Postřižiny

Městečko u vody #1

by Bohumil Hrabal

Jedna z nejznámějších próz Bohumila Hrabala vypráví o krásné ženě správce pivovaru, svérázném strýci Pepinovi i o životě na maloměstě v době, kdy docházelo k velkým průmyslovým objevům, kdy probíhala překotná modernizace a kdy se zkracovaly nejen vzdálenosti a čas, ale také dámské sukně a vlasy...

Genres: Czech Literature, Fiction, Classics, 20th Century, Humor, Unfinished, Literary Fiction

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Born in Brno-Židenice, Moravia, he lived briefly in Polná, but was raised in the Nymburk brewery as the manager's stepson.

Hrabal received a Law degree from Prague's Charles University, and lived in the city from the late 1940s on.

He worked as a manual laborer alongside Vladimír Boudník in the Kladno ironworks in the 1950s, an experience which inspired the "hyper-realist" texts he was writing at the time.

His best known novels were Closely Watched Trains (1965) and I Served the King of England. In 1965 he bought a cottage in Kersko, which he used to visit till the end of his life, and where he kept cats ("kočenky").

He was a great storyteller; his popular pub was At the Golden Tiger (U zlatého tygra) on Husova Street in Prague, where he met the Czech President Václav Havel, the American President Bill Clinton and the then-US ambassador to the UN Madeleine Albright on January 11th, 1994.

Several of his works were not published in Czechoslovakia due to the objections of the authorities, including The Little Town Where Time Stood Still (Městečko, kde se zastavil čas) and I Served the King of England (Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále).

He died when he fell from a fifth floor hospital where he was apparently trying to feed pigeons. It was noted that Hrabal lived on the fifth floor of his apartment building and that suicides by leaping from a fifth-floor window were mentioned in several of his books.

He was buried in a family grave in the cemetery in Hradištko. In the same grave his mother "Maryška", step father "Francin", uncle "Pepin", wife "Pipsi" and brother "Slávek" were buried.

He wrote with an expressive, highly visual style, often using long sentences; in fact his work Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age (1964) (Taneční hodiny pro starší a pokročilé) is made up of just one sentence. Many of Hrabal's characters are portrayed as "wise fools" - simpletons with occasional or inadvertent profound thoughts - who are also given to coarse humour, lewdness, and a determination to survive and enjoy oneself despite harsh circumstances. Political quandaries and their concomitant moral ambiguities are also a recurrent theme.

Along with Jaroslav Hašek, Karel Čapek, and Milan Kundera - who were also imaginative and amusing satirists - he is considered one of the greatest Czech writers of the 20th century. His works have been translated into 27 languages.

Reviews

[Dolors · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a surprise this little book has been; a surprise not exactly pleasant though. I expected Hrabal’s poetic cartwheels and his incredible descriptive skills, but I was nonplussed by the black humor and the skepticism that drenched this story.
Set in a small Bohemian town between the wars we follow the eccentric doings of a young woman called Maryska and her husband, who runs the local brewery. A wild arrange of characters populate a tale full of rather comic situations that won’t leave any reader indifferent: a feast of blood of butchered pigs, trips to Prague that bring back the most astonishing gadgets, an uncle who is not right in the head that explains the most peculiar stories of WWI… Scenes straddling the grotesque and the cultured that allude to a dark reality where not only skirts, tails and hair are cut short, but also free will and basic human rights.

In Hrabal’s most quirky style, a double narrative is exposed and Maryska’s eccentricities signify something bigger than her daring not to conceal her uninhibited personality. The repressive atmosphere of the last pages bespeaks of the greater evil of totalitarian regimes, which permeates Hrabal’s fiction as few other authors do, leaving the reader dumbfounded about what he has truly read. A pity that I missed half of the joke and that the bitter taste of failure is what I will mostly remember of this rather dark but poignant tale.

[João Reis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hrabal was a master of the short novel and no one could blend tenderness and cruelty in such a humorous way as him. In this short novel we go back to the past (always in an after-Austro Hungarian Czech Republic) and meet some well-known characters from other novels such as Uncle Pepin and Francin.
Chapter 2 can be hard to digest for someone like me.

[Steven Godin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having loved both Too loud a Solitude and especially Closely Watched Trains, I have to say I was a little bit disappointed with this. It certainly felt like Hrabal, and featured a strong female character in Maryska, but this didn't have the cutting edge of the two books I mentioned above. Was glad of the humorous bits though, with all that's going on in the world right now. Also, it's worth mentioning, this does contain some animal cruelty (butchered pigs), and plenty of beer (even the horses drink it) so don't think this would appeal so much to vegans or teetotalers.

