Vaclav Havel [Paperback]

John Keane (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 5, 2001

This authorized biography of Havel, based on unrestricted access to him, his circle, and even his enemies, is not only the first definitive account of one of the modern world’s great moral and political leaders but also a vivid panorama of the tumultuous events of his times. Havel’s life, like that of his African counterpart Nelson Mandela, has been shaped and determined by the large political shifts of the twentieth century. Readers will taste the moments of joy, irony, farce, and misfortune through which he has lived, and realize that he has taught the world more about the powerful and the powerless, power-grabbing and power-sharing, than virtually anyone else on the world stage.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

For more than 30 years, Czechoslovakian playwright Václav Havel courageously asserted the primacy of individual imagination and morality against his homeland's monolithic communist state. After the Velvet Revolution, his fellow citizens rewarded him with the presidency of newly democratic Czechoslovakia, yet political controversy and ill health have dogged him during his decade in power. British historian John Keane's commendably balanced biography provides a full account of the stylistically innovative, politically challenging plays that made Havel's reputation; the pioneering human rights activism expressed in the famous Charter 77 petition; his friendships and quarrels with fellow intellectuals like Milan Kundera; and his skirmishes with the authorities, beginning with a speech defending artistic freedom delivered when he was 20 and culminating in several jail sentences. Readers who prefer biographers to assume an air of lofty objectivity may be put off by Keane's blunt opinions and "cubist" narrative style, but his background as a political historian and as editor of the English-language version of Havel's seminal essay "The Power of the Powerless" gives his judgments considerable weight. Intelligent and probing, Keane's biography reveals a "post-modern president" whose struggles have lessons for triumphant capitalists as well as repentant socialists. --Wendy Smith --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

As a Communist-era dissident, successful playwright and leader of Czechoslovakia's velvet revolution and democratic government, Vaclav Havel is a timely and deserving subject for biography. Unfortunately, while Keane's authorized study fills some gaps, it is not the biography many have been waiting for. For those who seek the basic outline, this volume provides ample (though select) material on Havel's prominent prewar family, his marriages and numerous affairs, and his political and literary activities over the years. But this is, by no means, for the casual reader. It strives to be much more than an ordinary biography, and it doesn't succeed. Its major flaws are that, first, Keane takes an idiosyncratic approach to biography, insisting on viewing Havel as the emblematic 20th-century man, and second, that he has an awkward rhetorical style. Keane offers us the story of Havel's life not as a linear narrative but as a series of tableaux vivants "designed to heighten readers' sense that his actions in the world are understandable as a tragedy." The tragedy is that of a man who "suffered the misfortune of being born into the twentieth century... [and whose] fate was politics." While to Keane, editor of a collection of Havel's writing and biographer of Tom Paine, this formulation is convincing, many readers will find it too restricting. This exaggerated conceit of writing about Havel as a character in a Shakespearean tragedy, which depends on inflated prose and frequent references to the role of fate, climaxes in a tasteless finale, a macabre rendering of the tragedy's end in Havel's (future) funeral. (July)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (June 5, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465037208
• ISBN-13: 978-0465037209
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.9 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,115,399 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book that Havel himself would probably approve, June 4, 2007

By 

Kenneth Martin "Ken Martin" (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Vaclav Havel (Paperback)

What a lot of ruffled feathers! A book this well-written must have a lot going for it to upset so many people. And, by the way, the most favorable review below, by "Erica Blair," is a piece of legerdemain by a certain author. Readers of the biography should be able to figure it out.
I think readers are upset because the book isn't what they expected. Despite its length, it isn't a standard biography with endless accretion of unnecessary detail. For large sections Havel seems absent from these pages, because Keane concentrates on describing--in vivid, smart prose--what it was like to be Czech at various points in Havel's lifetime. It's almost as if we're experiencing these times through Havel's eyes.
Quite subtly, without appearing to do so, Keane gives us what we need to know about Czech history and politics to understand what made Havel. It's all here, and a graphic and painless read, unlike the more formal histories I've read.
I agree that calling Havel's life a tragedy is a stretch. The only tragedy Keane comes up with is Havel's ultimate rejection as a politician by his fellow Czechs. But Keane himself points out that this tends to happen to all popular politicians later in their terms of office. (See the fate of Blair and Little Georgie Boy.) Havel seems to be thriving, and all the revelations about his boozing, smoking and fornicating seem to make him seem more human and detract not a bit from his reputation. His books of essays will last as long as political writing endures.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A surprising view of a heroic figure, January 12, 2012

By 

Charles O. Heller "Charles O. Heller" (Annapolis, MD, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Vaclav Havel (Paperback)

John Keene's book had been sitting on my "to-be-read" bookshelf for some time now. I decided to read it immediately after Vaclav Havel's death. To say that I was startled by some of the revelations about a man who has been my hero would be an understatement. Full disclosure: I am a dual citizen of the US and the Czech Republic; I was born the same year and in the same city as President Havel (1936 in Prague). As I describe in my memoir, I was ordered to forget everything that had happened to me and my family in the former Czechoslovakia once we came ashore in America in 1949. I managed to do that until the moment I saw Vaclav Havel standing on a balcony in Wenceslas Square in November 1989 and thousands of people jangling their keys and shouting "Havel to the Castle!" After a long hiatus, I became extremely proud of my native country and even participated in a small way in its transformation to democracy and a market economy. I was inspired by the man who followed the example of the great philosopher president, Tomas G. Masaryk -- Vaclav Havel. Like so many people throughout the world, I admired Havel for his honesty, his humanity, his concern for social change and human rights, and his humility.

Keene's book has not changed my mind, but it has certainly given rise to doubts. I knew about Havel's nasty smoking habit and apparent disregard for his health, and I was not so naive as to believe that he was perfect. However, I was stunned by two revelations so much emphasized in the book: Havel's womanizing and his apparent long-term plan to lead his country. The latter, particularly, was a surprise -- one which I need to have verified by other sources before I believe it fully. One of Havel's most attractive characteristics was his apparent reluctance to be "king." The common perception, including mine, was that he would prefer to write plays and drink beer with his friends to sitting in the Castle. Now, I'm told that he planned to be a kingpin -- and an "Ichspieler" at that -- all along. Moreover, Keene writes that Havel would do almost anything to reach that goal.

The book is extremely well researched and sources are meticulously documented, so it is difficult to dismiss the picture presented here, as some other reviewers have done. Yet, I refuse to believe that "the emperor has no clothes," and I intend to delve more deeply into the subject before I am ready to render a final verdict on a man who remains my hero. While I may have doubts, I thank the author for arousing my curiosity and forcing me to look further.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Erudite meditation on power, would've like more bio though.., October 24, 2001

By 

J. Wohl (New York City) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Vaclav Havel : A Political Tragedy in Six Acts (Hardcover)

I was recently in Prague and having read a Havel play (and being a fan of Kundera and Klima) I felt like I needed to know more about the man Havel is. Fortunately I am also interested in the machinations of power structures and how humans spin their webs. This was the main theme of this book, and Havel was it's main character. The chapter about Havel in jail was riveting, but I must say, throughout the book, I would have like more detail regarding the important stories that add dimension to his life, so I would say I should have read something else. Still, Keane's intelligence and insight connect Havel's life with the historical context from which he arises very well. I would say that this it the books greatest strength. I learned a lot, though not always about Havel.