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Keeping Bedlam at Bay in the Prague Cafe: A Novel
Keeping Bedlam at Bay in the Prague Café tells the story of John Shirting, a socially inept, quiet young American who has left his country for mysterious reasons and, in a fast-changing capital of Eastern Europe, resolves to recreate one aspect of society in his own, crazily capitalist image. He makes it his mission to return to the frothy fold of the Chicago-based chain of cafes that once employed him, as a barista―Capo―by singlehandedly breaking into a new market and making freshly post-communist Prague safe for free-market capitalism. Full of smart writing, cynical humor, and eccentric characters, Keeping Bedlam at Bay in the Prague Café is a brilliant satire. Poised to be an underground classic, it what does it mean to be sane in a fast-changing world? M. Henderson Ellis , the author of Petra K and the Blackhearts (New Europe Books), is a graduate of Bennington College and a Chicago native who currently lives in Budapest, Hungary. "An ode to expatriate living, culture clashes, and the heady days of early 1990s Europe, this novel is a manic, wild ride.... [D]arkly comic ... immersive, nostalgic, and thoroughly enjoyable." ― Booklist "With fresh and evocative language, Ellis delivers us into a frenetic and history-haunted world. By turns strange and subtle, imaginative and knowing―and also often very funny―this assured and original debut novel is a must-read for anyone, like me, who ever daydreamed about expat life in 1990s Eastern Europe but didn't have the nerve to go for it." ― Rosie Schaap, author of Drinking With Men , Drink columnist, New York Times Magazine "As the title suggests, disorder predominates in Ellis's debut novel set in Prague during the dizzying days of the early 1990s. John Shirting is a quirky and unbalanced former barista from Chicago with a pill habit who winds up in the newly capitalist city hawking a plan to establish a chain of mobster-themed coffee shops... . The picaresque absurdity will be familiar to fans of Thomas Pynchon, along with the low-grade paranoia and aggressively whimsical dialogue... . . Ellis vividly re-creates the atmosphere of a city in the throes of transformation as well as the American Quixotes who populate this new frontier." ― Publishers Weekly
- GenresFiction
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
6 people are currently reading
85 people want to read
About the author
M. Henderson Ellis
6 books16 followersKeeping Bedlam at Bay in the Prague Cafe is a must for any contemporary literary fiction collection, highly recommended.”
–“Small Press Bookwatch,” Midwest Book Review
“This book comes highly recommended along with the cliched statement, ‘If you’re going to read one book this year, have it be . . .’ Bedlam is chock full of hilarious set-pieces, strange characters, biting satire, and verbal bombast. . . . It is not only wonderfully written, but it is a book that has wide cross-over appeal. The Andrei Codrescu blurbs on the front and back cover give it the needed NPR hipster bona fides, but this is also a light comedy one can read on the beach, at the airport, and elsewhere.”
— Karl Wolff, Chicago Center for Literature and Photography
“Both charming and absurd in all the best ways.”
— David Gutowski, LargeHeartedBoy.com
“A novel for readers who enjoy smart writing, wry humor, fresh settings, and above all, eccentric characters. . . . [F]rom Shirting’s remarkable encounter with the philosophical skinhead to the novel’s funny and surprisingly touching conclusion, Ellis weaves their stories together with an impressive balance of comedy and poignance.”
-bookspersonally.com
“Difficult to put down, unsettling yet addictive, the novel is a must-read for anyone who dares to peek behind the postcard image of a famously beautiful centre of European civilization.” — Winnipeg Free Press
“An ode to expatriate living, culture clashes, and the heady days of early 1990s Europe, this novel is a manic, wild ride. . . . [D]arkly comic . . . immersive, nostalgic, and thoroughly enjoyable.” — Booklist
“[G]enuine imagination and an energetic wit. Ellis vividly re-creates the atmosphere of a city in the throes of transformation as well as the American Quixotes who populate this new frontier.” —Publishers Weekly
“Former barista John Shirting from Chicago, an expat in the hallucinatory Prague of the Nineties, stands in the good company of Ignatius J. Reilly, Chauncey Gardener, and Forrest Gump as a remarkable and original member of that autistic and exclusive club. In creating Shirting, Mr. Ellis has enriched the literature of estrangement and given us a marvelous portrait of postcommunist Prague in its heady and wild rush into capitalism. This novel is a worthy addition to both expatriate writing and Czech storytelling, managing also to reflect in its rollicking drive profound insights into the ideologies of the last century.”