[Paradoxe · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5
Δε μπορείς να μην υποκλιθείς στη δυναμική εικονογράφηση του συγγραφέα, είναι οπερατέρ και σκηνοθέτης και τίποτα δεν αφήνει να πέσει καταγής. Χειρίζεται σκηνή και χαρακτήρες βιρτουόζικα και τις σκέψεις τους σα να είναι μέρος τους. Αγνοεί κάθε φίλτρο ωραιοποίησης χρωμάτων και κινήσεων. Ο ήχος, η εικόνα, η οσμή, η ενέργεια δίνονται όπως συμβαίνουν. Γιατί; Γιατί η ωραία φτιαγμένη εικόνα, η φτιαγμένη στυλιστική όψη ταιριάζει με τα παραμύθια, τον κινηματογράφο και το facebook. Έχουμε κάποιον που ο Καλβίνο θαρρετά θα του πρόσφερε το χέρι του και που θα έκανε τον Κρόνενμπεργκ να πάθει συμφόρηση. Ο Χραμπάλ ασχολείται μόνο με την κάτοψη, την τομή και τα η/μ. Τα υπόλοιπα δεν τον αφορούν.

Κι αν ακόμα διαφωνώ με το συμπέρασμα για το πέπλο δέους που μας τυλίγει πριν απ’ το θάνατο, γιατί κανείς μας δεν γνωρίζει, εντυπωσιάζομαι κι ευαισθητοποιούμαι, που είναι πρόθυμος να σαμποτάρει ακόμη και τους αγαπημένους του χαρακτήρες, αρκεί να τονίσει τις σκέψεις του για τα ζώα. Δε θαυμάζει τα ζώα, τα σέβεται. Κάτι που δε θα μπορούσε να καταλάβει κανένας ηλίθιος απ’ όσους συνεχίζουν με τις ζητήσεις τους και διαιωνίζουν τα puppy mills, τους byb και τις φαινοτυπικές εκτροφές. Μπορεί εδώ να υπάρχουν μόνο άλογα, γουρούνια, ρακούν, ένας γάτος κι ένα σκυλάκι που το λέγανε Μούτσεκ κι εγώ να μιλάω γενικά για ένα φαινόμενο της αντι-ευζωίας αλλά ο συγγραφέας με κάνει να αισθάνομαι ασφαλής να μιλώ εκ μέρους του.

Πρώτη φορά πάντως συναντώ συγγραφέα να χρησιμοποιεί αμείλικτα αυστηρό ρεαλισμό και παράλληλα να δουλεύει πολύ το σουρρεαλιστικό χιούμορ και την αλληγορία, σ’ ένα βιβλίο ταξίδι στα παλιά χρόνια, με τα χάδια και τις σκληρές τους συγκινήσεις κι όσα χάθηκαν ώσπου να φτάσουμε σε μια εποχή που είναι απλή διαδικασία να πατήσεις το διακόπτη για ν’ ανάψουν τα φώτα κι ωστόσο παραμένει διαδικασία, σχεδόν, ασύνειδη πράξη. Δεν εμπεριέχει κανένα τελετουργικό, προσκυνά μόνο την ευκολία. Που να ‘χε δει ο Χραμπάλ τις σύγχρονες τάσεις με τις λάμπες των εκατομμυρίων αποχρώσεων, που ρυθμίζονται απ’ τα κινητά τηλέφωνα. Θα ντρεπόταν για ‘μας και τη σκοτωμένη ελευθερία μας.

Υπέροχη η κρυστάλλωση του αντιφατικού ανθρώπου στο πρόσωπο του Φράνσιν. Δειλός, σκλάβος, υποτακτικός, θύμα του καθωσπρεπισμού και των σιωπηλών παθών που αποκτούν δικαίωμα μόνο πίσω απ’ την πόρτα και μαζί ένας άνθρωπος που στα ωραία του μπράτσα βλέπει αδυναμία, που σταματάει με μια φωνή και μια ατσάλινη λαβή το απειθάρχητο άλογο και τιθασεύει τον πληθωρικό αδελφό του κι ένας βαθειά ερωτευμένος άνθρωπος με την γυναίκα του, που είναι όσα δεν είναι εκείνος. Άνθρωπος της συνήθειας, του καθήκοντος, του υπερβολικού σεβασμού και την ίδια στιγμή ένας επαναστάτης που δεν κάνει τίποτα πραγματικά δριμύ για να καθυποτάξει τη γυναίκα του και που προτιμάει τα ταξίδια με μια σαραβαλιασμένη μοτοσυκλέτα που μονίμως χαλάει και κουβαλάει ως και τόρνο για να την επιδιορθώνει, σε μικρές αποδράσεις στην Πράγα, που πάντοτε η επιστροφή συνοδεύεται από χαρές μικρής ελευθερίας, στο τελετουργικό των δώρων της επιστροφής, στην Ιθάκη του.

