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Innocence; or, Murder on Steep Street
This rediscovered gem of Czech literature, a crime novel by renowned Holocaust memoirist Heda Margolius Kovály, depicts a chilling moment in history, redolent with the stifling atmosphere of political and personal oppression of the early days of Socialist Czechoslovakia.
In 1985, Czech Holocaust memoirist, literary translator, and political exile Heda Margolius Kovály turned her pen to fiction. Inspired by the stories of Raymond Chandler, Kovaly knit her own terrifying experiences in early 1950s Socialist Prague—her husband's imprisonment and wrongful execution, her own persecution at his disgrace—into a gorgeous psychological thriller-cum-detective novel.
Set in and around a cinema where a murder was recently committed, Innocence follows the unfolding of the investigation while telling the stories of the women who work there as ushers, each of whom is forced to support herself in difficult circumstances. As the novel brings this group alive, it tells their various life stories that have brought them to this job, the secrets they share with one another, and the secrets they keep. When the detective trying to solve the first murder is found slain by the cinema, all of their secrets come into the light.
A smart, evocative, and deeply stirring literary crime novel with international appeal.
In 1985, Czech Holocaust memoirist, literary translator, and political exile Heda Margolius Kovály turned her pen to fiction. Inspired by the stories of Raymond Chandler, Kovaly knit her own terrifying experiences in early 1950s Socialist Prague—her husband's imprisonment and wrongful execution, her own persecution at his disgrace—into a gorgeous psychological thriller-cum-detective novel.
Set in and around a cinema where a murder was recently committed, Innocence follows the unfolding of the investigation while telling the stories of the women who work there as ushers, each of whom is forced to support herself in difficult circumstances. As the novel brings this group alive, it tells their various life stories that have brought them to this job, the secrets they share with one another, and the secrets they keep. When the detective trying to solve the first murder is found slain by the cinema, all of their secrets come into the light.
A smart, evocative, and deeply stirring literary crime novel with international appeal.
231 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1985
18 people are currently reading
1150 people want to read
About the author
Heda Margolius Kovály
8 books26 followersHeda Margolius Kovály was a Czech writer and translator. She survived the Łódź ghetto and Auschwitz where her parents died. She later escaped whilst being marched to Bergen-Belsen to find that no one would take her in. Her husband was made a deputy minister in Czechoslovakia and he was then hanged as a traitor. As the wife of disgraced man she married again and she and her husband were treated badly. They left for the US in 1968 when the country was invaded by the Warsaw Pact countries. She published her biography in 1973. She and her husband did not return to her homeland until 1996.
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August 16, 2015
“Innocence is a kind of insanity”
----Graham Greene, an English novelist, short story writer, playwright, screenplay writer, travel writer and critic
Heda Margolius Kovály was a Czech writer, whose book, Innocence; or, Murder on Steep Street was inspired by her own life in early 1950s Socialist Prague—her husband's imprisonment and wrongful execution, her own persecution at his disgrace, thus penning a political thriller cum detective novel, that is translated into English by Alex Zucker, an award winning translator.
Synopsis:
1950s Prague is a city of numerous small terrors, of political tyranny, corruption and surveillance. There is no way of knowing whether one’s neighbor is spying for the government, or what one’s supposed friend will say under pressure to a State Security agent. A loyal Party member might be imprisoned or executed as quickly as a traitor; innocence means nothing for a person caught in a government trap.
But there are larger terrors, too. When a little boy is murdered at the cinema where his aunt works, the ensuing investigation sheds a little too much light on the personal lives of the cinema’s female ushers, each of whom is hiding a dark secret of her own.
Nearly lost to censorship, this rediscovered gem of Czech literature depicts a chilling moment in history, redolent with the stifling atmosphere of political and personal oppression of the early days of Communist Czechoslovakia.
From the title of the book, it is very clear that the book is divided into two parts- Innocence and Murder on Steep Street. Well, but from the synopsis, it sounds like a murder/espionage style of thriller, although that's the half of it. The larger picture of the story lies in the 1950s Prague especially the period when Prague was under the Communist rule when marking anyone, who goes beyond the government by either speaking evil in the name of government or participating in any ploy against the government or even if you have not done anything, as "dissident" and by punishing them by putting them on life imprisonment. The author, herself, was a victim of this era, and telling this personal story brings alive those gruesome vivid details of the period with a sharp, raw voice in this part-thriller-part-historical-fiction novel.
So while reading especially while reviewing this book, please do not take this book as a mystery novel even for a single bit, since it doesn't only contain a mystery that unravels in an nontraditional manner but also it is hidden under multiple layers of history, which is indirectly proportional to the murder mystery.
Helena Nováková gets a job as an usher at the Horizon Cinema in Prague, when her husband was imprisoned for espionage. Helena too herself is under suspicion and the government put spies around her to keep eyes on her activities. Helena is ripped apart by the choices of whether to save the life of her beloved by risking hers or whether to let go. The first half of the story tells the readers about how innocent lives were torn apart by the Communist government, how each one fought against not will against the government but also against their souls to protect themselves from the government who terrorized the whole nation. The insightful picture that the author sketched during this period of Communist Prague is of the want of freedom against the victimization towards mortality without guilt.
The second half opens with the murder followed by a drastic change of narrative from first person POV of Helena to third person POV of other key characters while Helena takes the back seat. This time the author narrated about the murder where the victim is an unidentified person, I mean the author deliberately kept the identity under wrap and since the murder took place right in front of the Horizon Cinema, all the employees are under the probable suspect list. This part sees the entry of yet another brilliant character of this book, Vendyš, a police detective who too being honest, is a victim of political corruption and tyranny of this communist government.
The story from the second half takes an 180 degree turn of being stead to being fast paced and the way the author teased her readers with the mystery by throwing little hints and turns at the beginning to totally throwing the readers off their edges by introducing unexpected twists, definitely puts the book into an intriguing page turner category. The writing style is one of a kind- purely honest and sheerly engaging. The story builds up like a maze- when the reader thinks he found the way, is actually the time when he falls deeper into this mystical puzzle.
The book has this much amount of unexpected hidden twists and turns that it is enough to kill the readers with anticipation. The author never once openly or positively talked about the mystery, since she keeps on introducing one new suspect after another and the way she addresses each one of them is another complex thing that urges the readers many a times to look what they read before one particular chapter. The book feels like walking in the mist, you can see the light yet you can't reach it without proper direction.
Although for die-hard thriller fans, the climax might come as a disappointing shock since the author wrapped it up in a rather different way than it happens in a regular thriller novel. So be prepared for the climax- not something too satisfying yet something that completely justifies the overall story.
The timeline as well as the backdrop is surprisingly very striking. Since the story is a personal one, so each and every details comes alive in this book since the author had portrayed the backdrop in an intricate fashion and it also seems like she had an eye for tiniest of tiny details that finally reproduces a brilliant background for this story. Teleport would be the wrong word to describe how I felt while reading this novel, instead I would stress on the fact that I was instantly time traveled to yet another remarkable yet painful era in our history in a completely different yet beautiful land called Prague.
This novel is a brilliant example of something very challenging that engages each and every brain cells of the readers to contemplate in their own way and also of something which is thoroughly insightful enough to show the readers a dark picture of the reality as well as of the human souls.
Verdict: In one word, a must read, only if you can handle complexities and multi layers in a plot.
Courtesy: Thanks to the publishers for giving me an opportunity to read and review this book.
----Graham Greene, an English novelist, short story writer, playwright, screenplay writer, travel writer and critic
Heda Margolius Kovály was a Czech writer, whose book, Innocence; or, Murder on Steep Street was inspired by her own life in early 1950s Socialist Prague—her husband's imprisonment and wrongful execution, her own persecution at his disgrace, thus penning a political thriller cum detective novel, that is translated into English by Alex Zucker, an award winning translator.
