| Midway Upon the Journey of Our Life Contributor(s): Jedlicka, Josef (Author), Zucker, Alex (Translator) |
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ISBN: 802463127X ISBN-13: 9788024631271 Publisher: Karolinum Press, Charles University OUR PRICE: $22.50 Product Type: Hardcover Published: June 2016 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Fiction | Biographical - Fiction | Literary |
| Dewey: FIC |
| Physical Information: 0.7" H x 5.4" W x 7.2" (0.75 lbs) 192 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Written between 1954 and 1957 and treating events from the Stalinist era of Czechoslovakia's postwar Communist regime, Midway Upon the Journeyof Our Life flew in the face of the reigning aesthetic of socialist realism, an anti-heroic novel informed by the literary theory of Viktor Shklovsky and constructed from episodes and lyrical sketches of the author and his neighbors' everyday life in industrial north Bohemia, set against a backdrop of historical and cultural upheaval. Meditative and speculative reflections here alternate and overlap with fragmentary accounts of Jedlicka's own biography and slices of the lives of people around him, typically rendered as overheard conversations. The narrative passages range in chronology from May 1945 to the early 1950s, with sporadic leaps through time as the characters go about the business of "building a new society" and the mythology that goes with it. Due to its critical view of socialist society, Midway remained unpublished until 1966, amid the easing of cultural control, but a complete version of this darkly comic novel did not appear in Czech until 1994. |
Contributor Bio(s): Zucker, Alex: - Alex Zucker has translated novels by Czech authors Petra Hulova, Jachym Topol, Magdalena Platzova, Tomas Zmeskal, Josef Jedlicka, Heda Margolius Kovaly, Patrik Ourednik, and Miloslava Holubova. His translation of Topol's The Devil's Workshop received the English PEN Award for Writing in Translation. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.Jedlicka, Josef: - Josef Jedlicka (1927-1990) was a Czech novelist and essayist. |