—Andrei Codrescu, NPR contributor and author of So Recently Rent a World: New and Selected Poems and New Orleans, Mon Amour
“Don’t let the title fool you. The bedlam here is never kept at bay for very long. Ellis writes with manic, overcaffeinated energy about the wild westernization of Prague after the fall of the Iron Curtain and he captures that era perfectly. A strong and lively debut.” –Andrew Ervin, author of Extraordinary Renditions
“With fresh and evocative language, Ellis delivers us into a frenetic and history-haunted world. By turns strange and subtle, imaginative and knowing—and also often very funny—this assured and original debut novel is a must-read for anyone, like me, who ever daydreamed about expat life in 1990s Eastern Europe but didn’t have the nerve to go for it.”—Rosie Schaap, author of Drinking With Men; Drink columnist, New York Times Magazine
“Thanks to Ellis’s wickedly good writing and laser-like focus on the absurdities of expat life, Keeping Bedlam at Bay in the Prague Café is an arresting, hilarious, and thoroughly enjoyable novel—both a vivid portrait of an already-bygone era and an up-to-the-minute snapshot of civilization in decline.”—Katherine Shonk, author of Happy Now?
“John Shirting, master of mission statements, and misfit of the planet, makes his way to Prague to offer change that’s not needed. This loveable mess lives in the past while trying to escape it, often unable to tell whether he’s getting better or worse, but his obsession with building a gl
–“Small Press Bookwatch,” Midwest Book Review
“This book comes highly recommended along with the cliched statement, ‘If you’re going to read one book this year, have it be . . .’ Bedlam is chock full of hilarious set-pieces, strange characters, biting satire, and verbal bombast. . . . It is not only wonderfully written, but it is a book that has wide cross-over appeal. The Andrei Codrescu blurbs on the front and back cover give it the needed NPR hipster bona fides, but this is also a light comedy one can read on the beach, at the airport, and elsewhere.”
— Karl Wolff, Chicago Center for Literature and Photography
“Both charming and absurd in all the best ways.”
— David Gutowski, LargeHeartedBoy.com
“A novel for readers who enjoy smart writing, wry humor, fresh settings, and above all, eccentric characters. . . . [F]rom Shirting’s remarkable encounter with the philosophical skinhead to the novel’s funny and surprisingly touching conclusion, Ellis weaves their stories together with an impressive balance of comedy and poignance.”
-bookspersonally.com
“Difficult to put down, unsettling yet addictive, the novel is a must-read for anyone who dares to peek behind the postcard image of a famously beautiful centre of European civilization.” — Winnipeg Free Press
“An ode to expatriate living, culture clashes, and the heady days of early 1990s Europe, this novel is a manic, wild ride. . . . [D]arkly comic . . . immersive, nostalgic, and thoroughly enjoyable.” — Booklist
“[G]enuine imagination and an energetic wit. Ellis vividly re-creates the atmosphere of a city in the throes of transformation as well as the American Quixotes who populate this new frontier.” —Publishers Weekly
“Former barista John Shirting from Chicago, an expat in the hallucinatory Prague of the Nineties, stands in the good company of Ignatius J. Reilly, Chauncey Gardener, and Forrest Gump as a remarkable and original member of that autistic and exclusive club. In creating Shirting, Mr. Ellis has enriched the literature of estrangement and given us a marvelous portrait of postcommunist Prague in its heady and wild rush into capitalism. This novel is a worthy addition to both expatriate writing and Czech storytelling, managing also to reflect in its rollicking drive profound insights into the ideologies of the last century.”
—Andrei Codrescu, NPR contributor and author of So Recently Rent a World: New and Selected Poems and New Orleans, Mon Amour
“Don’t let the title fool you. The bedlam here is never kept at bay for very long. Ellis writes with manic, overcaffeinated energy about the wild westernization of Prague after the fall of the Iron Curtain and he captures that era perfectly. A strong and lively debut.” –Andrew Ervin, author of Extraordinary Renditions
“With fresh and evocative language, Ellis delivers us into a frenetic and history-haunted world. By turns strange and subtle, imaginative and knowing—and also often very funny—this assured and original debut novel is a must-read for anyone, like me, who ever daydreamed about expat life in 1990s Eastern Europe but didn’t have the nerve to go for it.”—Rosie Schaap, author of Drinking With Men; Drink columnist, New York Times Magazine
“Thanks to Ellis’s wickedly good writing and laser-like focus on the absurdities of expat life, Keeping Bedlam at Bay in the Prague Café is an arresting, hilarious, and thoroughly enjoyable novel—both a vivid portrait of an already-bygone era and an up-to-the-minute snapshot of civilization in decline.”—Katherine Shonk, author of Happy Now?
“John Shirting, master of mission statements, and misfit of the planet, makes his way to Prague to offer change that’s not needed. This loveable mess lives in the past while trying to escape it, often unable to tell whether he’s getting better or worse, but his obsession with building a gl
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
September 6, 2016
Come, Walk With Me and Have A Cup of coffee
I like wise fools and innocents abroad. Well, not even necessarily abroad. Just away from home and adrift in new territory. Candide is my hero. Heck, Terry Southern's "Candy", his sexy, 60's psychedelic version of Candide, is my heroine. Chauncey Gardener, Ignatius J. Reilly, even Nathaniel West's sad and doomed innocents, excite terror and sympathy.
Well, Ellis's John Shirting deserves to be included in their company, and his Prague of the 90's is a better place than most to be adrift, obsessed and delusional, considering that Prague at that point was also adrift, obsessed and delusional. Absurd, wild-eyed and wide eyed, able to creatively misunderstand or misinterpret just about anything, the only reliable thing about Shirting's interior monologue is its unreliability.