Αυτή η γριά όλη την ημέρα χλαπάκιαζε ασταμάτητα μήλα και γλυκά και τριάντα ολόκληρα χρόνια κλαιγόταν: παιδιά θα πεθάνω σύντομα, δεν έχω όρεξη να κάνω τίποτα, μόνο να κοιμηθώ θέλω, νυστάζω συνέχεια … και είμαι κάπως άρρωστη, έλεγε ο θείος λύνοντας αμέτρητα λουράκια απ’ το σάκο του και ξαφνικά τον γύρισε ανάποδα και πέσανε στο πάτωμα διάφορα εργαλεία του τσαγκάρη κάνοντας πολύ θόρυβο. Ο άντρας μου, όταν άκουσε τη φασαρία, έκρυψε το πρόσωπο του μεσ’ τις παλάμες κι έβαλε τα κλάματα σα να του πέταγε ο Πέπιν τα εργαλεία στο κεφάλι.
<< Θείε Ιώζην >> είπα κι έβαλα μπροστά του ένα ταψί με γλυκά << πάρτε ένα κομμάτι πίτα >>. Και ο θείος καταβρόχθισε δυο κομμάτια με μια χαψιά και δήλωσε: << είμαι κι εγώ λίγο άρρωστος >>.

Το βιβλίο είναι ακόμη μια παραβολή πάνω στις σωστές επιλογές που χειριζόμαστε εντελώς λαθεμένα, από αδυναμία να τις υπερασπιστούμε στον εαυτό μας, στερώντας του το ρόλο που είχε στην επιλογή τους. Και κάποια περιστατικά, όπως κι εξιστορήσεις του Πέπιν υποθέτω πως σημαίνουν κάτι πολύ ιδιαίτερο για τη μνήμη των Τσέχων, που σ’ εμάς θα ήταν αδύνατον να ανιχνεύσουμε, όπως ένας Τσέχος ή ένας Αμερικανός δε θα μπορούσε ποτέ να κατανοήσει συμβολισμούς του Βενέζη, λόγου χάριν. Παρόλ’ αυτά όμως δε βοηθούν να μειωθεί η απόσταση που δυστυχώς δημιουργεί η μακροπερίοδη στατικότητα της ιστορίας, που αποκαθίσταται ελάχιστα, με την πνοή που δίνεται στο τέλος. Και τελειώνοντας, έχω μια αστήρικτη εντύπωση ότι η Μαρία είναι μια πολύ ενδιαφέρουσα τομή, πάνω στην ίδια την ιστορία της Τσεχίας, στο οποίο συναινεί και η παραληρηματική ιστορία, του κοψίματος των μαλλιών, όσο κι αν μαζί είναι μια οργιαστική εκδήλωση της δυσφορίας του συγγραφέα, για όλες εκείνες τις εποχές που η γυναίκα δεν είχε δικαίωμα στον εαυτό της και που αποχαιρετά ο συγγραφέας εν μέρει με τη Μαρία του, παρά το φινάλε της τρόμπας που είναι μαζί κάθαρση και ράπισμα του νέου ξεκινήματος.

Κλείνοντας, μου άρεσε ο επίλογος της μεταφράστριας, η οποία έμμεσα συνδέεται με τον ίδιο το Χραμπάλ όπως κι η ιστορία της οικογενείας της και το ύφος της με κάνει να υποθέτω πως η λανθασμένη επιλογή χρόνων δεν ξέρω τελικά αν ήταν αβλεψιά του χτενίσματος της μετάφρασης, ή σχετίζεται με επιλογές του ιδιαίτερου τόνου του συγγραφέα, που θα παρέπεμπε βέβαια σε άλλου είδους συμβολισμούς. Πάντως, ο επίλογος της σχεδόν αφομοιώνεται στην ιστορία και μένει τελευταία εικόνα ο Χραμπάλ να απομακρύνεται στο δάσος με το ποδήλατο, φωνάζοντας στο νεαρό συνοδό της, υπονοώντας ομοιότητες με τη γιαγιά της, << έμπλεξες >>.