Synopsis:
1950s Prague is a city of numerous small terrors, of political tyranny, corruption and surveillance. There is no way of knowing whether one’s neighbor is spying for the government, or what one’s supposed friend will say under pressure to a State Security agent. A loyal Party member might be imprisoned or executed as quickly as a traitor; innocence means nothing for a person caught in a government trap.
But there are larger terrors, too. When a little boy is murdered at the cinema where his aunt works, the ensuing investigation sheds a little too much light on the personal lives of the cinema’s female ushers, each of whom is hiding a dark secret of her own.
Nearly lost to censorship, this rediscovered gem of Czech literature depicts a chilling moment in history, redolent with the stifling atmosphere of political and personal oppression of the early days of Communist Czechoslovakia.
From the title of the book, it is very clear that the book is divided into two parts- Innocence and Murder on Steep Street. Well, but from the synopsis, it sounds like a murder/espionage style of thriller, although that's the half of it. The larger picture of the story lies in the 1950s Prague especially the period when Prague was under the Communist rule when marking anyone, who goes beyond the government by either speaking evil in the name of government or participating in any ploy against the government or even if you have not done anything, as "dissident" and by punishing them by putting them on life imprisonment. The author, herself, was a victim of this era, and telling this personal story brings alive those gruesome vivid details of the period with a sharp, raw voice in this part-thriller-part-historical-fiction novel.
So while reading especially while reviewing this book, please do not take this book as a mystery novel even for a single bit, since it doesn't only contain a mystery that unravels in an nontraditional manner but also it is hidden under multiple layers of history, which is indirectly proportional to the murder mystery.
Helena Nováková gets a job as an usher at the Horizon Cinema in Prague, when her husband was imprisoned for espionage. Helena too herself is under suspicion and the government put spies around her to keep eyes on her activities. Helena is ripped apart by the choices of whether to save the life of her beloved by risking hers or whether to let go. The first half of the story tells the readers about how innocent lives were torn apart by the Communist government, how each one fought against not will against the government but also against their souls to protect themselves from the government who terrorized the whole nation. The insightful picture that the author sketched during this period of Communist Prague is of the want of freedom against the victimization towards mortality without guilt.
The second half opens with the murder followed by a drastic change of narrative from first person POV of Helena to third person POV of other key characters while Helena takes the back seat. This time the author narrated about the murder where the victim is an unidentified person, I mean the author deliberately kept the identity under wrap and since the murder took place right in front of the Horizon Cinema, all the employees are under the probable suspect list. This part sees the entry of yet another brilliant character of this book, Vendyš, a police detective who too being honest, is a victim of political corruption and tyranny of this communist government.
The story from the second half takes an 180 degree turn of being stead to being fast paced and the way the author teased her readers with the mystery by throwing little hints and turns at the beginning to totally throwing the readers off their edges by introducing unexpected twists, definitely puts the book into an intriguing page turner category. The writing style is one of a kind- purely honest and sheerly engaging. The story builds up like a maze- when the reader thinks he found the way, is actually the time when he falls deeper into this mystical puzzle.
The book has this much amount of unexpected hidden twists and turns that it is enough to kill the readers with anticipation. The author never once openly or positively talked about the mystery, since she keeps on introducing one new suspect after another and the way she addresses each one of them is another complex thing that urges the readers many a times to look what they read before one particular chapter. The book feels like walking in the mist, you can see the light yet you can't reach it without proper direction.
Although for die-hard thriller fans, the climax might come as a disappointing shock since the author wrapped it up in a rather different way than it happens in a regular thriller novel. So be prepared for the climax- not something too satisfying yet something that completely justifies the overall story.
The timeline as well as the backdrop is surprisingly very striking. Since the story is a personal one, so each and every details comes alive in this book since the author had portrayed the backdrop in an intricate fashion and it also seems like she had an eye for tiniest of tiny details that finally reproduces a brilliant background for this story. Teleport would be the wrong word to describe how I felt while reading this novel, instead I would stress on the fact that I was instantly time traveled to yet another remarkable yet painful era in our history in a completely different yet beautiful land called Prague.
This novel is a brilliant example of something very challenging that engages each and every brain cells of the readers to contemplate in their own way and also of something which is thoroughly insightful enough to show the readers a dark picture of the reality as well as of the human souls.
Verdict: In one word, a must read, only if you can handle complexities and multi layers in a plot.
Courtesy: Thanks to the publishers for giving me an opportunity to read and review this book.
June 1, 2015
I bought a hardcover copy of this novel, so if anyone (in the US) would like my ARC copy, please take it! Free, I pay postage.
briefly, plot, etc. can be found here; I will also say that while I think this book may be a bit misunderstood, I really enjoyed it for what it says about the specific time, place, and circumstances of people living in 1950s Prague.
While reading this book, it didn't take too long to realize that the author had much more on her mind than writing an ordinary crime novel. There's way too much going on around the plot and the action that would lead anyone to believe this is just another mystery story. If you read the introduction to this book written by her son Ivan, he notes that
"Several personalities in the book see acts like lying, misrepresenting, informing, and betraying confidences as inconsequential, trivial matters, thus diluting the difference between guilt and innocence. Even murder is perceived as an accident for which no one is to blame."
He also calls the story an "intensely complex psychological drama," and this is much more the reality of this book than the "Chandleresque mystery" it's advertised as. It's true that the author loved Chandler, and as the intro goes on to say, like Marlowe, the main character of this novel "struggles" ... "to make her existence worthwhile in an environment devoid of respect for human life." What the author has given us here, I think, is much more of a fictionalized picture of an historical reality in a totalitarian society -- where people live knowing they are under surveillance, where informing is sometimes a way just to stay ahead of the knock on the door in the middle of the night, and where the fact of who you are can often determine your fate. All of what I'm saying here is important because if you pick up this novel expecting a standard crime-novel plot trajectory, you're reading the wrong book.
As I said, it didn't take me long to figure out that Kovály was writing a somewhat-disguised version of her own story, and I absolutely had to know more about this woman so I picked up her memoir Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague, 1941-1968. If you have the option, you ought to read her memoir just before or right after reading Innocence -- as I noted in my own post about that book, it is (in part) an examination of human nature and the moral choices people make under some horrific and appalling circumstances. And if you read carefully in Innocence, you'll notice the same thing goes on here in the "fractured incarcerated society" that was 1950s Prague under totalitarian rule.
---
Oh - and to the reader who gave it one star because she couldn't get the names -- SERIOUSLY???
briefly, plot, etc. can be found here; I will also say that while I think this book may be a bit misunderstood, I really enjoyed it for what it says about the specific time, place, and circumstances of people living in 1950s Prague.
While reading this book, it didn't take too long to realize that the author had much more on her mind than writing an ordinary crime novel. There's way too much going on around the plot and the action that would lead anyone to believe this is just another mystery story. If you read the introduction to this book written by her son Ivan, he notes that
"Several personalities in the book see acts like lying, misrepresenting, informing, and betraying confidences as inconsequential, trivial matters, thus diluting the difference between guilt and innocence. Even murder is perceived as an accident for which no one is to blame."
He also calls the story an "intensely complex psychological drama," and this is much more the reality of this book than the "Chandleresque mystery" it's advertised as. It's true that the author loved Chandler, and as the intro goes on to say, like Marlowe, the main character of this novel "struggles" ... "to make her existence worthwhile in an environment devoid of respect for human life." What the author has given us here, I think, is much more of a fictionalized picture of an historical reality in a totalitarian society -- where people live knowing they are under surveillance, where informing is sometimes a way just to stay ahead of the knock on the door in the middle of the night, and where the fact of who you are can often determine your fate. All of what I'm saying here is important because if you pick up this novel expecting a standard crime-novel plot trajectory, you're reading the wrong book.