Shirting and the other characters may be awkward and meandering, but Ellis's writing isn't. This is sharp, focused, finely tuned stuff. It's funny; it's comic; it's sympathetic; it's unforgiving.
So, if you like these types of characters, if you're interested in Prague, if you just like to read good writing, if you favor nicely turned phrases and bits of business, or if you'd just like to be entertained by an accomplished and crafty storyteller, this could be your choice.
Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book in exchange for a candid review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.
I like wise fools and innocents abroad. Well, not even necessarily abroad. Just away from home and adrift in new territory. Candide is my hero. Heck, Terry Southern's "Candy", his sexy, 60's psychedelic version of Candide, is my heroine. Chauncey Gardener, Ignatius J. Reilly, even Nathaniel West's sad and doomed innocents, excite terror and sympathy.
Well, Ellis's John Shirting deserves to be included in their company, and his Prague of the 90's is a better place than most to be adrift, obsessed and delusional, considering that Prague at that point was also adrift, obsessed and delusional. Absurd, wild-eyed and wide eyed, able to creatively misunderstand or misinterpret just about anything, the only reliable thing about Shirting's interior monologue is its unreliability.
Shirting and the other characters may be awkward and meandering, but Ellis's writing isn't. This is sharp, focused, finely tuned stuff. It's funny; it's comic; it's sympathetic; it's unforgiving.
So, if you like these types of characters, if you're interested in Prague, if you just like to read good writing, if you favor nicely turned phrases and bits of business, or if you'd just like to be entertained by an accomplished and crafty storyteller, this could be your choice.
Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book in exchange for a candid review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.
July 18, 2013
Review by Karl Wolff at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography
When John Shirting finds himself in Prague, he encounters a motley collection of characters, from Neo-Beatnik Golem hunters to babushka armies. Luckily he has his pills and his coffee. Shirting is the protagonist of M. Henderson Ellis's novel, Keeping Bedlam at Bay in the Prague Cafe. (Hereafter Bedlam because I'm into the whole brevity thing.) Like some madcap mashup of A Confederacy of Dunces and The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret, Ellis gives us a tour of Central Europe in a world one can sum up as post. Postmodern, post-industrial, and post-capitalist. Shirting's evangelical commitment to spread the good news on Capo Coffee comes off as a bit daft, especially in a global economy where both Communism and Capitalism have shown their flaws. This Babbitt on the Danube is blissfully unaware of the global economic meltdown more commonly known as the Great Recession.
Ellis also spent some time in Prague. This gives Shirting's misadventures an infusion of realism. One becomes aware of Prague's convoluted urban geography and the hodge-podge of medieval-era gingerbread buildings crammed up against gray monoliths erected under Communist rule. Through Shirting's eyes we see the dissolution of Communist tyranny and the gradual influx of Western free market capitalism.
In his wanderings he meets Jason "Bunny," a former roadie for Guns N' Roses, who now runs a clandestine bar known at the Pump Room. Bunny sums up the situation for Shirting, "Marlboro is the symbol of freedom here. It's a political statement to smoke Marlboro. So what you get are the worst aspects of capitalism colliding with the hind-end of communist corruption and bureaucracy. How does one resolve that? I keep a Kalashnikov in my office. If you want one, let me know." Shirting takes this lesson in stride, since he works at the Pump Room only until he can set up Capo Coffee franchises. Capo Coffee is a Starbucks stand-in, except instead of a Moby-dick reference, the corporation has an organized crime theme. Baristas dress like mobsters and serve Al Capo'acinos. Despite being fired from a Capo Coffee franchise in Chicago, Shirting is committed to bringing the good news (and good beans) to the citizenry of Prague.
The novel takes great pleasure in portraying the pretentious absurdities of poseurs. Whether they are political poseurs like Shirting's rival Mizen or the three pompous expat writers, Ellis gleefully pokes holes in their self-righteous earnestness. We realize, beneath all the posturing and inflated rhetoric, lay a vapid emptiness. With his acidic satire on the overblown idealism of the arts and lit set, Ellis pays homage to the grand comedic tradition of satirists like Evelyn Waugh and Anthony Burgess. Burgess is most known for A Clockwork Orange, but he also wrote the Enderby series. The Enderby novels followed the life story of a minor poet named Francis X. Enderby.
In another episode, Shirting attempts to teach a prostitute English and then has a Proustian moment when he discovers her collection of Atari games in a shoebox. To explain any more would take away the fun. This book comes highly recommended along with the cliched statement, "If you're going to read one book this year, have it be ..." I would compare Bedlam to The King of Pain by Seth Kaufman. Bedlam is chock full of hilarious set-pieces, strange characters, biting satire, and verbal bombast. I'm giving this book a high rating because it is not only wonderfully written, but it is a book that has wide cross-over appeal. The Adrei Codrescu blurbs on the front and back cover give it the needed NPR hipster bona fides, but this is also a light comedy one can read on the beach, at the airport, and elsewhere.
