Customer Reviews

Time's Magpie: A Walk in Prague (Crown Journeys)

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

 

 

This is not meant as a travel guide like "Prague Walks" or a collection of essays about the city like Paul Wilson's slim anthology. Like John Banville's recent "Prague Pictures," it offers one author's own perspective. If you have not been to Prague, the cityscape conjured up here will be elusively imagined as you read Goldberg's energetic digressions. Having lived there a decade ago, when the formerly cheap cost-of-living lured Westerners, she brings no autobiographical recollections but a sense of the savvier long-term resident. She avoids many of the familiar tourist sites such as the Jewish quarter, Hradcany and the Castle, and the Charles Bridge. She favors, as this series stresses, the off-beat locales.

It's a quick verbal repast, edible in one or two sittings. Like dumplings and alcohol (as she notes after three decades of this diet the sudden, irreversible transition from ruddy youth to slumped middle-agers among its citizens), it fills you up for the moment but leaves you wanting more nutritious content soon after. She notices a lot more graffiti than I did, but offers insights about the pedestals and skateboarders that remain after the statues topple. (I'm surprised she did not visit the park where the statues loll on display for tourists.) Goldberg marvels too much at the system whereby the Metro's riders go on the honor system amidst plainclothes fare-checkers--maybe as a Brooklynite she finds this unbelievable? She helpfully lets you know that both the Strahov and Clementinum libraries rope off or keep at a distance from casual visitors much of what beckons enticingly from brochures. The chapter on the bell-ringing at noon sags into archness, however, and that on the nondescript suburb of New Karlin post-flood also adds little to the volume.

That on the Strahov's curious cabinets of wonder, by its title, echoes Laurence Wechsler on LA's Museum of Jurassic Technology. It tells you pretty much all you need to know about this once-monastic library, and what in fact can (and mostly cannot) be seen by visitors. Apparently, as with many sights seen through Goldberg's point-of-view, they are better envisioned by armchair travellers rather than in person!

Anti-war protests against the second Iraqi invasion seem so recent that it's a bit of a jolt to find a couple of protests by American ex-pats and the Euro-left already committed to bound pages. Goldberg, with her basic command of Czech, uncovers some of the ironies and miscommunications as the Yanks earnestly try to convince the Czechs about their common opposition in a city so marked by popular protests in past decades. (A small mistake on pg. 82: she gives 1944 as the date for a four-day savagely fought uprising against the Nazis when in fact it was just before liberation in early May 1945.)

Her chapter on falling into the clutches of the police for a pedestrian infraction is by far the best part of the book. The theatrical nature of the Czech character enacted in public, aided or weakened by Goldberg's limited skill in the cops' own language, only adds to the confrontation and its complications. Here, she's excellent at casting herself in an impromptu role!

Then, brief excursions to Karel Capek's grave at Vysehrad and Kafka's at the New Jewish Cemetery (about the only mention of this topic in these pages) add poignancy but appear anticlimactic after the previous chapter, which should've ended the collection.

The final chapters, one on the parks along the shore north of the city, another on pubs and clubs and drunks, offer little noteworthy outside of the proclivity for Czechs either to have amazing bladder control (especially considering the bargain price for superb beer) or a tendency to avoid the old lady manning the jakes. This observation dovetails into her earlier related response to fearsome matrons guarding Strahovian artifacts which could have been models for Lewis Carroll's bestiary : "Officiousness is one pre-glasnost keepsake Prague is loath to disown--it is one of the few pleasures working-class Czechs can still afford." (71)

All in all, a nervous reverie for those who have visited or have no intention of visiting the city. But not for those who have yet to travel there. Best to check out standard guides, talk to veteran itinerants, and read "Prague Walks" and Ivan Klima's essays collected as "The Spirit of Prague." Goldberg, like her book-jacket picture reveals as its contents affirm, remains too showy an interpreter--she dresses in black, but the loudly-striped leggings give her away instead of camouflaging her presence.