Λέω, Μπόντια, να μου κόψετε τα μαλλιά όπως τα έχει κομμένα η Τζοζεφίν Μπέικερ

[Márta Péterffy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Igazából 4.5 csillag, mert ezt a könyvét imádtam, és később más könyveit pedig már nem annyira, volt amit untam is. De ezt mindenkinek ajánlom!
A filmet is érdemes megnézni, örök darab!

[Nigeyb · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read Cutting It Short straight after having read and enjoyed another book by Bohumil Hrabal called Closely Watched Trains....

Click here to read my review

Cutting It Short is an interwar tale narrated by vivacious, carefree and sensual Maryska, who is married to Francin. Francin runs the local brewery, and is perpetually appalled at his wife's style and conduct...

“As I crammed the cream horn voraciously into my mouth, at once I heard Francin’s voice saying no decent woman would eat a cream puff like that.”

'Cutting It Short' certainly has its moments of comedy and plenty of Hrabal's trademark surreal vibe but I enjoyed it less than 'Closely Watched Trains'.

The book opens with a pig slaughtering scene which is very graphic and described with far too much enjoyment for my taste. Later in the book Maryska cuts her dog's tail off for no apparent reason other than to illustrate her impetuosity. Add in some somewhat dubious gender politics and I found it increasingly unpleasant. Different times and a different culture I suppose.

2/5


Cutting It Short by Bohumil Hrabal

Bohumil Hrabal met a rather tragic end...

Suicide or accident?: The Death of the Sad King of Czech Literature, Bohumil Hrabal...

When Bohumil Hrabal either jumped or fell from a fifth floor window of Prague’s Bulovka Hospital while feeding pigeons at 2:30 p. m. on February 3, 1997, it marked the end of a phenomenal literary career spanning six decades and contributing enormously to Czech culture. His death from the fifth floor has an undoubted symbolic dimension, whether sought or merely coincidental: In his works he wrote about philosophers and writers who had jumped to their deaths from the fifth storey and even confessed that he sometimes wanted to jump from the fifth floor window of his flat. Whether he did jump or whether he fell will forever remain a mystery. Yet one thing was for certain. The sad king of Czech literature was dead.

The rest of the article is here...

https://www.private-prague-guide.com/...

[streuselschnecka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nikt wam tak urokliwie jak Hrabal nie opisze świniobicia. Na początku może chaotycznie, trochę jakby nie wiadomo do czego powieść zmierza, niewinność łączy się tu z brutalnością, krew ze świeżym piwem, niedojrzałość z poczuciem obowiązku a wolność z przywiązaniem. Piękny obraz miłości do miasteczka, strachu przed nieznanym oraz nieuchronnego wkraczania w dorosłość.

[Bjorn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short is indeed the key word here; a 120-page novel in 12 short chapters, told from the POV of a woman in a small Czech village in the first half of the 20th century as the modern world starts closing in. Maryska (based on Hrabal's own mother) is the wife of Francin, who oversees daily operations at the local brewery, and her life is one joy after another; precious gifts from her loving (but reserved and very busy) husband every time he comes back from Prague, taking long bike rides with her long hair flowing behind her, lighting the old-fashioned lamps at the brewery after the generator closes down at night, helping out with the annual pig slaughter and sampling the results... and of course, helping take care of Francin's brother who came back from the war a little weird and won't leave.

There's a great deal of warmth mixed with almost slapstickish bizarre humour in this, with kooky but alive small-town characters and told in a beautifully descriptive, down-to-earth language. Hrabal is such a great stylist that you'd almost be forgiven for thinking it's a pure piece of comic nostalgia about how everything was better and simpler back in the good old days - the novel ends before Hrabal himself is actually born.

But then there's the knowledge that this was a piece of forbidden literature back in the 70s, and the longer we get into the novel, the more a creepy undertone starts appearing as things start getting... shorter. Skirts, hair, tails, lives. As humorous as the presentation is, everything that gets cut off or out makes life poorer, duller, darker. Considering the circumstances it was written under, the subtext is subtle but insidious: the more of the little unnecessary, fun bits of life you cut off, the less humorous it gets. And then the jokes, and the stories, stop and all that remains is authority and punishment.