As I said, it didn't take me long to figure out that Kovály was writing a somewhat-disguised version of her own story, and I absolutely had to know more about this woman so I picked up her memoir Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague, 1941-1968. If you have the option, you ought to read her memoir just before or right after reading Innocence -- as I noted in my own post about that book, it is (in part) an examination of human nature and the moral choices people make under some horrific and appalling circumstances. And if you read carefully in Innocence, you'll notice the same thing goes on here in the "fractured incarcerated society" that was 1950s Prague under totalitarian rule.
---
Oh - and to the reader who gave it one star because she couldn't get the names -- SERIOUSLY???
August 21, 2019
This novel centers on a Prague cinema in the 1950s, the Horizon, and the lives of the people who work there.
We spend the opening chapter in the company of Helena, who's now an usher at the Horizon -- having formerly had a good job in publishing -- because her husband did something completely innocent that the authorities decided to construe as evidence of espionage. He rots in jail and eventually commits suicide there while Helena does her best just to make ends meet and be loyal to her memory of him. When the small nephew of one of the other staff goes missing, no one at first suspects the projectionist Janecek; after all, were he and little Josef not the best of friends? The case is very soon solved, and the madman led away.
The real significance of the murder is that it introduces to the small group who work at the Horizon the cop Nedoma. Soon, although married, he's in the midst of a full-blown affair with the flamboyantly promiscuous usher Marie. The mystery part of the plot really kicks into gear about halfway through the book when Nedoma himself is found murdered. That case is put into the hands of the far more intelligent cop Vendys, but his investigation is hampered by the fact that the secret police have an oar in the Horizon's waters, still convinced that Helena must be guilty of espionage by association even though all the evidence is emphatically otherwise.
The blurb describes the language of this book as Chandleresque. It ain't, and neither really is the plot. But the narrative (in a truly excellent translation by Alex Zucker) does offer its frequent rewards:
The claustrophobia generated by the insidious corruption of a paranoid closed society, in which there's a secret police that's completely unaccountable to the people it's supposed to be protecting, is well handled: Vendys's frustration at the knowledge both that he may never solve the case because of the vested interest of the spooks and that there's nothing he can do about it; Helena's belief that older colleague Mrs. Kourimska is sweet-natured and guileless when in fact Kourimska is being paid to spy on Helena. And there's this exchange when Helena and a man with whom she's formed a sort of uneasy platonic relationship, Sipek (who would like it to be more), go to the zoo:
The immediate reference is, of course, to Czechoslovakia under the Stalinist boot. Depressingly, however, the observation can be applied to other societies, even those that assume they're free; we're all far too likely to let our freedoms be eroded because there's something good on the telly tonight.
I found Innocence a very rewarding book. I didn't find it actually gripping, though: it's not really a thriller but a dissection of a particular place and period, and the way that people adapted their behavior to survive in those circumstances. The interest of the book is enhanced by the knowledge that some of Helena's experiences echo the author's own. The solution to the mystery, when it comes, is completely satisfying, yet at the same time it feels somehow beside the point. In other words, this is a book that's not easily categorized.
Recommended.
We spend the opening chapter in the company of Helena, who's now an usher at the Horizon -- having formerly had a good job in publishing -- because her husband did something completely innocent that the authorities decided to construe as evidence of espionage. He rots in jail and eventually commits suicide there while Helena does her best just to make ends meet and be loyal to her memory of him. When the small nephew of one of the other staff goes missing, no one at first suspects the projectionist Janecek; after all, were he and little Josef not the best of friends? The case is very soon solved, and the madman led away.
The real significance of the murder is that it introduces to the small group who work at the Horizon the cop Nedoma. Soon, although married, he's in the midst of a full-blown affair with the flamboyantly promiscuous usher Marie. The mystery part of the plot really kicks into gear about halfway through the book when Nedoma himself is found murdered. That case is put into the hands of the far more intelligent cop Vendys, but his investigation is hampered by the fact that the secret police have an oar in the Horizon's waters, still convinced that Helena must be guilty of espionage by association even though all the evidence is emphatically otherwise.
The blurb describes the language of this book as Chandleresque. It ain't, and neither really is the plot. But the narrative (in a truly excellent translation by Alex Zucker) does offer its frequent rewards:
Kolousek beamed. His complexion, the color of a baby's bottom with a mild rash, turned even pinker.
The claustrophobia generated by the insidious corruption of a paranoid closed society, in which there's a secret police that's completely unaccountable to the people it's supposed to be protecting, is well handled: Vendys's frustration at the knowledge both that he may never solve the case because of the vested interest of the spooks and that there's nothing he can do about it; Helena's belief that older colleague Mrs. Kourimska is sweet-natured and guileless when in fact Kourimska is being paid to spy on Helena. And there's this exchange when Helena and a man with whom she's formed a sort of uneasy platonic relationship, Sipek (who would like it to be more), go to the zoo:
"You think they're sad?" Helena asked. "You think they wish they were free?"
"Not most of them, I don't think. Experts agree that animals are almost like people when it comes to that. As long as they've got a nice place to live and something to keep them entertained, they can do without freedom."
The immediate reference is, of course, to Czechoslovakia under the Stalinist boot. Depressingly, however, the observation can be applied to other societies, even those that assume they're free; we're all far too likely to let our freedoms be eroded because there's something good on the telly tonight.
I found Innocence a very rewarding book. I didn't find it actually gripping, though: it's not really a thriller but a dissection of a particular place and period, and the way that people adapted their behavior to survive in those circumstances. The interest of the book is enhanced by the knowledge that some of Helena's experiences echo the author's own. The solution to the mystery, when it comes, is completely satisfying, yet at the same time it feels somehow beside the point. In other words, this is a book that's not easily categorized.
Recommended.
June 13, 2015
When you begin reading Innocence-- and I hope all of you will-- please do not skip the introduction written by Heda Margolius Kovály's son. These pages will show you that Kovály's own life was every bit as interesting as her book, and as each character's secrets are revealed, there is such an incredible ring of truth that it cannot be denied. Kovály was influenced by Raymond Chandler, but this little jewel of a mystery is far from being some slavish copy.
The theme of innocence runs throughout the book, and what Kovály's own experiences taught her was that, in a regime like that, no one is really innocent. It's a horrifying thing to contemplate, but by book's end, readers will come to realize that it's true.
"Vendyš wiped away the rain sliding down his nose. Steep Street was like an empty auditorium after a performance, with Vendyš the late-coming spectator who could only guess at what had taken place."
Kovály has a talent for writing one- to two-line descriptions of her characters that are tiny slices of perfection. So many of today's writers would take paragraphs or even pages to define each one of theirs. There are other passages in Innocence that are beautifully descriptive and psychologically insightful. By the time the mystery is solved and Kovály's story has come to an end, I felt emotionally brutalized-- and in awe. She distilled years of fear and horror and rage into this book, and as a result Innocence is haunting... and extraordinary.
The theme of innocence runs throughout the book, and what Kovály's own experiences taught her was that, in a regime like that, no one is really innocent. It's a horrifying thing to contemplate, but by book's end, readers will come to realize that it's true.
"Vendyš wiped away the rain sliding down his nose. Steep Street was like an empty auditorium after a performance, with Vendyš the late-coming spectator who could only guess at what had taken place."
Kovály has a talent for writing one- to two-line descriptions of her characters that are tiny slices of perfection. So many of today's writers would take paragraphs or even pages to define each one of theirs. There are other passages in Innocence that are beautifully descriptive and psychologically insightful. By the time the mystery is solved and Kovály's story has come to an end, I felt emotionally brutalized-- and in awe. She distilled years of fear and horror and rage into this book, and as a result Innocence is haunting... and extraordinary.
