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Summary: Brings back memories
Review: I lived in Budapest in 1996 for six months - this book really brought back memories. While my stay there was long after the stay of the characters, it reminded me so much of how you can smell the history of what that country had been through.There has been some negative reaction to this book, but remember, it is not a book about all Americans living in E. Europe at that time - it is a book about only five of them. It is a novel, enjoy!
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Summary: Wow. I knew these people... was I / am I one?...
Review: ... although not as witty with dialogue, of course. Hungarian pupil: "It is my belief that irony is the tool of culture between creative high periods. It is the necessary fertilizer of the culture when it is, how does one - [lies fallow]." As a 30-something who lived in the Czech Republic around the time in which "Prague" is set, I am overwhelmed by how accurately Phillips portrays the truths of this particular and peculiar demographic. I think and hope it will appeal to more than the restless part of my generation that has gone abroad in search of self or something, because the writing is fantastic. NOT A TRAVELOGUE... a Young-Expat-in-the-Developing-World-of-the-90s-Cohort-a-logue.
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Summary: Almost there...
Review: Although I think that Arthur Phillips will be one the young writers to watch in the coming years, I can't quite settle on a solid opinion of his first novel. Although I thought his style was beautiful, except for his overuse of the parenthesis. The characters were well developed, and his method of introducing them was unique. Overall, I enjoyed the read, and I will look forward to reading Phillips' work in the future.
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Summary: Outstanding!!!
Review: Sheer genius... biting satire... laugh-out-loud funny! "Prague" is everything "The Corrections" aspired to be, but failed. After "Atonement" it's the best book I've read all summer. Mr. Phillips has an amazing command of the language. There's no such thing as a "throw away scene" in this book; each one sings and dances. Nadja's story of "the list" alone is worth the price of this book. Don't miss it.
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Summary: Disappointing
Review: More than the title is a misnomer, but its fits after you start to read the novel. My opinion of the book plummets with each page, as I like the main characters less and less. There are some beautifully written segments, but there are too many problems overall. The setting is of very little importance, it could be nearly anywhere in Eastern Europe in 1990. One by one the main characters are discarded until the last one is tossed off the pages. Some of the character's are briefly interesting, like John, while others, like Scott never make it even that far. I don't think i would recommend this book to anyone.
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Summary: Unfortunate waste of a significant talent.........
Review: Arthur Phillips can write. There are times as one reads Prague that one is nearly overwhelmed by Phillip's linguistic skill and descriptive capabilities. Unfortunately, this is such an unbalanced effort that the net effect of this realization is overwhelming frustration. The frustration in this novel is that while Phillips has an uncanny ability, through elegant prose, to skillfully evoke the sense of time and place that Budapest was in the immediate post-wall-collapse period, he juxtaposes this elegance against torpid, caricaturist characters devoid of any depth, intelligence, likeability or interest whatsoever. The end result is a multidimensional novel as to time and place populated by one-dimensional characters devoid of any connection to that time and place. Phillips has rare talent. One can only hope he will eventually put it to much better use in subsequent efforts than he did with Prague.
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Summary: Nostalgia Dreaming
Review: Too many readers engage a book comparatively, either with other works or with their own expectations. It isn't surprising that they wallow in disappointment. If you are looking for a travelogue of Budapest, an expat expose, or preconceived notions of novel structure, you will find some of it here, but will probably be disappointed. However, if you confront this book on its own terms, it is a gem. Three aspects of this novel raise it above what most reviewers have seen in it--descriptions of a literal time, place, or characters--Phillip's language, its sincere thoughtfulness, and its ability to waft, almost sublimate, into universals. Phillip's has successfully, and with originality, used his considerable gift of language, characters, place, and time to put together a novel that is like scratching an itch that isn't quite there. He melds together the seeming naiveté of a historical moment in Eastern Europe with its deep culture and secure wisdom. It is a postmodern setting in a pre-modern drama, and the book too feels this tension. Without feeling the need to preach, it drifts here and there to questions about how we never quite perceive what is there and present, while keeping the reader rooted in the language of the novel itself. The best poets (and writers) can often make us long for a place where we have never been and never can be (because when we go there we find something else). As Phillips mentions, it is about a place floating above the real place, while making us desire the real place, not the dream or image, but it is still out of reach. To accomplish this in a first novel is an achievement, and Phillips and his book deserve the praise they have received.
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Summary: Unfair comparisons?
Review: Phillips is sophisticated and incisive in his observations and has a slick and lucid style to match. Unfortunately, these marry up poorly with an essentially trite plot. He is often aware of the cliché of the situations (groups of young expats in European city, lost generations, Bohemians and entrepreneurs in emerging markets) which he then trumpets with passages about how clichéd it all is. Well, if it's all so clichéd, then why doesn't he find things to write about that are not? Like all the 'I was there' books, which are never much more than dramatised personal travelogues and yet another 'unique' perspective, Phillips, though much more talented than most, attempts to capture and describe the 'reality' of Hungary in the early 1990s. Or is it just an American holiday 'reality'? Rich ennui takes many forms and is simply better outlined in a place like Budapest. It doesn't work. It never does. Not even with great slices of socio-economic information slotted in at the drop of an embroidered Magyar peasant's blouse. Not even with the caveat of 'I know I'm just another spoilt, yet streetwise, Westerner dipping my toe in the oh-so-dangerous and naughty waters of the Wild East'. The solution is not to try accurately to reflect an existing 'reality', but surely to create one's own 'reality' and refract a certain 'truth' through that. Nabokov did it. Joyce did it. Phillips does not. Unfair comparisons? Maybe. But Phillips' style, although sometimes verging on the pretentious, indicates his literary ambition. Maybe he really should have gone to Prague...
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Summary: rather disappointing, despite the glowing reviews
Review: I read all the wonderful reviews about this book, and was eager to hungerly devour it during a recent wide-open weekend. The book's pace began with great promise, and I eagerly lost myself in the personalities different characters who seemed to have great potential. But about halfway through the book, the pace stalled to nearly a complete halt. The same characters who appeared to have such dimension ceased to evolve and now seemed silly and shallow. And when the author introduced a new character and his background, the book's narrative flow was disrupted in such a way that I never did get back into the story. Disappointing.
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Summary: So what if the characters are "mean"
Review: Prague, despite what some might say, is a good book; however, the comparisions to Hemingway and Fitzgerald are slightly overblown. (Does anyone really think people in the 20s in 1990 were "lost"? Lost from what?) Phillips does have an eye for detail, although he does tend -- as others have mentioned -- to go overboard from time to time. However, he also produces some nice _bon mots_ about what it's like to live overseas, particularly, as he puts it, in a place where being an American is enough to make you "exotic." The characters are well-drawn out, and, I think, realistic, which might be why so many reviewers seem to dislike them. Do they truly take advantage of their opportunities there or end up with some greater understanding of life through their interactions with people who have lived through dictatorships and revolutions? No, they don't -- they don't come close as a matter of fact. But how would they? Picture yourself in your early 20s, just out of college, living in a city where you can live -- and live well -- for literally dollars a day, a place where the young people have just started to be able to go out to bars, to dance, and to do whatever they want with whomever they want. What would you do in that situation? Sit around contemplating human nature? No, you'd do what the characters in the book do: go out every night, drink a lot, eat well, and sleep with whomever they can. Endearing? Maybe, maybe not. Realistic? Totally, in my opinion. So there you have it. Prague, I believe, is a fair and accurate representation of what life was like for these "ex-pats" (although I think it would be more accurate to refer to them as "long-term vacationers") in the early 90s in Budapest, and a good read as well. A little wordy at times, but still worth picking up.
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