And, of course, a whole lot of laughter in between. It is mostly a comedy, after all. Just a darker one than it seems at first.

[ΠανωςΚ · Rating 2 out of 5]

O συγγραφέας του σύντομου αυτού μυθιστορήματος θεωρείται από τους σπουδαιότερους τσέχους δημιουργούς του 20ού αιώνα -έτσι τουλάχιστον λέει η wikipedia, και δεν το αμφισβητώ, απλώς υποθέτω πως η αναγνώριση αυτή δεν οφείλεται στο συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο. Για να το θέσω ευγενικά, δηλαδή.

[Natalia Słaboń · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gówno!

[Vishy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have wanted to read Bohumil Hrabal for a long time. I finally got around to reading my first Bohumil Hrabal book.

The story is narrated by Maryska, the wife of the manager of a brewery in a small Czech town. Maryska's husband Francin is a nice person, he works hard and he loves her very much. He is also quiet and in some ways old-fashioned, though he tries to change himself to be a better companion to her. Maryska is cool, stylish, flamboyant, likes enjoying life. She and her husband contrast each other in a huge way, but they love each other very much. In this context, each chapter in the book describes an event in their lives, what happens in the brewery, what happens when Francin's brother Uncle Peppin comes visiting, what happens when Francin visits Prague and gets Maryska a present – these and other stories are narrated in each chapter. Each of them could be read individually as an independent story, or they could be read together as a series of interlinked short stories or as a novel. Maryska is a charming, adorable character and is almost childlike and we can't stop falling in love with her. One of my favourite scenes in the story is when Maryska inspires some grownups to behave like children and other grown-ups frown at this behaviour, but the childlike behaviour is infectious, and before long, all the grown-ups become children. It is one of my favourite scenes in the book. Francin is a quiet person but very likeable and his love for his wife is so beautiful to see. When Uncle Peppin comes on the scene, the story is filled with rip-roaring laughter – it is hard not to laugh aloud looking at Uncle Peppin's antics and listening to his wild, unbelievable stories. Maryska and Uncle Peppin become friends and the kind of adventures they get upto make us laugh aloud.

There are many beautiful scenes in the story starting from the first chapter which describes the beauty of lighting lamps in the evening. Some of the most beautiful passages are those in which Maryska describes her hair – when the hair dresser combs it, when her hair flows in the wind.

I loved 'Cutting it Short'. It is a slim novella at around a hundred pages, but a very pleasurable read. I don't think I have read many Czech books – I can think of only 'The Book of Laughter and Forgetting' by Milan Kundera and 'Don Juan : The Life and Death of Don Miguel de Manara' by Josef Toman. So I am very happy to read my third Czech book. I can't wait to read my next Bohumil Hrabal book.

Have you read 'Cutting it Short'? What do you think about it?

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had no idea what to expect from this short novel, and picked it up because I thought it would be something totally different to anything else I have read recently. I was right about that.

It is composed of a series of humorous incidents in the life of a vivacious brewer's wife, Maryska, and her adoring but long-suffering husband Francin, in a small town in what's now the Czech Republic. Maryska's adventures include climbing up the brewery chimney - just for the hell of it - shortening her skirt to make it easier for her to ride her bicycle, and - in a similar spirit - cutting off half of her dog's tail.

The writing is often lyrical, often rambling, with sentences and paragraphs that roll on and on. But the sense of place and character is sharp. Maryska in particular has a vivid quality, as if she represents some immortal, irrepressible spirit of adventure, almost like William in the Richmal Crompton stories, but a woman, obviously, and very much a grown woman at that. The writing teeters on the verge of sex all the time without ever depicting it - and though Hrabal's portrayal of Maryska might be criticised as a male writer's fantasy of a liberated woman, the fact that she generally seems to have the upper hand (arguably, even on the novel's scandalising final page) softens that impression.

While this book didn't fill me with the desire to immediately read more of Hrabal, it did make an enjoyable diversion from ploughing through longer, more serious works, and offered the chance to escape for a short while into a completely unfamiliar time and place populated by characters who were nonetheless somewhat recognisable - which is after all one of the great joys of reading.

[emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

‘I could feel purple sawdust sizzling out of that light, immaterial sparklets, which entered me and imbued me with fragrance, so that I had the scent of a summer thunderstorm, the air in the room had the scent too, like air after lightning strikes—’

Brilliantly descriptive prose bleeding shades of purples and violets. Electrifying prose with perfectly eccentric characters. But — I don’t know how I feel about the climactic or at least ‘central’ / most ‘shocking’ bit with the cream puffs and a certain sort of canine violence (if I could phrase it that way?). Regardless, immensely impressed with the style of writing (even though I get the feeling like I might have chosen the wrong Hrabal to start with). And surely, strongly reminiscent of Fleetwood Mac's 'Gypsy'? 'Lightning strikes, maybe once, maybe twice/ And it all comes down to you/ And lightning strikes, maybe once, maybe twice/ And it lights up the night / And you see your gypsy'?

[Jiří Fojtík · Rating 2 out of 5]

Asi jako mnozí jsem si tuto knihu vybral k maturitě, protože se jedná o kratší Hrabalovu knihu s nijak náročným dějem. O Hrabalovi slyším od dětství a tak jsem byl dost zvědav, jak na mě bude působit.

Bohužel, nenáročný není jenom děj, ale také úplně všechny postavy, které jsou zcela nezajímavé a jedinou emoci, kterou ve mě vyvolali, bylo zmatení z jejich nízkého IQ. To bych pochopil v nějakém parodickém či absurdním příběhu, ale hlavní postavou celého díla je samotná matka Hrabala a její manžel. Ta je mimořádně jednoduchá a neustále dělá problémy a je pro mě osobně zarážející, že se ji autor takhle rozhodl zvěčnit. Není ale sama, protože druhé housle jí hraje mimořádně nesympatický a též jednoduchý strýc Pepin, který ani neumí pořádně česky. Tyto dva mozky spolu vedou konverzace, nad kterýma rozum zůstává stát.

S kromobyčejně hloupými postavami přichází i kromobyčejně kruté situace. Těch je mnoho, ale vybral bych třeba tu, kdy hlavní postava jako malá spadne do fontánky a její “zachránce” ji seřve, že mu vystydne oběd nebo kdy se rozhodne useknout ocas svému psovi, protože nemá, co na práci. Tomu se nedá divit, protože jak se dozvíme, tak její otec zase oběsil svou kočku, protože mu snědla oběd. Absolutně jsem nechápal, proč se autor neustále vyžíval v naprosto bezúčelných morbiditách, které jakkoliv neovlivňovaly děj a spíše mi více znechucovaly všechny postavy.

Tuto knihu bych nikomu opravdu nedoporučoval. Děj je rozdělen do nahodilých povídek, takže je vpodstatě nemožné vybudovat si jakýkoliv zájem o děj. Pro mě se zatím jedná o jedinou zkušenost s Hrabalem a ještě si dobře rozmyslím, jestli budu stát o nějakou další.

[Jan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bohumil Hrabal surely has his own voice, unmistakable; a few features which stand out: straight-forward language, with black humor, irony and laconism. This style is useful when you are pushed by the regime to self-censorship and many elements in the stories stand for something else, so to speak in a form a figurative speech. WWI war is never far away. The Dutch, the English titles and especially the Slovenian title have best succeeded in translating the central background-theme. However peculiar, I like – I’ve learnt to like – Hrabal’s writing style. Although this novella consists of several scenes that won’t stick easily together as a whole, I have been able to value it pretty positive. JM

[Alberto Martín de Hijas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Relatos de la juventud de un trasunto de la madre del autor, que en su inocencia termina siendo un agente del caos no menos destructivo que el tío Pepín (Que evidentemente, también aparece aquí) La historia rezuma el humor de Hrabal, pero también planea sobre ella el miedo a la madurez de su protagonista y sus esfuerzos por aplazarla.

[Oliver · Rating 5 out of 5]

Při čtení Hrabalových knih se mi po duši permanentně rozprostírá klid. Nahlížím do prostého života prostých lidí s jejich prostými radostmi a cítím, že jsem tam s nimi.
Doba, kdy se ženy nesměly více projevovat, přizpůsobovaly se zažitým konvencím a představám o ideální ženušce v domácnosti. Maryška se proti tomu bouřila. Chtěla být volná, jíst jako chlap, nespoutaně pohazovat hřívou svých vlasů, lozit po komínech, prohánět se s příliš krátkou sukní na kole po náměstí, provokovat sousedy vyzývavými pohledy, pít pivo,...
Možná bychom měli být v některých ohledech všichni trochu jako Maryška.