One final note: the cover of Bedlam was illustrated by Andras Baranyai, giving the book an edgy punk cartoonishness.
Out of 10: 9.5
Read even more about Keeping Bedlam at Bay in the Prague Cafe: Official site | Amazon | GoodReads | LibraryThing | Shelfari
(BONUS: Hear CCLaP's podcast interview with Ellis about this book)
When John Shirting finds himself in Prague, he encounters a motley collection of characters, from Neo-Beatnik Golem hunters to babushka armies. Luckily he has his pills and his coffee. Shirting is the protagonist of M. Henderson Ellis's novel, Keeping Bedlam at Bay in the Prague Cafe. (Hereafter Bedlam because I'm into the whole brevity thing.) Like some madcap mashup of A Confederacy of Dunces and The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret, Ellis gives us a tour of Central Europe in a world one can sum up as post. Postmodern, post-industrial, and post-capitalist. Shirting's evangelical commitment to spread the good news on Capo Coffee comes off as a bit daft, especially in a global economy where both Communism and Capitalism have shown their flaws. This Babbitt on the Danube is blissfully unaware of the global economic meltdown more commonly known as the Great Recession.
Ellis also spent some time in Prague. This gives Shirting's misadventures an infusion of realism. One becomes aware of Prague's convoluted urban geography and the hodge-podge of medieval-era gingerbread buildings crammed up against gray monoliths erected under Communist rule. Through Shirting's eyes we see the dissolution of Communist tyranny and the gradual influx of Western free market capitalism.
In his wanderings he meets Jason "Bunny," a former roadie for Guns N' Roses, who now runs a clandestine bar known at the Pump Room. Bunny sums up the situation for Shirting, "Marlboro is the symbol of freedom here. It's a political statement to smoke Marlboro. So what you get are the worst aspects of capitalism colliding with the hind-end of communist corruption and bureaucracy. How does one resolve that? I keep a Kalashnikov in my office. If you want one, let me know." Shirting takes this lesson in stride, since he works at the Pump Room only until he can set up Capo Coffee franchises. Capo Coffee is a Starbucks stand-in, except instead of a Moby-dick reference, the corporation has an organized crime theme. Baristas dress like mobsters and serve Al Capo'acinos. Despite being fired from a Capo Coffee franchise in Chicago, Shirting is committed to bringing the good news (and good beans) to the citizenry of Prague.
The novel takes great pleasure in portraying the pretentious absurdities of poseurs. Whether they are political poseurs like Shirting's rival Mizen or the three pompous expat writers, Ellis gleefully pokes holes in their self-righteous earnestness. We realize, beneath all the posturing and inflated rhetoric, lay a vapid emptiness. With his acidic satire on the overblown idealism of the arts and lit set, Ellis pays homage to the grand comedic tradition of satirists like Evelyn Waugh and Anthony Burgess. Burgess is most known for A Clockwork Orange, but he also wrote the Enderby series. The Enderby novels followed the life story of a minor poet named Francis X. Enderby.
In another episode, Shirting attempts to teach a prostitute English and then has a Proustian moment when he discovers her collection of Atari games in a shoebox. To explain any more would take away the fun. This book comes highly recommended along with the cliched statement, "If you're going to read one book this year, have it be ..." I would compare Bedlam to The King of Pain by Seth Kaufman. Bedlam is chock full of hilarious set-pieces, strange characters, biting satire, and verbal bombast. I'm giving this book a high rating because it is not only wonderfully written, but it is a book that has wide cross-over appeal. The Adrei Codrescu blurbs on the front and back cover give it the needed NPR hipster bona fides, but this is also a light comedy one can read on the beach, at the airport, and elsewhere.
One final note: the cover of Bedlam was illustrated by Andras Baranyai, giving the book an edgy punk cartoonishness.
Out of 10: 9.5
Read even more about Keeping Bedlam at Bay in the Prague Cafe: Official site | Amazon | GoodReads | LibraryThing | Shelfari
(BONUS: Hear CCLaP's podcast interview with Ellis about this book)
July 9, 2013
Difficult to put down, unsettling yet addictive, this novel is a must-read for anyone who dares to peek behind the postcard image of a famously beautiful centre of European civilization. http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts...
May 1, 2024
Szerintem remekül szórakozott az író ezen az (első) könyvén, abszolút a játékosság és nyelvi kidolgozottság, némi önparódiába hajló bombaszt hatja át minden oldalát. Az amerikai kalandor a kapitalizmusba átdülöngélő ká-európában – nagyjából slágvortokban ez a keret, de még ennél is sokkal érdekesebbek a kiszámíthatatlan és váratlan irányokba sziporkázó szereplők, helyzetek, mondatok. Ilyeneket tényleg kreatívan lehet csak kitalálni, és amikor időnként egy-egy panel mégis becsúszik a prágai látképbe, az is része a szürreálisan kaleidoszkopikus coleur locale-nak. Félúton kifogyó tablettakészlet, a kávé minden elképzelt és elképzelhető megjelenési formátuma, békák, malacok, és Shirting, az epikus jelzőkkel szabadon feldíszíthető, ám meglehetősen különös elmekórtörténetű főhős. Nem kihagyós.
May 3, 2014
Over on the Magic Realism Books Facebook page we regularly get into discussions about what is magic realism. One of the strands in these discussions is that magic in some places, cultures and lives is a reality. Some people argue that this is not the case in Western/European culture, but I have always begged to differ. In Easter 1990 I found myself wandering the streets of Prague, a city that was waking after the nightmare of communism. I was very much aware of the strange magic energy of the place. I now spend half my year living in the Czech Republic and regularly visit Prague. I find that the magic is diminished but it's still there. It is therefore not surprising that having read the blurb (above) I leapt at the chance to read and review this book.
Keeping Bedlam at Bay is set in the early 1990s when the former Eastern bloc countries were attracting oddballs, rampant capitalists, mobsters, psychics and hippies. At this time the Czech capital was very much like a wild west frontier town where anything was possible. We see this weird world through the eyes of naive man/boy, John Shirting, who bumbles along in his self-aggrandized, chemical-fuelled mission. The world that Shirting encounters is a darker one than I experienced. I suspect many readers would think much of what is described as comic fiction, and while there is a degree of elaboration much is nevertheless recognizable, for example: the babushkas: what is the collective of Babushkas? - Shirting, in his travel journal would humbly submit a scold of Babushkas; the alchemical references (black bile); and Czechs talking in all seriousness about hunting the Golem: conditions are right for the beast's return. Intergalactic alignment, extraterrestrial accord, crap like that. Historical shiftings, dangerous levels of antimatter. All of which makes me consider again that question of what is magic realism. What is real? What is magic? What is fiction? In a place like Prague the real can sometimes be more magical than fiction.
But did I like this book? Did it live up to the blurb? The answer to the second question is no, but that is not surprising, given the hype. As for the first, not particularly. It was amusing at times, but not as original as it might perhaps appear to readers without my inside knowledge. But good comedy to my mind needs to have a humanity about it. The book does not attempt to understand the people of Prague, at one point a character says: You people are crazy... you Americans. You come to here and all you can say is how beautiful the city is but nobody ever stops to look at the people. This is partly because of the nature of the central character, who fails to understand himself and how others see him, let alone to understand or sympathize with the Czechs he encounters and whose language he never learns. In return I found myself becoming less sympathetic towards him. As the book doesn't have much in the way of a plot (it is just a series of episodes in Shirting's life) and the character does not have the ability to learn from what happens, I increasingly found it a rather depressing story for all the comic incidents.
I was given this book by the publisher via Edelweiss in return for a fair review.
This review first appeared on the Magic Realism Books Blog http://magic-realism-books.blogspot.c...
Keeping Bedlam at Bay is set in the early 1990s when the former Eastern bloc countries were attracting oddballs, rampant capitalists, mobsters, psychics and hippies. At this time the Czech capital was very much like a wild west frontier town where anything was possible. We see this weird world through the eyes of naive man/boy, John Shirting, who bumbles along in his self-aggrandized, chemical-fuelled mission. The world that Shirting encounters is a darker one than I experienced. I suspect many readers would think much of what is described as comic fiction, and while there is a degree of elaboration much is nevertheless recognizable, for example: the babushkas: what is the collective of Babushkas? - Shirting, in his travel journal would humbly submit a scold of Babushkas; the alchemical references (black bile); and Czechs talking in all seriousness about hunting the Golem: conditions are right for the beast's return. Intergalactic alignment, extraterrestrial accord, crap like that. Historical shiftings, dangerous levels of antimatter. All of which makes me consider again that question of what is magic realism. What is real? What is magic? What is fiction? In a place like Prague the real can sometimes be more magical than fiction.
But did I like this book? Did it live up to the blurb? The answer to the second question is no, but that is not surprising, given the hype. As for the first, not particularly. It was amusing at times, but not as original as it might perhaps appear to readers without my inside knowledge. But good comedy to my mind needs to have a humanity about it. The book does not attempt to understand the people of Prague, at one point a character says: You people are crazy... you Americans. You come to here and all you can say is how beautiful the city is but nobody ever stops to look at the people. This is partly because of the nature of the central character, who fails to understand himself and how others see him, let alone to understand or sympathize with the Czechs he encounters and whose language he never learns. In return I found myself becoming less sympathetic towards him. As the book doesn't have much in the way of a plot (it is just a series of episodes in Shirting's life) and the character does not have the ability to learn from what happens, I increasingly found it a rather depressing story for all the comic incidents.
I was given this book by the publisher via Edelweiss in return for a fair review.
This review first appeared on the Magic Realism Books Blog http://magic-realism-books.blogspot.c...
July 18, 2013
Set in 1990’s Prague and delivered with a fast-paced over caffeinated energy, a touch of whimsy and a sense of humor that ranges from dark to pointedly satirical M. Henderson Ellis has created a book that amuses as it confuses, only to right one upturned idea as it turns another on its side. So entertaining: I picked it up to read expecting to read for a couple of hours, and finished way past my bedtime, never once realizing how late it was.
