Product Description

Hant rescues books from the jaws of his compacting press and carries them home. Hrabal, whom Milan Kundera calls our very best writer today, celebrates the power and the indestructibility of the written word. Translated by Michael Henry Heim.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #193051 in Books
• Published on: 2001-02-01
• Released on: 2001-01-12
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .33" h x 5.34" w x 7.93" l, .26 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 112 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Czechoslovakian author Hrabal ( I Served the King of England ) pens an absorbing fable about a man who educates himself with the discarded printed matter he collects.

Copyright 1992 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
In this novella, written in 1976, narrator and authorial alter ego Hanta meditates on the 35 years he has spent at a hydraulic press in a dark cellar, compacting waste paper and books proscribed by various regimes. Though he no longer weeps or protests when rare treasures appear in his press, the books that he must destroy become his whole life, his only companions. When he is to be replaced by young workers with a more productive machine, Hanta dreams of a gigantic press that destroys not only himself but the entire city, with its traditions and culture. Written by a leading Czech writer (I Served the King of England, LJ 4/1/89), this affecting metaphor expressing fear for Central European culture belongs in libraries collecting European fiction.
- Marie Bednar, Pennsylvania State Univ. Libs., University Park
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
In this novella, written in 1976, narrator and authorial alter ego Hanta meditates on the 35 years he has spent at a hydraulic press in a dark cellar, compacting waste paper and books proscribed by various regimes. Though he no longer weeps or protests when rare treasures appear in his press, the books that he must destroy become his whole life, his only companions. When he is to be replaced by young workers with a more productive machine, Hanta dreams of a gigantic press that destroys not only himself but the entire city, with its traditions and culture. Written by a leading Czech writer (I Served the King of England, LJ 4/1/89), this affecting metaphor expressing fear for Central European culture belongs in libraries collecting European fiction. - Marie Bednar, Pennsylvania State Univ. Libs., University Park (Library Journal )

Czechoslovakian author Hrabal (I Served the King of England) pens an absorbing fable about a man who educates himself with the discarded printed matter he collects. (Publishers Weekly )