[Baz · Rating 3 out of 5]

My third Hrabal this year, and this one is definitely the kookiest. It’s a tale of little domestic adventures in a small town between the two wars, and the beautiful and wacky Maryska with her luxurious tempestuous hair is its narrator. She’s a joyous person who wolfs down her food and chugs her beer with relish, she delights in climbing a ladder, loves riding her bike with her hair flying in the air behind her, she even loves to splash people’s faces with the blood of a just slaughtered pig. Yep. She’s lovable, but she’s more than that. She’s disturbing. And she does one thing in this novel that shocked me, an unforgivable act that made me realise she might not be totally sane.

Julian Barnes described Hrabal’s mode as a sort of “dancing realism, somewhere between fairytale and satire.” I felt like this description fit the novella perfectly. Adam Thirlwell wrote a great piece about Hrabal in the Guardian that I recommend to fans and anyone who might consider reading him. I love fiction precisely because of its “allusive and ambiguous purposes and effects” (quoting Eisenberg), but Thirlwell articulated Hrabal’s style, his art, his purpose and meaning so well that my pleasure in his work evolved to include a deeper understanding of Hrabal himself and his credo, which “was always delight, bliss and longing.”

Hrabal’s narrating characters have a child’s appreciation for the sensual pleasures in everyday things, none more so, from what I’ve read so far, than Maryska. There’s a vitality, whimsy and lust, a sparkling exuberance and tenderness in Hrabal’s worlds and in his characters, and it has an invigorating effect on me. Thirlwell, in his piece, said Hrabal’s style makes pleasure a principle. Other writers he reminds me of, who also make lightness and pleasure a principle, are Ali Smith and Italo Calvino and Robert Walser and Katherine Mansfield.

Cutting It Short is definitely not the book to start with, I say read Too Loud a Solitude and Closely Watched Trains first. But it’s a gorgeous, weird, confounding and effervescent romp.

[terka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Zvláštní kniha. Hrabal má úžasný styl a unikátní postavy, strýc Pepin je prostě legenda. Ale Marie, vypravěčka tohoto dílka… nevím, co si o ní myslet. Nejdřív jsem ji brala za takovou hodně divokou duši, spontánní a zbrklou. Pak ale přišla ta příhoda se psem a definitivně jsem si ji šoupla do škatulky “maniakální psychopat”. Po tomhle prostě ztratila veškeré to své ztřeštěné kouzlo a viděla jsem v ní jen šíleně sobeckou, sebestřednou, krutou a odpornou bytost, zahleděnou jen do sebe sama, bez sebemenšího ohledu na ostatní. To už Pepin vykazoval více sebereflexe než ona. Takže mám smíšené pocity.

Próza krásná, obsah… zvláštní. Film jsem viděla kdysi dávno, ale nepamatuji se, že by tam celá ta situace s pejskem byla.

[Gaby Kaza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took me a while to finish this even though it’s so short as work went a bit crazy and I stopped reading. This was very amusing and got of chuckles from me, Tom and I both felt the main character was quite similar to me. A really fab read with a absurdist Ionesco quality to it, but only 4* as I didn’t polish it off in one sitting.

[Krogulec · Rating 3 out of 5]

Myślę, że te dwa akapity ostatnie to niespecjalnie napisał, on nie wcale nie chciał, zapomniał się, nie wiedział. Wytłumaczyłabym mu chętnie co prawie osiągnął, w co trafił, co odkrył. ktoś może ma telefon do niego? Ktoś mu musi powiedzieć, mogę to być ja, poświęcę się.

[Kai Weber · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just like poetry nearly always loses when it is translated into another language, it is a very difficult thing to transform a prose work into a stage play. So is the case in those play versions of prose works of Bohumil Hrabal, too. There are two separate pieces in this volume. The first is attempting to put Postřižiny (Cutting it Short) onto the stage. In its original version it is a very charming story of an idiosyncratic young lady in a Bohemian small town of the 1920s, where a first radio appears and gives everyone the impression of modern times coming and making everything shorter and faster. To keep up with those modern times, the young woman has her long shiny hear, that everyone admires, cut off to look like Josephine Baker. The second play is a collage or medley of small motifs from different works of Hrabal, cut+pasted together.
Both plays are seemingly not working well. Even though Hrabal has been interested in collage techniques, when writing prose he was seaming things together in a very unique way, resulting not so much in cut-up effects but rather in tidal flows and waves. I didn't compare this book with the prose originals directly, but I think on a microscopic level many dialogue bits are taken directly from the prose. Yet on a larger scale, those bits don't fit together the way they do in the prose, so the typical Hrabal tone is only half there.
While I was reading I tried to imagine those two pieces as original works, not dramatizations. Yet there is neither drama in them nor do they have those carefully laid-out epic structure in the Brechtian sense - or as we might observe in works from Ibsen via Wilder to current times. The scenes and their development seem just random and unmotivated.
Therefore those pieces have no artistic merit on their own; they draw all their merit from the original prose works. That still makes them work alright as introductions - if I imagine somebody who is very fond of going to the theatre but doesn't like to read prose, then that's the perfect audience. Hrabal fans can live without this.
(P.S.: I wonder how much Hrabal himself was involved in this book. He is listed as the main author on the cover and in the colophon, yet the dramatizing is attributed to two other persons.)