John Shirting is a recently arrived ex-pat who forms the narrative for the story: his wildly imaginative viewpoint seems to revel in the heady optimism of the capitalist boom in Prague, where nothing seems too far-fetched or impossible. Narration is lovely and completely eloquent, with no wasted words or thoughts. Beneath the almost manic optimism displayed by John is his essential “out of place” sense, his homesickness and the underlying jaded eye of one who has seen the rise and fall of dreams.
The secondary cast of characters are as well portrayed and individualistic as one could hope for: and Prague itself is a wonderful character as her back streets and alleys are described with as much care as her postcard perfect scenes. Bedlam is never really at bay for long, in fact Shirting seems to revel in the unknown twists and turns, and enjoy the tension that removes his thoughts from the more mundane theme of home and ‘otherness’ that would be expected from the mind of an ex-pat.
I received an eBook from the publisher via Edelweiss for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.
John Shirting is a recently arrived ex-pat who forms the narrative for the story: his wildly imaginative viewpoint seems to revel in the heady optimism of the capitalist boom in Prague, where nothing seems too far-fetched or impossible. Narration is lovely and completely eloquent, with no wasted words or thoughts. Beneath the almost manic optimism displayed by John is his essential “out of place” sense, his homesickness and the underlying jaded eye of one who has seen the rise and fall of dreams.
The secondary cast of characters are as well portrayed and individualistic as one could hope for: and Prague itself is a wonderful character as her back streets and alleys are described with as much care as her postcard perfect scenes. Bedlam is never really at bay for long, in fact Shirting seems to revel in the unknown twists and turns, and enjoy the tension that removes his thoughts from the more mundane theme of home and ‘otherness’ that would be expected from the mind of an ex-pat.
I received an eBook from the publisher via Edelweiss for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.
May 31, 2013
a bit gonzo and hilarious at times, debut novel of a slightly unhinged usaer, saturated in capitalism/globalization, is downsized, so decides to go to prague and singlehandedly break open the czech market to a global coffee shop. bad and weird things ensue. a light read, but has some interesting insights into single mindedness, self medication, and what rich people REALLY think about the peons. and nice ambiance of prague too.
November 5, 2013
Just awful. A wannabe Confederacy of Dunces that isn't anything close to as good. The topical elements of Frogger, coffee, drug use, and the zaniness of the 90's Czech Republic all sound good, but you still need a good writer to make them into a cohesive plot.
May 23, 2019
A well written whirlwind of a tale that gives an expat look on postrevolutionary Prague.
The change of focus from Shirting to other characters in the second half on was confusing at times, but doesn't detract from the story. At the end of the first section I thought Shirting commited suicide, so that was a little confusing. But I enjoyed the imagery, symbolism, and self awareness that the book has. It didn't take me long to finish either.
On a side note, I got this book for free from one of the representatives of new europe books. I had read voyage to kazohinia and we started talking and I wanted to buy this book buy I didn't have cash. But he have it to me for free out of the kindness of his heart. So I encourage anyone reading this to buy from their press, and read this book too!
The change of focus from Shirting to other characters in the second half on was confusing at times, but doesn't detract from the story. At the end of the first section I thought Shirting commited suicide, so that was a little confusing. But I enjoyed the imagery, symbolism, and self awareness that the book has. It didn't take me long to finish either.
On a side note, I got this book for free from one of the representatives of new europe books. I had read voyage to kazohinia and we started talking and I wanted to buy this book buy I didn't have cash. But he have it to me for free out of the kindness of his heart. So I encourage anyone reading this to buy from their press, and read this book too!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 11, 2022
I chose the book based on its cover and its title, due to my being in Prague at the time. It was an entertaining read, funnily enough I didn't realise that it was set in the 90's until quite late, but apart from that the descriptions felt very apt and precise.
May 29, 2018
This book is strange and wonderful. Truly an interesting albeit weird story of mental illness, culture, love, and life.
August 16, 2021
Clearly the writer can write pose. Interesting, illuminating, wonderful prose. If only there were a story to go with it.
February 15, 2017
What the hell was this?! As a disclaimer, I probably stumbled on this one through the wrong channel (a Prague reading list), but this book was such a disappointment. The bedlam was not kept at bay. A pretentious attempt to reflect Prague in the early 1990s through a lunatic's point of view. Maybe only nailing the weirdness of the Western culture's early influx into Eastern Europe.
Also, what makes an autor compose sentences like this:
"But before he would feel calibrated enough to return home (if such calibration is possible), one more pair of eyes would take interest in his physiogonomy."
"The old woman sat naked in an empty tub, skin flattened and dimpled like bread dough on the white enamel, her agonized, pendulous breasts swaying in the still air as if ticking her mortal time away."
Also, what makes an autor compose sentences like this:
"But before he would feel calibrated enough to return home (if such calibration is possible), one more pair of eyes would take interest in his physiogonomy."