May 14, 2015
Being of Czech decent, I was thrilled to be able to read Innocence; or Murder on Steep Street by Heda Margolius Kovály a powerfully written novel, which nearly did not exist due to censorship. Kovály introduces the reader to the early days of Communist Czechoslovakia via life in Prague during the 1950s, a city filled with loyalist Party members, corruption, tyranny, and constant surveillance, for one could never know if a family member or a neighbor will turn them in, these are considered “small terrors”. Kovály adds in a “big terror” with the case of a young boy murdered in a cinema and as the investigation unfolds, the lives of the female ushers come under intense scrutiny, each of whom harbors a secret of her own. What one must remember throughout this fantastic book is that Kovály is portraying history, life under a Communist regime, one must remember this is during the Cold War and written shortly after the 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état, which put the communists (KSČ) into complete power. If one goes into this book expecting a simple murder mystery, one will most likely be disappointed, as Kovály is providing the reader insight into what it was like for average citizens during this very oppressive time in history. Communism happens to be my area of expertise and Kovály does not disappoint, rather she managed to craft together an exceptional atmospheric work of historical fiction and I am very grateful the censors did not destroy this historical literary masterpiece. I would recommend Innocence; or Murder on Steep Street to readers who enjoy historical fiction.
September 14, 2018
Murder mysteries and myself must be a bad fit. Although I had high hopes of this one because of its unusual setting in Communist Prague, I found it disappointing in every imaginable way. For one thing, the book starts with the murder of a little boy by a pedophile, and I waited in vain for this initial crime to have some bearing on the rest of the story. In fact, neither the child nor his killer are ever mentioned again. We then follow the sad story of Helena, whose beloved husband Karel has been thrown into jail as a suspected spy. Helena herself has lost her job in a publishing house due to her husband's arrest, and now works as an usher in a cinema called the Horizon, where the first crime has been perpetrated by the projectionist. Unbeknownst to her, Nedoma, the police officer who has caught the projectionist, has put her under surveillance, and uses an informant to try and trap her. In yet another plot twist that leads nowhere, this informant, Karla Kourimska, turns out to be both a lesbian and another pedophile. Nedoma has Kourimska introduce Helena to a powerful man called Hruska. Helena sleeps with Hruska in the hope that he will be able to make Karel's life in prison less miserable. Hoping to get Karel to break down and confess his crimes, Hruska shows him pictures of Helena naked in bed. Since Karel has nothing to confess and lived only for his wife, he commits suicide. Kourimska is ravaged with guilt, has a heart attack and on her death bed confesses to the murder of Nedoma, who has in fact been killed by Hruska. This is the short version and I find it impossible to summarise all the superfluous subplots and assorted red herrings that clutter the tale. Apart from the pervading atmosphere of permanent suspicion between colleagues and friends in a dictatorship, this amateurish bit of fiction really doesn't deliver.
February 9, 2016
kovaly famous for her award winning, cited auto bio of holocaust and czech life after 1945 when good ol joe came to stay. Under a Cruel Star
she eventually started translating english and usa lit into czech for a living, after working black balled for many years, weaving, weaving!. but anyway, her favorite style/author was chandler
so she wrote a noir novel, based on her life in soviet czech, her husband executed, she black balled, living in the meanest straights. so lots of secrets here, and unknown motives, and stool pigeons, and double lives,
good mystery, excellent in places. . but a bit clunky and lots of red herrings no one really needs to catch and release. i want to read her autobio
she eventually started translating english and usa lit into czech for a living, after working black balled for many years, weaving, weaving!. but anyway, her favorite style/author was chandler
so she wrote a noir novel, based on her life in soviet czech, her husband executed, she black balled, living in the meanest straights. so lots of secrets here, and unknown motives, and stool pigeons, and double lives,
good mystery, excellent in places. . but a bit clunky and lots of red herrings no one really needs to catch and release. i want to read her autobio
January 1, 2021
Heda Margolius Kovály is one of those with a distinct view of Central Europe’s twentieth century history. Deported as Jewish from Prague to the Łodz ghetto and then on to Auschwitz she fought in the Prague uprising in 1945; her husband was part of the Czech government in the early 1950s and one of the victims of Slánský Trial – Czechoslovakia’s most notorious of Stalinist show trials. This novel of mid-1950s Prague, featuring those who fall foul of State Security amongst other things, has an unsettling autobiographical feel to it.
Yet, that aspect is only one part of this fabulous, noirish tale of murder, spies and subterfuge, gentility and getting by. At its core are several women who work in a central city cinema who come to the attention of the police when the cinema becomes the site of a child’s murder. This despite one of the usherettes, Helena Nováková, is already being on the secret police radar because of suspicions about her husband, detained under suspicion of espionage. Others, in ways that are only slowly unravelled in the course of the novel, are also engaged with security forces, while a wider sense of fear pervades the tale – the Czechoslovak State Security (Státní bezpečnost, StB) being about as pervasive as the GDR’s Stasi and, as one of the regular police investigators is aware, close to untouchable.
Kovály, a translator in the wake of her fall from grace at her husband’s conviction, is clearly influenced by writers such as Dashiell Hammet, Raymond Chandler and others of his contemporaries, yet she has built a more complex narrative – in part because the murder that seems to be at the core of the novel – the child – is very quickly resolved. The effect is that we readers are left wondering, uncertain, amid all the positioning of forces, of Helena’s efforts to ease her husband’s condition, of the continuing StB suspicion that the cinema is site for dissident communication and message drops, about where the narrative is taking us. This is fantastic control of the narrative that draws us into the characters’ lives while exposing the weaknesses of many.
Amid all this, there is also a tale of redemption and sacrifice, of an effort to right injustices and a sufficiently open ended, almost unclear, conclusion that leaves us wondering which outcome is the truth. It is also a police procedural told from the outside – not the investigation but those around it, making it unusual within the genre. This has sat in my to-read pile for almost four years, which after being drawn in and devouring it in a single sitting I now know is four years too long.
Yet, that aspect is only one part of this fabulous, noirish tale of murder, spies and subterfuge, gentility and getting by. At its core are several women who work in a central city cinema who come to the attention of the police when the cinema becomes the site of a child’s murder. This despite one of the usherettes, Helena Nováková, is already being on the secret police radar because of suspicions about her husband, detained under suspicion of espionage. Others, in ways that are only slowly unravelled in the course of the novel, are also engaged with security forces, while a wider sense of fear pervades the tale – the Czechoslovak State Security (Státní bezpečnost, StB) being about as pervasive as the GDR’s Stasi and, as one of the regular police investigators is aware, close to untouchable.
Kovály, a translator in the wake of her fall from grace at her husband’s conviction, is clearly influenced by writers such as Dashiell Hammet, Raymond Chandler and others of his contemporaries, yet she has built a more complex narrative – in part because the murder that seems to be at the core of the novel – the child – is very quickly resolved. The effect is that we readers are left wondering, uncertain, amid all the positioning of forces, of Helena’s efforts to ease her husband’s condition, of the continuing StB suspicion that the cinema is site for dissident communication and message drops, about where the narrative is taking us. This is fantastic control of the narrative that draws us into the characters’ lives while exposing the weaknesses of many.
Amid all this, there is also a tale of redemption and sacrifice, of an effort to right injustices and a sufficiently open ended, almost unclear, conclusion that leaves us wondering which outcome is the truth. It is also a police procedural told from the outside – not the investigation but those around it, making it unusual within the genre. This has sat in my to-read pile for almost four years, which after being drawn in and devouring it in a single sitting I now know is four years too long.
wish-list
May 5, 2015Description: Famed Holocaust memoirist Heda Margoulis Kovály (Under a Cruel Star) knits her own terrifying experiences in Soviet Prague into a powerful, Raymond Chandler-esque work of literary suspense.
