love with this book. Unpretentious, disarmingly honest, simple without being simplistic. It's also sneaky -- it purports to be a memoir of a simple, arcadian time and place, then blindsides you with the realization that this was not such a simple time after all. I wish I could give it six stars.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
WONDERFUL AND MOVING,
By A Customer
This review is from: How I Came to Know Fish (Hardcover)
VERY MOVING AND BEAUTIFUL. THE WORLD BEFORE THE WWII FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF A LITTLE BOY, SWEET AND TENDER. THE GREAT STARTING POINT TO EXPLORE THE CZECH LITERATURE. IN THE SAME CLASS AS WRITINGS OF BULHAKOV AND HUELLE, VERY MAGICAL AND MYSTERIOUS.
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