"The old woman sat naked in an empty tub, skin flattened and dimpled like bread dough on the white enamel, her agonized, pendulous breasts swaying in the still air as if ticking her mortal time away."
July 29, 2013
I genuinely enjoyed some episodes from this book, and the author is a skillful writer. It will also have a certain familiarity and appeal to anyone who spent time in the Eastern Block during the 90s. However, there was little to admire about the protagonist, and the storyline becomes increasingly depressing as the story progresses. The end leaves the reader with a pointless sense of gloom and hopelessness, almost along the lines of the final episode of Seinfeld. I don't know what else to say, but that it ultimately left me with a bad taste in my mouth.
June 6, 2014
hooked from the opening line. illustrative, enchanting, tightly written, and just the right amount of silly.
one or two subplots I thought would go somewhere didn’t, and once or twice the author’s voice broke through, pulling me momentarily out of the main character. but fortunately the book as a whole continued to reel me succinctly back in. does a brilliant job of fleshing out the bizarre mindtwists of an expat struggling with cultural beliefs so deeply ingrained they're unrecognizable until landing long-term on foreign soil
3.7/5
one or two subplots I thought would go somewhere didn’t, and once or twice the author’s voice broke through, pulling me momentarily out of the main character. but fortunately the book as a whole continued to reel me succinctly back in. does a brilliant job of fleshing out the bizarre mindtwists of an expat struggling with cultural beliefs so deeply ingrained they're unrecognizable until landing long-term on foreign soil
3.7/5
February 5, 2017
A good read. The language was well used. Prague post communism in snapshots. The main protagonist does not meet his potential. It goes from Forrest Gump to Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac. The transition is not pretty.
November 25, 2013
Perhaps being too harsh but feel the writing's pretentious and exactly as I'd expect from a Bennington grad who spent the early 90s in Prague. Just didn't interest me enough to keep going. Trying too hard to create the next cool literary character.
August 15, 2013
I thought this was strange and startlingly funny. It stuck with me and I will probably write a longer review later, but consider this my placeholder.
July 13, 2014
it took me a while to really get into the story, but when i did it was entirely fascinating and entertaining.
May 26, 2014
Clearly a very young author who has not mastered the nonsense technique. An interesting story, but with much pretentiousness and attempts at highly philosophical scenes.
August 22, 2015
While some parts were amusing and easy to read, I found the book difficult to slog through. Heck, I teach philosophy and couldn't figure it out. Perhaps that's why it took me a year to get through.
Read
July 29, 2018I was hesitant about buying this book, as I suspected it would be one of those books about the expat experience in Prague that a certain category of expats ten or so years ago longed to write glorifying their own insular lives. (Having said that, I hasten to add that everyone has every right to attempt novels about their own insular or not-so-insular lives and that some of these books will actually be good.)
I did, however, remind myself that it could be a useful thing to get a view into the Prague expat scene of the early 90s, so I bought the book. While it's about expats in Prague in the early 90s, keep in mind that this is mainly a picaresque tale about a young man with an extremely tenuous hold on reality, and we're seeing things largely from his point of view. It's a funny book, but whether you find it consistently hilarious or merely occasionally prompting a chuckle is dependent on your own mood and point of view. I was not among those who found it hilarious, although it does have its moments.
Another reviewer has pointed out this novel's kinship to earlier tales of naive innocents such as Candide or Candy. To my mind, the author was trying hard to pull off another Confederacy of Dunces (I don't consider Ignatius exactly an innocent). At times he came close to doing so but ultimately he did not succeed. I've always enjoyed A Confederacy of Dunces, so I spent awhile pondering what might differentiate the two books besides location and several decades of history.
Leaving aside my opinion that John Kennedy O'Toole was a somewhat better--if simply more experienced--writer than M. Henderson Ellis, why are Ignatius's adventures in New Orleans funnier and more compelling than Shirting's adventures in Prague? Both writers present fairly crazy dudes who encounter a cast of other eccentrics and caricatured personalities.
Partly, I think O'Toole was writing about a city where he had grown up and indeed spent most of his life. He was familiar with many sorts of New Orleans natives and had an ear for the city's various dialects. He knew New Orleans much better than I do--I have been there twice for conferences, meaning that my personal experience is just about nil and I readily accept the world he created. Ellis, on the other hand, is writing about a city where he was an expat for two years more than twenty years ago, so he has some direct knowledge but perhaps not as much as he thinks; I lived in that city for two years about ten years ago but have been visiting it with some regularity since before he was born, so while I too probably think I know Prague better than I really do, I have much more trouble suspending disbelief when reading his book than I do reading O'Toole's.
There are many things I do accept here. I like that Ellis is willing to go out on a limb and try to write a 90s Prague version of A Confederacy of Dunces--he's got nerve, he's got a sense of the absurd, he can exaggerate like crazy, and I don't think it's wrong to model a novel after a classic that every literate person ought to know. I just felt like some of the choices don't work well. Shirting seems less believable a character than Ignatius, in part because we don't see him from as many other characters' points of view. Ignatius is constantly the subject of commentary by others, while Shirting isn't apparently seen as out of the ordinary by almost anyone. His video game obsession is believable, his coffee obsession less so even though many real people are obsessed with finding or serving the perfect cup. Why Shirting and his college nemesis can both wax prolixly intellectual is a mystery given what we are told about the two of them.