1950s Prague is a city of numerous small terrors, of political tyranny, corruption and surveillance. There is no way of knowing whether one’s neighbor is spying for the government, or what one’s supposed friend will say under pressure to a State Security agent. A loyal Party member might be imprisoned or executed as quickly as a traitor; innocence means nothing for a person caught in a government trap.
But there are larger terrors, too. When a little boy is murdered at the cinema where his aunt works, the ensuing investigation sheds a little too much light on the personal lives of the cinema’s female ushers, each of whom is hiding a dark secret of her own.
Nearly lost to censorship, this rediscovered gem of Czech literature depicts a chilling moment in history, redolent with the stifling atmosphere of political and personal oppression of the early days of Communist Czechoslovakia.
Sounds like my kind of thing. Wonder if it is on netgalley...
1950s Prague is a city of numerous small terrors, of political tyranny, corruption and surveillance. There is no way of knowing whether one’s neighbor is spying for the government, or what one’s supposed friend will say under pressure to a State Security agent. A loyal Party member might be imprisoned or executed as quickly as a traitor; innocence means nothing for a person caught in a government trap.
But there are larger terrors, too. When a little boy is murdered at the cinema where his aunt works, the ensuing investigation sheds a little too much light on the personal lives of the cinema’s female ushers, each of whom is hiding a dark secret of her own.
Nearly lost to censorship, this rediscovered gem of Czech literature depicts a chilling moment in history, redolent with the stifling atmosphere of political and personal oppression of the early days of Communist Czechoslovakia.
Sounds like my kind of thing. Wonder if it is on netgalley...
June 23, 2015
A dark brooding and haunting novel of life in Communist Prague.
More like a novella Heda Margolius Kovály wrote this based on her own experiences and details the claustrophobic early days of Communist Czechoslovakia during the 1950s.
She portrays a country soaked in fear where the slightest wrong word or mis-interpretation of even a simple act could result in a prison sentence.
Whilst the book could be read as a simple murder mystery, the multiple layers that the author adds to the story make a very dark tale as well as documenting the realities of life under communism in 1950s Prague.
More like a novella Heda Margolius Kovály wrote this based on her own experiences and details the claustrophobic early days of Communist Czechoslovakia during the 1950s.
She portrays a country soaked in fear where the slightest wrong word or mis-interpretation of even a simple act could result in a prison sentence.
Whilst the book could be read as a simple murder mystery, the multiple layers that the author adds to the story make a very dark tale as well as documenting the realities of life under communism in 1950s Prague.
August 13, 2015
If it was not for the introduction written by her son and the description of Prague under the Communists this book would have gotten 1/2 star. The mystery is hard to find and the story is confusing. You spend so much time keeping track of the characters that you loose track of the story. The characters are also hard to identify with as they do not have personalities.
December 18, 2019
Heart wrenching account of life in communist Czechoslovakia, where suspicion, distrust and paranoia are manipulated by state functionaries and ordinary citizens alike to ruin lives and remove any hope for the future. This leaves only a present where today is a success if you do not misstep and become gobbled up by an abyss disguised as the benevolent state whose only request of the individual is that they faithfully fulfill their destiny as stooge to each and every state functionary.
Helena and Karel are a modestly successful professional couple slowly improving their lot in life, when they become innocently associated with someone suspected of being an "enemy of the state". Karel is arrested, Helena loses her job and eventually considers herself lucky to be given a job as an usher in a local movie theater. Actually the police have placed her there, suspecting that the theater is a meeting place for spies. Maybe she is one of them, maybe she can be extorted into revealing a real spy. Who knows? The projectionist is arrested for a child murder, but a far more seriously regarded crime, the murder of a police official - a crime against the state - occurs outside the theater. Neither murder seems to horrify most people. In a society where evil is touted as capable of producing good and good acts often result in evil consequences, the line between right and wrong or good and bad has become so blurred that no one is much shocked by anything that happens, every event being reduced to, “Well, I’m glad I wasn’t affected by that. I’ve got my own problems”.
The mystery element of the story revolves around the murder of the official. Most of the characters in the novel are or could have been involved directly or indirectly with this person. He was universally despised, but a dogged detective pursues each suspect endlessly, devoting nearly equal attention to anyone and everyone who might know something. As he makes little progress, Helena's life grows increasingly dreary as even the infrequent rays of hope that come her way become refracted into one nightmare or another.
Kovály handles the mystery element well with a couple of nice twists at the end, but the core of the book lies in its character portraits of those courageous enough to defy the vise-like grip of the state and those who weaken and knowingly do harm (to themselves if no one else), but seek redemption. Ironically, but perhaps deliberately by Kovály's design, the narrowest characterizations are those of the party officials and policemen: by necessity for survival or material prosperity they are almost paper thin shallow, each action performed only to please the boss or advance the self, never becoming quite human enough to emotionally or intellectually involve anyone else.
Two lives are ruined due to guilt by association and unproven accusation, but we see that no one except those directly affected are moved very much. Tragedy is regarded as “unfortunate” and seems only the beginning of the horror show.
Helena and Karel are a modestly successful professional couple slowly improving their lot in life, when they become innocently associated with someone suspected of being an "enemy of the state". Karel is arrested, Helena loses her job and eventually considers herself lucky to be given a job as an usher in a local movie theater. Actually the police have placed her there, suspecting that the theater is a meeting place for spies. Maybe she is one of them, maybe she can be extorted into revealing a real spy. Who knows? The projectionist is arrested for a child murder, but a far more seriously regarded crime, the murder of a police official - a crime against the state - occurs outside the theater. Neither murder seems to horrify most people. In a society where evil is touted as capable of producing good and good acts often result in evil consequences, the line between right and wrong or good and bad has become so blurred that no one is much shocked by anything that happens, every event being reduced to, “Well, I’m glad I wasn’t affected by that. I’ve got my own problems”.
The mystery element of the story revolves around the murder of the official. Most of the characters in the novel are or could have been involved directly or indirectly with this person. He was universally despised, but a dogged detective pursues each suspect endlessly, devoting nearly equal attention to anyone and everyone who might know something. As he makes little progress, Helena's life grows increasingly dreary as even the infrequent rays of hope that come her way become refracted into one nightmare or another.
Kovály handles the mystery element well with a couple of nice twists at the end, but the core of the book lies in its character portraits of those courageous enough to defy the vise-like grip of the state and those who weaken and knowingly do harm (to themselves if no one else), but seek redemption. Ironically, but perhaps deliberately by Kovály's design, the narrowest characterizations are those of the party officials and policemen: by necessity for survival or material prosperity they are almost paper thin shallow, each action performed only to please the boss or advance the self, never becoming quite human enough to emotionally or intellectually involve anyone else.
Two lives are ruined due to guilt by association and unproven accusation, but we see that no one except those directly affected are moved very much. Tragedy is regarded as “unfortunate” and seems only the beginning of the horror show.
September 13, 2016
Guilt has always been a major theme in noir fiction. Everyone is guilty to some degree or another, and even if they aren’t, what does being innocent get you? Fate will always find a way to trip you up, so you might as well be guilty. The flip side of this, though, is that everyone starts out innocent, and who ends up guilty is often as much a matter of circumstance as it is of actual culpability. Destiny has a way of blotting out intentions, and the sun sets on the innocent and the guilty alike.
Innocence is the theme of a powerful and dusty little gem of a novel by Heda Margolius Kovály, so much so that it lends the book its name. Innocence, or, Murder on Steep Street, combines the approaches of a number of crime fiction classics: it’s partly a detective story, partly a murder mystery, partly a fatalistic noir, and partly a tale of espionage. But in one of its many surprising diversions from the rules of genre, the characters aren’t entirely at the whim of fate: that role is taken by the State, omnipotent but not omniscient, and largely indifferent to the motivations and intentions of its subject.
Innocence takes place in Prague in the 1950s, at a time of severe political oppression by Czech officials determined to please their Soviet masters and forestall intervention. The police are both heroes and villains: as in Raymond Chandler’s work, they are simply agents of the law, cruel and indifferent whether they mean well, and vary only in degree of competence. But since the state has far more power here than in the West (another of the book’s curious differences, as Kovály points out, is the difficulty of solving a murder in a country when such crimes are rarely carried out for material gain), everyone is more or less compromised by their relationship to the it. Even the most well-meaning can sell out their best intentions for the favors only a well-connected government official can grant, and even the most innocent can run afoul of the authorities for no greater crime than befriending the wrong person. As for the state itself, its only concern is results; this can blind it to things as sloppy and irrational as human passion, with disastrous consequences.
The book concerns itself with the employees of a small but popular movie theater called the Horizon. After a shocking murder by its projectionist, the staff — consisting almost entirely of women — comes under the scrutiny of various authorities. One of the investigators is Vendyš, a doggedly simple man, terrified of women but with a handful of effective tricks, and one of the subjects is Helena Nováková, an intelligent and sensitive woman whose devoted husband has run afoul of the political bosses. They are central to the story, especially in the book’s second section, but so too are the other women who work at the Horizon, and other government functionaries; the point of view switches from Helena’s first-person perspective to an all-seeing narrator when she’s not around. As the story progresses, and we learn more and more about how compromised all the women of the Horizon are, the city itself takes on a sinister character, becoming more narrow, cramped, and cold as the seasons wear on and the situation gets more hopeless.
Helena is a clear stand-in for Kovály herself, to the extent that when she first published the novel in Germany in 1985, she did so under the character’s name. But Kovály’s life was so fascinating and fraught that she can be forgiven for making what is often an amateurish and messy creative choice; if anything, her real-life story is much more interesting than than of her fictional double. Born in Prague to Jewish parents, she was shipped to the Warsaw ghetto; towards the end of the war, she, her husband, Rudolf Margolius, and her parents were all sent to separate concentration camps. She and Rudolf survived and he became an ardent Communist; her parents were sent to the death chambers. After the war, she and Rudolf returned to Prague, where he became a government official, only to be caught up, seemingly for nothing, in a notorious show trial which ended in his execution. She was reduced to poverty, painted with scandal, and, like her protagonist, forced to work in menial occupations just to survive.
However, she was an educated and brilliant woman, and she managed to do book design and translation under pseudonyms in order to make ends meet. She was responsible for some of the first Czech translations of William Golding, John Steinbeck, Muriel Spark, and — fittingly — Raymond Chandler. Her debt to the latter in this novel is obvious, and while she’s not quite as elegant a writer, she does take a lot of risks and turns an occasional gorgeous phrase. She is also more experimental, and what she lacks in natural dialogue she makes up for in an ability to create fully formed, multi-dimensional female characters; Innocence never lets us forget the way women suffer more under oppression and violence than men, or that when a man dies, his pain is over, while the women who survive have to live with that pain and shame for the rest of their lives.
Innocence dropped out of sight following its initial publication, and only appeared in an English translation last year, after Kovály was already dead. Belated or not, though, it’s a novel that deserves plenty of attention: its clever construction, compelling prose, terrific characters, and unique perspective make it a rarity not just for women’s crime fiction, but in the genre as a whole. Kovály creates a story that deals with loneliness and desperation in the same cynical way that many noir novels have before, but with an emotional center that rises above the main. A remarkable book written by a remarkable person, Innocence is proof that noir’s insights into the shadows of humanity were not confined to any one place, but found expression even in the most stifling societies.
Innocence is the theme of a powerful and dusty little gem of a novel by Heda Margolius Kovály, so much so that it lends the book its name. Innocence, or, Murder on Steep Street, combines the approaches of a number of crime fiction classics: it’s partly a detective story, partly a murder mystery, partly a fatalistic noir, and partly a tale of espionage. But in one of its many surprising diversions from the rules of genre, the characters aren’t entirely at the whim of fate: that role is taken by the State, omnipotent but not omniscient, and largely indifferent to the motivations and intentions of its subject.
Innocence takes place in Prague in the 1950s, at a time of severe political oppression by Czech officials determined to please their Soviet masters and forestall intervention. The police are both heroes and villains: as in Raymond Chandler’s work, they are simply agents of the law, cruel and indifferent whether they mean well, and vary only in degree of competence. But since the state has far more power here than in the West (another of the book’s curious differences, as Kovály points out, is the difficulty of solving a murder in a country when such crimes are rarely carried out for material gain), everyone is more or less compromised by their relationship to the it. Even the most well-meaning can sell out their best intentions for the favors only a well-connected government official can grant, and even the most innocent can run afoul of the authorities for no greater crime than befriending the wrong person. As for the state itself, its only concern is results; this can blind it to things as sloppy and irrational as human passion, with disastrous consequences.
The book concerns itself with the employees of a small but popular movie theater called the Horizon. After a shocking murder by its projectionist, the staff — consisting almost entirely of women — comes under the scrutiny of various authorities. One of the investigators is Vendyš, a doggedly simple man, terrified of women but with a handful of effective tricks, and one of the subjects is Helena Nováková, an intelligent and sensitive woman whose devoted husband has run afoul of the political bosses. They are central to the story, especially in the book’s second section, but so too are the other women who work at the Horizon, and other government functionaries; the point of view switches from Helena’s first-person perspective to an all-seeing narrator when she’s not around. As the story progresses, and we learn more and more about how compromised all the women of the Horizon are, the city itself takes on a sinister character, becoming more narrow, cramped, and cold as the seasons wear on and the situation gets more hopeless.
Helena is a clear stand-in for Kovály herself, to the extent that when she first published the novel in Germany in 1985, she did so under the character’s name. But Kovály’s life was so fascinating and fraught that she can be forgiven for making what is often an amateurish and messy creative choice; if anything, her real-life story is much more interesting than than of her fictional double. Born in Prague to Jewish parents, she was shipped to the Warsaw ghetto; towards the end of the war, she, her husband, Rudolf Margolius, and her parents were all sent to separate concentration camps. She and Rudolf survived and he became an ardent Communist; her parents were sent to the death chambers. After the war, she and Rudolf returned to Prague, where he became a government official, only to be caught up, seemingly for nothing, in a notorious show trial which ended in his execution. She was reduced to poverty, painted with scandal, and, like her protagonist, forced to work in menial occupations just to survive.
However, she was an educated and brilliant woman, and she managed to do book design and translation under pseudonyms in order to make ends meet. She was responsible for some of the first Czech translations of William Golding, John Steinbeck, Muriel Spark, and — fittingly — Raymond Chandler. Her debt to the latter in this novel is obvious, and while she’s not quite as elegant a writer, she does take a lot of risks and turns an occasional gorgeous phrase. She is also more experimental, and what she lacks in natural dialogue she makes up for in an ability to create fully formed, multi-dimensional female characters; Innocence never lets us forget the way women suffer more under oppression and violence than men, or that when a man dies, his pain is over, while the women who survive have to live with that pain and shame for the rest of their lives.
Innocence dropped out of sight following its initial publication, and only appeared in an English translation last year, after Kovály was already dead. Belated or not, though, it’s a novel that deserves plenty of attention: its clever construction, compelling prose, terrific characters, and unique perspective make it a rarity not just for women’s crime fiction, but in the genre as a whole. Kovály creates a story that deals with loneliness and desperation in the same cynical way that many noir novels have before, but with an emotional center that rises above the main. A remarkable book written by a remarkable person, Innocence is proof that noir’s insights into the shadows of humanity were not confined to any one place, but found expression even in the most stifling societies.