[Bram Peeters · Rating 4 out of 5]

First book I read by Hrabal (in Dutch translation, "Gekortwiekt"). 12 chapters that could all be short stories by themselves, not all shine, the chatacters are a bit flat, and there isn't really an overarching story that makes a difference (if that would be a requirement), but that's all balanced by some brilliant sentences (Hrabal was a poet, that shows), some bizarre but brilliant scenes - somehow involving cruelty to animals, but also floating in beer, climbing chimneys, strange electrical gear and stealing watches. I enjoyed it, will definitely read some of his better known novels.

[Albena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Една от новелите в "Строго охранявани влакове", старото социздание.
Заслужава всяка от петте звездички. Лек, хубав, вкусен, богат разказ.
Искрено завиждам на чехочетящите за възможността да четат Храбал в оригинал.

[Zuzana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nějak jsem si s Postřižinami nesedli...

[Mishell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Moc hezký styl vyprávění

[vendy krausová · Rating 4 out of 5]

hrabal obecne pise fakt dlouhy vety, takze je to trochu narocnejsi na cteni i na pochopeni, ale namet je vybornej a je to proste iconic

[Thomas Goddard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cutting It Short by Bohumil Hrabal


This is such a splendid short novel. A lovely little dip into a world that feels quite real. Brutal and hilarious.

When the world takes up a notion, it begins to bleed into every aspect of culture. Electricity sparks a demand for all things to be electrified. A new dance move stirs people to make steps towards new places. New food fads. Music tastes. Hair styles... They don't exist in and of themselves without bleeding, like a cut throat, into everything else. Staining everything.

And change provokes in people the strangest reactions. It unsettles the tempo of the world.

The characters are like the cast of people you'll bump into in your local. We've lost that sense of community these days, but I always keep a finger on the pulse of the local area. I gather up nearby souls and try to touch base with them.

Infighting, dramas of all sorts, charity, acts of kindness, companionship, insults, jokes... A free drink. All of it is on offer to those who engage. And that engagement. The desire not to see things cut short... nights, friendships or tales (of all kinds)...

That's life lived right!!

Not quite as good as Too Loud A Solitude, but damn fine in its own right. This would make an excellent film.


Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

[Nile · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read almost all of this on a coach trip through old Habsburg territory, from the heart to the cusp, and with fifteen pages left, stopped... I wish I'd pushed to finish it all in that time as I think I ruined the tempo for myself with a month-long break.

Really enjoyable spin around being young in the old world - being old in the new world. The angel dancing on the head of a pin and what happens when that debate becomes reality and gravity intervenes in the almost-supernatural that transfixes us like nothing else, the beauty of youth.

[Suska · Rating 4 out of 5]

film zboznuju. jakoze uprimne, ten film je jeden z mych nejoblibenejsich kousku ceskoslovenske kinematografie. ta kniha byla celkem zklamani. je prekvapive kratka, docela dobre se cte, ano, hrabalovo poeticke zpracovani bylo vice nez dobre. ale neco tomu chybelo. mozna i kvuli tomu, jak byla kniha kratka, nedokazala jsem se tolik vzit do postav. (na jednu stranu to nebylo nutne, postavy z filmu znam az moc dobre.)

bohuzel mi kniha nedala to, co jsem ocekavala. ani ta veta ve filmu: "nosim tam pro tebe spisovatele." - ktera odkazuje na to, ze tento pribeh je vlastne o rodicich bohumila, tam chybela. nevim, jsem rada, ze jsem si ji precetla (i kvuli maturite), ale znovu uz si ji nejspis neprectu.