All in all, a nervous reverie for those who have visited or have no intention of visiting the city. But not for those who have yet to travel there. Best to check out standard guides, talk to veteran itinerants, and read "Prague Walks" and Ivan Klima's essays collected as "The Spirit of Prague." Goldberg, like her book-jacket picture reveals as its contents affirm, remains too showy an interpreter--she dresses in black, but the loudly-striped leggings give her away instead of camouflaging her presence

If you haven't been to Prague, don't buy this book as your guide book. You will be disappointed. But I don't think the purpose of the book is to introduce the city to tourists. But if you've visited the city before and explored, it really brings back memories. It actually made me want to go back and revisit the places the author wrote about. Her writing style isn't exactly my favorite, but it was a good read. If there was a 1 to 10 stars scale, I would give this book 7 stars.

The premise of this "A Walk in..." series is that someone very familiar with the city "walks" a visitor through a city they know well... sort of an insider's view. ... or so I thought.

I had already read Kinky Friedman's, "The Great Psychedelic Armadillo Picnic : A "Walk" in Austin", which tells about offbeat places, a little history here and there, Willie Nelson's ranch, off-the-tourist-map restaurants, and other interesting commentary about Austin delivered as only he could relate it. So I eagerly anticipated reading a similar treatment of Prague-- a city I fell in love during a brief visit a few years ago.

I should say at the outset that there is only one Kinkster, so I wasn't expecting anything like his book-- just an "insider's" view of this glorious old city.

I don't even know why this author was selected to write the book. She is hardly an insider, having lived there a number of years back as an American ex-pat. The book describes her return visit to see how the city had changed over the last decade.

Prague is one of the best-preserved cities in central-eastern Europe, having been spared the bombing of WWII. It is a timeless city. Oddly, the author chooses to focus on effects of the flood that hit the city in August, 2002, trivial protests against the war in Iraq, and an extended account of her encounter with the 'traffic police'. It is almost literally a minute-by-minute account of her walk through the city. This is material more suited to a daily blog than an insider's book about a timeless city.

I could add that I do not care for her overly dramatic writing style, but that is secondary the utter lack of meaningful content in the work. I'm just glad that the book came from a library, so I only wasted time not money on this bit of nothingness.

Myla Goldberg's trip through Prague is brief, but enjoyable. Her writing style is amusing, if slightly self-conscious, but it is fluid and evocative. I enjoyed it. As someone who has visited Prague eight times in the last eleven years, I found her observations accurate, honest, and interesting. She sees both the bad and the good of Prague. She mentions a few places I will definitely want to take in on my next visit. Her initial image of Prague as magpie is apt, though she doesn't really take it very far. In fact, my one dissapointment is that the book is so short... and there are so, so, so many more things that could have been included. In fact the books feels more like a series of magazine articles than a real book. In fact the final chapter seems to just stop, rather than sum up the experience she has so beautifully described. Still, even if it is brief, it is a joy to read. I will recommend this book to friends.

MY friend loves Myla Goldberg, as do I. I bought this book for her, it came in a timely manner. I believe she said she enjoyed this book. Maybe one day I'll get around to reading it as well.

A fun, brief and slightly unconventional exploration of contemporary Prague. This author introduces the city and creates little vignettes that portray the quirky cultural energy that makes it a unique and distinguished city. I'd love to have read more of the history of the city. But there's enough here to make it an enjoyable read. The author's style is light and highly accessible.

The first time I visited Prague was in November 1989. I planned the visit prior to the disturbances, but I was swept up in the Velvet Revolution. Although not completely bloodless, it showed how far the Communist regime had been swept aside. I walked the streets described in this book. It certainly is a great city, and I found some of the stories of this book relevant to my own personal experience.

This is an OK read about a timeless city. There is much history to describe in this ancient town. The book is an OK read. I learned a little of some areas I missed visiting. It is a short book, so one does not have to invest in a lot of time reading through it.