November 26, 2024
A peculiarly organised novel with two distinct parts with and several intertwining point of views. As I understand it this is a Czech crime novel very much influenced by the works of Raymond Chandler, whom I have yet to read, I don't know if this is from his influence.
Initially thought the murder in the beginning of the novel would of been the focus but it is quickly glossed over and mentioned only once later. The murder that is most pertinent to the story happens later.
Would of enjoyed more references to the Czech setting and perhaps some more references to what time period we are actually in.
Before starting this novel I should of noted down all the names of the characters as I got a little lost figuring out the who is who.
Initially thought the murder in the beginning of the novel would of been the focus but it is quickly glossed over and mentioned only once later. The murder that is most pertinent to the story happens later.
Would of enjoyed more references to the Czech setting and perhaps some more references to what time period we are actually in.
Before starting this novel I should of noted down all the names of the characters as I got a little lost figuring out the who is who.
Read
December 17, 2025Not really a whodunnit in a classic sense, though there’re elements. A wonderful read that tempers Czech absurdism with hardboiled noir. (Purchased from Shakespeare & Synove, Prague)
July 12, 2016
This murder mystery was written to disguise a political tract describing the author’s life in Communist Czechoslovakia during which her husband, an ardent party member and an assistant minister of trade, was falsely arrested, jailed and murdered. Both had survived Nazi concentration camps. The form the book takes was to somehow evade the censors and it surreptitiously tells his story as part of the plot, describing one of the characters.
Essentially, the plot revolves around the murder of a detective on a street on which a movie theater is located. There are seven women who serve as ushers, each with a secret life, complicating the investigation into the death. The stories of their lives unfold, together with the secrets they share with each other.
The promotional material recounts the author’s fame as a translator, and especially her love of Raymond Chandler. It is doubtful that this work measures up to his standard of writing, and has to be judged on its own merits. On that level, the reader has to cope with various obfuscations and, of course, the obscure Czech names and places which divert attention. The conclusion is somewhat disappointing and really is somewhat ambiguous, whether by design or inadvertence.
The author really is known for her memoir, “Under A Cruel Star,” in which she describes her time in Auschwitz and the early years of Communism in her native land. For its historical importance, the present novel deserves to be read.
Essentially, the plot revolves around the murder of a detective on a street on which a movie theater is located. There are seven women who serve as ushers, each with a secret life, complicating the investigation into the death. The stories of their lives unfold, together with the secrets they share with each other.
The promotional material recounts the author’s fame as a translator, and especially her love of Raymond Chandler. It is doubtful that this work measures up to his standard of writing, and has to be judged on its own merits. On that level, the reader has to cope with various obfuscations and, of course, the obscure Czech names and places which divert attention. The conclusion is somewhat disappointing and really is somewhat ambiguous, whether by design or inadvertence.
The author really is known for her memoir, “Under A Cruel Star,” in which she describes her time in Auschwitz and the early years of Communism in her native land. For its historical importance, the present novel deserves to be read.
June 2, 2017
Although this is billed as a mystery, Heda Margolius Kovaly isn't really interested in the form of detective fiction. The titular murder doesn't happen until halfway through the book, and the who and why of the murder isn't figured out by any of the main characters. What Margolius Kovaly is interested in is how anyone can become corrupted by a corrupt system, where there is constant pressure to commit small acts of betrayal or dishonesty or violence, often under the pretense of serving some greater good, so that greater acts of betrayal or dishonesty or violence will become easier the next time, and often seem necessary because the perpetrators, who thought they were doing something not so bad, or even good, are caught in the complicity of their own guilt. We are presented with many scenes where the identity or description of the characters, some or all of whom we have already met, are deliberately withheld from the reader, partially to increase mystification, but also to get the reader to wonder who these people are - could they be anyone we've already met? Is anyone capable of these decisions and actions? This is a short book, and the characters are not fully developed, so that we don't care about them as much as if we knew more about them, but we do see complexity in their motivations and ultimate actions. In a system built on lies, deception, and betrayal, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, for anyone to live honestly and decently.
August 8, 2015
A few months ago I stayed in a lovely hotel in Prague, the Unitas, which occupies a building that was first a convent and then, after the Communists sent the nuns to labor camps, a secret police prison. Vaclav Havel was one of the famous "guests" and some of the characters in this book have the misfortunate to "visit" there as well. The author, Heda Margolius Kovaly, suffered through both the Holocaust and the Communist purges, and has written a memoir about those terrible experiences. But she eventually supported herself and her child by translating popular foreign novels, including Raymond Chandler's detective stories. In Innocence she employs the Sam Spade formula with a unique twist: the real bad guys are the police and can never be brought to justice. The mystery is the degree to which ordinary people become the victims, accomplices, or saboteurs of a system that is as stupid as it is cruel. The use of 1930s-style slang (faces are "kissers" or "mugs") is a little awkward and some of the characters, particularly in the second half of the book, are not very fully developed, but overall the novel is a fresh and believable reworking of a familiar form. And it's somehow reassuring to know that someone who survived as much horror as Heda Kovaly could still take pleasure in creating a simple mystery novel-- escapist fiction in the truest sense.
June 4, 2015
I really wish book jacket blurbs would not compare books to other books or authors or at least not make unwarranted hyperbole. “Innocence” is touted as Chandler-esque. I didn’t see it. The writing is not similar to Chandler at all other than seeing lots of people in a negative light. In “Innocence” all the characters are flawed. The action in set in post World War II Czechoslovakia so they’re all influenced by the Soviet’s worldview and no one feels free to be honest about who they are and what they want out of life. Of course most of their desires are dark indeed.
When two murders occur in and around a local movie theatre everyone tries to cover their behind even if they’re not guilty. Maybe I should say not guilty of murder because they all have secrets better left hidden…sex with underage people, husband on death row for crossing the communists, affairs with married men, and those are just some of the highlights. “Innocence” is a dark tale darkly told. What Kovaly does best is delve into the dark side of people and their motivations especially when surrounded by a repressive government regime.
Thank you to the publisher for providing an ARC.
When two murders occur in and around a local movie theatre everyone tries to cover their behind even if they’re not guilty. Maybe I should say not guilty of murder because they all have secrets better left hidden…sex with underage people, husband on death row for crossing the communists, affairs with married men, and those are just some of the highlights. “Innocence” is a dark tale darkly told. What Kovaly does best is delve into the dark side of people and their motivations especially when surrounded by a repressive government regime.
Thank you to the publisher for providing an ARC.
December 15, 2016
This is a remarkable book by an author who's life story is in itself an extraordinary testament to the worst that Europe threw up in the twentieth century.
The Wall Street Journal said of this book that it is 'a remarkable work of art with the intrigue of a spy puzzle, the irony of a political fable, the shrewdness of a novel of manners, and the toughness of hard-boiled murder mystery', which is certainly on the right track. The prose, originally in Czech, in places deliberately emulates Chandler, whom Margolius Kovaly translated into Czech. 'Marie stood in the middle of the tiny room, her eyes red, with bags underneath so big you could put groceries in them.' The sheer tedium of routine police work is summed up beautifully in the sentence, 'On average about one and a quarter people an hour walked down the little street after dark,' a sentence that comes out of the blue in a paragraph in which Lieutenant Vermyš is pondering the details of the murder on Steep Street. (There is a Steep Street--ulice Příkrá--in modern day Prague but it can't be the street in the book and it is not the location of a cinema.)