Mainly, though, I think the author missed some opportunities by a) making all the Czech characters nearly as crazy as the expats and b) not developing his crazy expats slightly further. It's true that some aspects of Prague life were pretty odd in the early 90s as Czechoslovakia threw off the Communist past and tried to return to the capitalist ways of the First Republic, but all the same most people in Prague simply went about their normal lives, making adjustments here and there. In A Confederacy of Dunces we periodically get fairly normal citizens doing their shopping or whatnot--while still subject to caricature, they help the real oddballs stand out more. In this book, however, all the Czechs are crazy too, so there's no real contrast. Nobody's just minding their own business buying meat when they're accidentally caught up in craziness. AND... I hate to say this, but it's really annoying... the author makes basic mistakes about Czech names and history that make it feel like he wasn't paying attention when he lived in Prague. Yes, they are fairly few, and no, they don't affect the story, but they undermine the author's credibility.
At the same time, this is an energetic first novel by a talented writer. The less you know about Prague or the Czechs, the more you'll probably enjoy this book, but it's worth a read all the same.
I did, however, remind myself that it could be a useful thing to get a view into the Prague expat scene of the early 90s, so I bought the book. While it's about expats in Prague in the early 90s, keep in mind that this is mainly a picaresque tale about a young man with an extremely tenuous hold on reality, and we're seeing things largely from his point of view. It's a funny book, but whether you find it consistently hilarious or merely occasionally prompting a chuckle is dependent on your own mood and point of view. I was not among those who found it hilarious, although it does have its moments.
Another reviewer has pointed out this novel's kinship to earlier tales of naive innocents such as Candide or Candy. To my mind, the author was trying hard to pull off another Confederacy of Dunces (I don't consider Ignatius exactly an innocent). At times he came close to doing so but ultimately he did not succeed. I've always enjoyed A Confederacy of Dunces, so I spent awhile pondering what might differentiate the two books besides location and several decades of history.
Leaving aside my opinion that John Kennedy O'Toole was a somewhat better--if simply more experienced--writer than M. Henderson Ellis, why are Ignatius's adventures in New Orleans funnier and more compelling than Shirting's adventures in Prague? Both writers present fairly crazy dudes who encounter a cast of other eccentrics and caricatured personalities.
Partly, I think O'Toole was writing about a city where he had grown up and indeed spent most of his life. He was familiar with many sorts of New Orleans natives and had an ear for the city's various dialects. He knew New Orleans much better than I do--I have been there twice for conferences, meaning that my personal experience is just about nil and I readily accept the world he created. Ellis, on the other hand, is writing about a city where he was an expat for two years more than twenty years ago, so he has some direct knowledge but perhaps not as much as he thinks; I lived in that city for two years about ten years ago but have been visiting it with some regularity since before he was born, so while I too probably think I know Prague better than I really do, I have much more trouble suspending disbelief when reading his book than I do reading O'Toole's.
There are many things I do accept here. I like that Ellis is willing to go out on a limb and try to write a 90s Prague version of A Confederacy of Dunces--he's got nerve, he's got a sense of the absurd, he can exaggerate like crazy, and I don't think it's wrong to model a novel after a classic that every literate person ought to know. I just felt like some of the choices don't work well. Shirting seems less believable a character than Ignatius, in part because we don't see him from as many other characters' points of view. Ignatius is constantly the subject of commentary by others, while Shirting isn't apparently seen as out of the ordinary by almost anyone. His video game obsession is believable, his coffee obsession less so even though many real people are obsessed with finding or serving the perfect cup. Why Shirting and his college nemesis can both wax prolixly intellectual is a mystery given what we are told about the two of them.
Mainly, though, I think the author missed some opportunities by a) making all the Czech characters nearly as crazy as the expats and b) not developing his crazy expats slightly further. It's true that some aspects of Prague life were pretty odd in the early 90s as Czechoslovakia threw off the Communist past and tried to return to the capitalist ways of the First Republic, but all the same most people in Prague simply went about their normal lives, making adjustments here and there. In A Confederacy of Dunces we periodically get fairly normal citizens doing their shopping or whatnot--while still subject to caricature, they help the real oddballs stand out more. In this book, however, all the Czechs are crazy too, so there's no real contrast. Nobody's just minding their own business buying meat when they're accidentally caught up in craziness. AND... I hate to say this, but it's really annoying... the author makes basic mistakes about Czech names and history that make it feel like he wasn't paying attention when he lived in Prague. Yes, they are fairly few, and no, they don't affect the story, but they undermine the author's credibility.
At the same time, this is an energetic first novel by a talented writer. The less you know about Prague or the Czechs, the more you'll probably enjoy this book, but it's worth a read all the same.
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