Customer Reviews

The Prague Orgy

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is good reading when preceded by the first three Zuckerman books. If you can find Zuckerman Bound, buy that, and get this baby included in the collection. That work, with 3 novels and this novella, is one of the best books Ive read.

One cluster of Philip Roth's Zuckerman novels follows the writer Nathan Zuckerman through the career stages of young apprentice writer (THE GHOST WRITER), guilty successful rising novelist (ZUCKERMAN UNBOUND), and troubled and libidinous novelist with writer's block (THE ANATOMY LESSON). In each of these novels, Roth examines the nature of literary success while providing a backstory of associated family resentments and guilt.

In the novella, THE PRAGUE ORGY, Roth examines Zuckerman in a new stage of his literary career. Specifically, TPO shows Zuckerman, now a renowned novelist, traveling to Communist Czechoslovakia in 1976. There, he tries to acquire hundreds of unpublished stories written by what another character calls the "Yiddish Flaubert." Without Zuckerman's intervention, this literary and cultural trove may otherwise be lost through fickle communist censorship or their complicated stewardship by an alcoholic Czechoslovakian writer.

Chronologically, TPO is a natural addition to this cluster of Zuckerman novels, functioning as the caboose to this short literary train. But thematically, TPO moves into new territory. In particular, this three-part novella shows the celebrity novelist Zuckerman: being manipulated by an émigré literary operator; encountering a demoralized and eviscerated cultural world in Communist Prague; and trying to understand his motivation and boundaries as he tries to smuggle the stories to the West. Roth, in other words, has shifted his focus from tortured literary ambition and success to what is primarily an examination of artistic endeavor in a police state. As a result, the emotional conflicts that make the other Zuckerman novels in this cluster so fascinating get short shrift.

Not that I'm so well read; but I also think that Central and Eastern European writers (Danilo Kis, for example) who lived under Stalinist and Communist rule are superior at capturing the human despair that develops in a police state. In TPO, Zuckerman parachutes into Prague, where he conveys the outsider's point of view.

Regardless, this is a worthwhile read for Roth fans. Further, it does show Roth, yet again, converting his own life experience into fiction. Wasn't he, after all, deeply involved in the worthy cause of helping downtrodden Central and Eastern European writers at the time TPO's publication?

The small novel, or rather novella, The Prague Orgy" can be treated as an appendix to the trilogy about the Jewish-American writer Nathan Zuckerman. This slim volume is the example of the real wave of the novels appearing in the 1980s by American authors, who described the Eastern European countries under the communist regime, most often based on the personal experience from their travels.

Nathan Zuckerman, already a renowned writer, finds himself in Prague under Soviet occupation in the mid-1970s. He has a mission to recovers the manuscripts of the short stories written by the father of a Czech emigre writer.

The book is given as excerpts from Nathan's diary, starting with the meeting with the Czech writer, Zdenek Sisovsky, and his lover, a tragic actress Eva Kalinova, in New York, and continuing with the relation of his trip to Prague. The reader is presented with an amazing array of intellectuals, demoralized by the system. The enormous number of delightfully colorful characters and their stories, skilfully woven into the concise text is perhaps the major achievement of The Prague Orgy", which gives is a stand on its own, athough it has more of the gems to be uncovered by an attentive reader. There are numerous literary allusions, jokes and irony - the whole book is more like a pastiche in Roth's unforgettable style. I can imagine that when the book appeared, it was one of the shocking reports from behind the Iron Curtain, which, additionally, had to be taken with a grain of salt (I wonder what were Roth's real impressions...). Nowadays it still reads well.

Although The Prague Orgy" is a complete work in itself, it is recommended to know other novels about Nathan Zuckerman before reading it, to fully understand the character of Zuckerman and his attitude.

This is a brief addendum to the first three Zuckerman novels. It's a funny diversion about Zuckerman's mid 70s visit to Prague.

I don't think it really added much to the overall story of the earlier books.

It was funny and very Rothlike in tone.

It's very, very short.

I liked it.

I recommend reading as an addendum to the earlier three novels. On it's own, it doesn't make that much sense.

Many of the reviews of this piece are especially harsh. This shouldn't be considered a stand-alone novel. (It's little more than a short story, really.) It is just another episode in the ongoing saga of Nathan Zuckerman.

This story is taken from the journals of Nathan Zuckerman. He goes to communist Prague in order to retrieve some Yiddish short stories. That's about all there is to it. Contrary to the title, there's not even an orgy involved.

So, for Roth (and Zuckerman) fans - yes, you should read it. Yet, even the most ardent admirer will find Harold Bloom's glowing blurb to be a bit of an overstatement.

I loved this book. It's about the madness that ensues among artists and the intelligentsia when imprisoned by a totalitarian regime. Some may recognize that same mania occurring during our present administration, as more and more Americans lose their rights - to free speech, abortion, etc. Right on, 'Zookermann!' (Hey, sounds like Superman!)

Look, it's Roth ... the dialogue alone is worth the cost. Fun stuff, as always. The only drawback is you'll only wish it were a much longer rift.

I cannot believe that Harold Bloom praises this work.
It is a nihilistic, vulgar, not- at-all -funny, quite-disgusting piece of trash.
It shows us something too about the vast range and ability of Roth. He can be the funny - funniest, and he can also be the most deadly - boring. In my judgment this work is Roth's most severe indulgence in his own nihilistic side. It's truly bad.

Roth's worst book by a mile. Incredibly poorly written. Spare yourself this one , read Portnoy, The Ghost Writer or American Pastoral instead.