The Wall Street Journal said of this book that it is 'a remarkable work of art with the intrigue of a spy puzzle, the irony of a political fable, the shrewdness of a novel of manners, and the toughness of hard-boiled murder mystery', which is certainly on the right track. The prose, originally in Czech, in places deliberately emulates Chandler, whom Margolius Kovaly translated into Czech. 'Marie stood in the middle of the tiny room, her eyes red, with bags underneath so big you could put groceries in them.' The sheer tedium of routine police work is summed up beautifully in the sentence, 'On average about one and a quarter people an hour walked down the little street after dark,' a sentence that comes out of the blue in a paragraph in which Lieutenant Vermyš is pondering the details of the murder on Steep Street. (There is a Steep Street--ulice Příkrá--in modern day Prague but it can't be the street in the book and it is not the location of a cinema.)
August 24, 2020
Bought Book at Shakespeare. Mala Strana. Praha. One of My Favourite Book Stores. Only Criticism With Purchase. Some of the Pages. Had Not Been Separated . Soho Black Label Crime Series. US. Heda Margolius Kovaly. Wrote Her First Hand Book. On Her Time at Auschwitz. " Under a Cruel Star ". Which She Survived. This Book. With a Lovely Introduction By Her Son, Ivan. Well Translated also by Alex Zucker. Who has Translated a Lot of My Favourite Books. By Jachym Topol, Petra Hulova etc.
This Book about Communist Praha. Everybody could not Trust their Fellow Citizens . Some Reported back to the Authority,s. Based in a Cinema. Ordinary Family Matters. Are Understood to Be Quite Different to the Powers that Be. With a Disastrous Conclusion. Style of Book. Like 50,s American Crime Writing. Murder Takes Place. Which Involves Everyone at the Cinema. Everybody is a Suspect. From Start. Found it Gripping. Even Separating the Pages !.
This Book about Communist Praha. Everybody could not Trust their Fellow Citizens . Some Reported back to the Authority,s. Based in a Cinema. Ordinary Family Matters. Are Understood to Be Quite Different to the Powers that Be. With a Disastrous Conclusion. Style of Book. Like 50,s American Crime Writing. Murder Takes Place. Which Involves Everyone at the Cinema. Everybody is a Suspect. From Start. Found it Gripping. Even Separating the Pages !.
December 1, 2017
Kovaly was an Auschwitz survivor. Her first husband, Rudolf Margolius, an official in the postwar Czech government, was executed for treason in a Stalinist show trial. The widow of an “enemy of the state,” she suffered under the Communists and fled her homeland when the Soviets invaded in 1968, returning only after the Velvet Revolution. Her novel vividly portrays the bleak atmosphere of fear and distrust in Communist Prague. The main character, Helena Nováková, leads an isolated, lonely life after her husband is falsely accused and imprisoned for treason. No one is trustworthy, as plots, counter-plots, and suspicion swirl around her. In the end, while some of the mystery is resolved and the murderer identified, misunderstanding, false beliefs and questions remain, as they always must in such a repressive environment.
August 11, 2022
Owad’s Micro-Review #65
This cold-war mystery by a Holocaust memoirist takes us to the repressive streets of Prague in the 1950s. In an era of strict communist repression, daily life is marked by corruption, big-brother scrutiny and near hopelessness. In the authorities’ eyes, every citizen is a suspected enemy of the state. For the average citizen, everyone is a potential informer.
When a young boy is murdered at a cinema, the state apparatus jumps into action in typically communist fashion, tarring everyone with a brush of suspicion. The result is a novel that’s more psychological drama than mystery—more of an indictment of communism’s paranoia. Don’t expect an escapist read. If you’re a stickler for the conventions of the genre, you might be disappointed by the lack of action. Oct. 14, 2021
This cold-war mystery by a Holocaust memoirist takes us to the repressive streets of Prague in the 1950s. In an era of strict communist repression, daily life is marked by corruption, big-brother scrutiny and near hopelessness. In the authorities’ eyes, every citizen is a suspected enemy of the state. For the average citizen, everyone is a potential informer.
When a young boy is murdered at a cinema, the state apparatus jumps into action in typically communist fashion, tarring everyone with a brush of suspicion. The result is a novel that’s more psychological drama than mystery—more of an indictment of communism’s paranoia. Don’t expect an escapist read. If you’re a stickler for the conventions of the genre, you might be disappointed by the lack of action. Oct. 14, 2021
June 27, 2017
This was an excellent novel. It follows Helena, a women in 1950's communist Prague, who's husband has been wrongly arrested for treason, as she works at a movie theater and is being secretly investigated by the police who think she might have conspired in her husband's crimes. After a young boy is murdered at the theater the novel follows the lives of all the various female ushers and how all of them have things to hide.
The book is wonderfully written with some very powerful passages. the fact that the author's own husband was imprisoned give Helena's struggle a real world feel that us r=very powerful.
This is a great book especially if you are looking to read about living under a real world dystopia.
The book is wonderfully written with some very powerful passages. the fact that the author's own husband was imprisoned give Helena's struggle a real world feel that us r=very powerful.
This is a great book especially if you are looking to read about living under a real world dystopia.
June 7, 2021
There is a mystery in the book, but it is a little hard to follow. Sometimes the last names are used and sometimes the first names of the women are used. Also I listened to it, so reading it might have helped. And there were several twists. The strength of the book is not the mystery though. The strength is the setting. You feel like you are in Czechoslovakia just after World War II. You see how small and contained their lives are, but yet there is more freedoms than I thought under the Communist regime. You get an intimate portrait of women’s lives in communist Czechoslovakia. I think that is the best part of the book.
March 7, 2019
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It was translated from Czech, so some of it is hard to follow when they switch from referring to someone by first name to last name. That's where it helped to read the Kindle version and use the search function to go back and figure out who they were talking about.
The characters are interesting with almost everyone leading double lives and spying on their friends, neighbors and coworkers. Definitley gives the feel of a time and place of suspicion and insecurity. Everyone looking over their shoulder, watching what they say and do.
The characters are interesting with almost everyone leading double lives and spying on their friends, neighbors and coworkers. Definitley gives the feel of a time and place of suspicion and insecurity. Everyone looking over their shoulder, watching what they say and do.
July 29, 2017
This was a quick, entertaining read for me. I'm rounding up from 3.5 stars - I enjoyed the writing, but still a bit unsure how much of the plot complexity was planned (to put us in the mindset of someone living under a corrupt, communist regime) or just occurred (the final chapter seems like it's there just to quickly wrap things up). Still, I haven't read many books set in post-war Czechoslovakia, and Innocence kept me intrigued throughout the novel.
August 9, 2017
This book, translated by Alex Zucker, is divided into two parts which I think of as Innocence (part 1) and part 2 being Murderon Steep Street. The two parts are connected with many of the same characters. I found Part 1 very easy to read but had a difficult time following the second part and I'm not sure if it is due to the translation. Part 2 has many more characters and sometimes the names are shortened.
February 15, 2018
Innocence is set in Czechoslovakia in the 1950's. The Czechs had transitioned from German occupation and the prison camps to Communist oppression under the Soviets, and life was heavy with fear and loss. For many, the struggle to survive involved spying and deceit to provide money and avoid unwarranted arrest. Kovaly lived it and tells the story via a Raymond Chandler style mystery. The combination is striking.
February 23, 2018
This was like a snapshot from a time that no longer exists. The depression that resulted from the Russian oppression in occupied-Czechoslovakia at the time permeates the story. The title's epigraph is fitting as the events that play out in the novel begin from a place of innocence & slowly devolve over the course of the story. I found it interesting that the author took her inspiration from my namesake, pseudo-Great Uncle Raymond Chandler, but it was not really Chandlerian in my opinion.
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