My Merry Mornings: Stories From Prague [Paperback]

Ivan Klima (Author), George Theiner (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 25, 1986

Seven witty stories, one for each day of the week, give a vivid picture of Prague before the Velvet Revolution.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Czech (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 154 pages
• Publisher: Readers International (September 25, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0930523059
• ISBN-13: 978-0930523053
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,887,214 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Klima's Witty, Moving Prague Tales, August 22, 2004

By 

Leonard Fleisig "Len" (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: My Merry Mornings: Stories From Prague (Paperback)

This collection of seven short stories, one named for each morning of the week, is a nice introduction to the writing of Ivan Klima. Klima loves to write and in these stories Klima's love for the word shines through. He is a teller of tales and Klima is in his element in the short story medium. The writing style evident in these stories, unlike some of his novels, is simple and accessible to any reader. The simplicity of style is not surprising when one considers that Klima praised Czech playwright and author Karel Capek for exhibiting these same traits in his biography of Capek.

The stories are light but they do reveal some of Klima's world view. In his Tuesday Morning story Klima's narrtaor(and in some of his stories the protagonist is referred to simply as Klima), a Czech writer, is reunited with an old paramour 20 years after she fled Czechoslovakia for the West. They had no emotional relationship but spent an idyllic spring and summer meeting for a tryst every lunch time in a vacant lot in Prague. They meet for lunch upon her return and she asks him why he never left Czechoslovakia. His response is simple: "Because I'd like to go on being a writer, and to be a writer means also to stick up for people whose fate is not a matter of indifference to me. . . All this I can do here, where I grew up."

Pungent, yet understated, sentences work themselves into virtually every story. The Sunday Morning story, which involves torrential flooding in a outlying neighborhhod, begins simply: "This was a year rich in rainfall and police raids." Klima does not hammer the reader over the head with ideology or his world view. Rather, he tells simple stories about the daily lives of the people around him. The social and political atmosphere of the time is certainly present but they are set out as a fact of life that forms the backdrop of the story. The barter system for procuring supplies or the bribes required to pay off vendors is simply there, it is not the central focus of the tale. When the narrator and some colleagues band together to build a garage for their cars on a vacant lot two of the builders go off to steal some building material. The narrator is surprised but moved when his companion explains why he simply cannot steal the needed supplies

Each story tells a small tale and it would reveal a bit too much to describe each individual story. However, they are well written, amusing, and thoughtful. While this is far from Klima's most profound work they do paint a picture of life in Prague as it was lived by Klima and those around them. It is also clear from Merry Mornings that Klima loves Prague. It is his city and he is as attached to it as native Parisian might be to Paris. All in all Merry Mornings serves as an enjoyable introduction to both Klima and Prague.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A bittersweet look at life in communist Prague, July 11, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: My Merry Mornings: Stories From Prague (Paperback)

First of all, I can't recomment Mr. Klima's works highly enough. "My merry mornings" is the first one I came across, and I have since read most of his other (translated) works. Most strongly appealing are his wry understanding of the characters he draws; his ability to mine the emotional depths of even day-to-day situations; and his almost understated depiction of life in the shadow of an east bloc regime.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Merry Mornings : Stories from Prague, December 31, 2000

By 

Libri Mundi "Libri Mundi" - See all my reviews
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This review is from: My Merry Mornings: Stories From Prague (Paperback)

Hats Off to Klima, this is a wonderful book - satire at the highest level. I am really surprised that Klima had the guts to write this is a communist Czeck (then communist). I do not remember anybody other than Capek who was as brilliant. The translation by George Theiner is also great. Though there are seven stories, one for each day of the week but I promise you will finish it in a couple of days. He brings up the dark side but not in a gloomy way but rather in hilarious fashion mixed with sarcasm which definitely deserves all praises. I will definitely recommend this book as a must buy.