What do you think?
Rate this book
Pirouettes on a Postage Stamp: An Interview-Novel with Questions Asked and Answers Recorded by László Szigeti
Novelist Bohumil Hrabal (1914–97) was born in Brno, Czechoslovakia and spent decades working at a variety of laboring jobs before turning to writing in his late forties. From that point, he quickly made his mark on the Czech literary scene; by his death he was ranked with Jaroslav Hašek, Karel Capek, and Milan Kundera as among the nation’s greatest twentieth-century writers. Known for writing about political questions with humor and vivid expressiveness, Hrabal also was given to experimentation—his early novel Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age , for example, consists of a single extended sentence.
Pirouettes on a Postage Stamp carried Hrabal’s experimentation to the field of autobiography. On its surface a verbatim record of an oral interview conducted by Hungarian journalist László Szigeti, the book confuses and confounds with false starts, digressions, and philosophical asides. Yet despite all the games and distractions, Hrabal’s personality shines through, compelling and unforgettable, making Pirouette on a Postage Stamp an unexpected treat for any lover of Czech literature.
Pirouettes on a Postage Stamp carried Hrabal’s experimentation to the field of autobiography. On its surface a verbatim record of an oral interview conducted by Hungarian journalist László Szigeti, the book confuses and confounds with false starts, digressions, and philosophical asides. Yet despite all the games and distractions, Hrabal’s personality shines through, compelling and unforgettable, making Pirouette on a Postage Stamp an unexpected treat for any lover of Czech literature.
- GenresCzech LiteratureFiction
192 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1990
3 people are currently reading
80 people want to read
About the author
Bohumil Hrabal
187 books1,322 followersBorn 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.
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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 6, 2013
The title in Czech of this "interview novel" is football (soccer) on a handkerchief. That has a nice alliterative flow to it in Czech. As does the title in English. Both depict the beauty of creative effort in tight corners. The work was completed in 1986, not exactly a hopeful time in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic.
Hrabal's text is a series of interviews pivoted and tilted to allow motifs and recurring rhythms to dance and distillate. I was charmed. Hrabal is asked to situate himself in the Czech literary tradition, often as a counerpoint to Hašek's Švejk. I must admit I learned a great deal in those discussions particularly about Jan Neruda.
I don't know if everyone would love this. I did, but it may be more the provenance of completists and liter-nerds like me.
Hrabal's text is a series of interviews pivoted and tilted to allow motifs and recurring rhythms to dance and distillate. I was charmed. Hrabal is asked to situate himself in the Czech literary tradition, often as a counerpoint to Hašek's Švejk. I must admit I learned a great deal in those discussions particularly about Jan Neruda.
I don't know if everyone would love this. I did, but it may be more the provenance of completists and liter-nerds like me.
April 6, 2014
Na kapesníku kličkujíc s B. Hrabalem. Dojímavý, múdry, rozšafný rozhovor, ktorý som prečítala počas jedného rozcestovaného víkendu - tempom pár viet textu a dlhé rozmýšľanie nad nimi s pohľadom upretým na krajinu za oknom. Najdlhšie pohľady boli po pasážach o Hrabalovom vzťahu k mačkám, úvahách o písaní, intelektuáloch a chudobných duchom, milovanej prírode, hudbe, ženách, spisovateľoch, samote, smrti, smútku a smiechu. Bezpodmienečne si musím niekde zohnať alebo prinajhoršom ukradnem z knižnice!
August 15, 2016
Billed as an interview novel but perhaps better described as a guided monologue by Czech literary giant Bohumil Hrabal.
Hrabal talks about the literature, art, music & philosophy that inspired him. It's a great insight into the mind of a writer who frequently claimed he was merely recording the events & stories that surrounded him.
Recommended for fans.
Hrabal talks about the literature, art, music & philosophy that inspired him. It's a great insight into the mind of a writer who frequently claimed he was merely recording the events & stories that surrounded him.
Recommended for fans.
March 23, 2017
This is an interview novel, and a good one at that. Hrabal reveals his sometimes philosophical but very much down-to-earth self.
I read it in Hungarian. I don't think there is an English version. Sorry.
I read it in Hungarian. I don't think there is an English version. Sorry.
November 26, 2017
I would give this 3.75 if I could.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews