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The Chimera of Prague
WINNER, 2018 New York Book Festival for Romance
"Pryll captures all the international sexual tension and possibility that was 1990s Prague." - Bonnie Ditlevsen, editor, Penduline Press
Divorced expat, Joseph, takes a gap year in the late nineties, womanizing Prague with a vengeance. He obsesses over one elusive girl, and tires of the parade of women he assimilates into his sad life, His soulmate is out there. In fact, he may have already met her.
“Chimera” features a unique story-within-the-story format as Joseph digs from finish to start through his first love in an attempt to understand his particular brand of dysfunction. As much as the big story is about a love affair with a magical city, the vignettes are an ode to Western New York State from which he hails, and the woman who originally broke his heart.
“This work is fragile, strong, and poignant, yet cleanly written.” - Bibiana Krall, author of Escape into the Blue
About CHIMERA:
Prague is full of metaphors. They’re not lost on Joseph. He’s on a stone bridge between his old life and his future. He’s building a castle of every architectural style around his heart. He needs to throw his obsession with an elusive Czech girl out the window, in order to crystallize his sense of self. He’s a lump of clay waiting to be animated, and he’s an alchemist in search of life’s secret formulae, to be engraved on a shem and placed beneath his tongue.
“I lose myself in it. It's captivating! I am vested in Joseph.” - Katelin Maloney, author of Drowning
About the vignettes:
History echoes. What came before is woven into the fabric of the present. That’s why geology matters. It is one of the myriad influences on the budding romance between two teenagers in the late 1980’s. Like water running downhill, the universe conspired to bring them together. They were meant for each other, motivated by forces beyond their control. They are actors on a stage that has been set for them. Their ancestors, alive and dead, are present in their reality. Echoes of triumphs and failures filter into Joseph and Dani, filter into their experiences, and alter their choices. Joseph and Dani are free to do as they please, but they can’t outrun the consequences.
"Pryll captures all the international sexual tension and possibility that was 1990s Prague." - Bonnie Ditlevsen, editor, Penduline Press
Divorced expat, Joseph, takes a gap year in the late nineties, womanizing Prague with a vengeance. He obsesses over one elusive girl, and tires of the parade of women he assimilates into his sad life, His soulmate is out there. In fact, he may have already met her.
“Chimera” features a unique story-within-the-story format as Joseph digs from finish to start through his first love in an attempt to understand his particular brand of dysfunction. As much as the big story is about a love affair with a magical city, the vignettes are an ode to Western New York State from which he hails, and the woman who originally broke his heart.
“This work is fragile, strong, and poignant, yet cleanly written.” - Bibiana Krall, author of Escape into the Blue
About CHIMERA:
Prague is full of metaphors. They’re not lost on Joseph. He’s on a stone bridge between his old life and his future. He’s building a castle of every architectural style around his heart. He needs to throw his obsession with an elusive Czech girl out the window, in order to crystallize his sense of self. He’s a lump of clay waiting to be animated, and he’s an alchemist in search of life’s secret formulae, to be engraved on a shem and placed beneath his tongue.
“I lose myself in it. It's captivating! I am vested in Joseph.” - Katelin Maloney, author of Drowning
About the vignettes:
History echoes. What came before is woven into the fabric of the present. That’s why geology matters. It is one of the myriad influences on the budding romance between two teenagers in the late 1980’s. Like water running downhill, the universe conspired to bring them together. They were meant for each other, motivated by forces beyond their control. They are actors on a stage that has been set for them. Their ancestors, alive and dead, are present in their reality. Echoes of triumphs and failures filter into Joseph and Dani, filter into their experiences, and alter their choices. Joseph and Dani are free to do as they please, but they can’t outrun the consequences.
276 pages, Hardcover
First published November 17, 2017
13 people are currently reading
21 people want to read
About the author
Rick Pryll
9 books14 followersRick Pryll is an award-winning author and poet living in Charlotte since 2002. Most recently, he won 2nd place in the 2022 Ruth Moose Flash Fiction Awards. His latest novel, La Chimere of Prague (Foolishness Press, 2020), ranked as high as #1 on Amazon in the Psychological Literary category.
His previous book, The Chimera of Prague (Foolishness Press, 2017) was selected as the winner of the 2018 New York Festival of Books in the Romance category.
First published to the web in 1994, his hyperfiction short story “LIES” has garnered praise from the Wall Street Journal, SHIFT magazine, and several other publications in print and online. It is cited in more than seven books and has been translated into Spanish and Chinese.
From 1996 to 2002 Rick lived in Prague. While there he published two books including Displaced (Foolishness Press, 1998) and Wallow (Foolishness Press, 1999). His stories and poems have been featured on the pages of Think, Optimism, Ekleksographia, Prometheus Dreaming, and The Esthetic Apostle.
Rick attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering by submitting a novella as his thesis. In 1991, he won MIT's Robert A. Boit Prize for Best Short Story.
Rick was born on the shores of Lake Erie. From the age of three, he grew up in Batavia, New York and graduated from Pembroke Central High School.
He lives with his wife, 2018 ArtPop Charlotte artist, Holly Spruck HMCAS, his two kids, two cats and a puppy.
His previous book, The Chimera of Prague (Foolishness Press, 2017) was selected as the winner of the 2018 New York Festival of Books in the Romance category.
First published to the web in 1994, his hyperfiction short story “LIES” has garnered praise from the Wall Street Journal, SHIFT magazine, and several other publications in print and online. It is cited in more than seven books and has been translated into Spanish and Chinese.
From 1996 to 2002 Rick lived in Prague. While there he published two books including Displaced (Foolishness Press, 1998) and Wallow (Foolishness Press, 1999). His stories and poems have been featured on the pages of Think, Optimism, Ekleksographia, Prometheus Dreaming, and The Esthetic Apostle.
Rick attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering by submitting a novella as his thesis. In 1991, he won MIT's Robert A. Boit Prize for Best Short Story.
Rick was born on the shores of Lake Erie. From the age of three, he grew up in Batavia, New York and graduated from Pembroke Central High School.
He lives with his wife, 2018 ArtPop Charlotte artist, Holly Spruck HMCAS, his two kids, two cats and a puppy.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 22, 2018
This is not your run-of-the-mill novel. In 1998, Joseph takes a gap year in Prague to nurse a broken heart by jumping in to the beds of as many women as will have him. Okay, so maybe that concept isn’t so new, but the way the story is told certainly is. This novel unfolds through a mix of Joseph’s present day journal entries, Joseph’s mother’s journal entries, Joseph’s flashbacks, and a series of vignettes to help the reader get a sense of Prague in the late 1990’s. Joseph’s journal entries are quick and tortured and read like a running inner monologue. Through these entries, Joseph self-analyzes, reprimands, and resolves to do better. At times I wanted to reach through the pages and shake him, tell him to get it together. Other times I found myself cheering him on. Either way, the fast-paced nature of his thoughts kept me turning the pages for more. From the very beginning I realized that this book was equal parts novel and art. And author Rick Pryll is equal parts author and international tour guide. They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and that the value of art is subjective. If you, like me, like your storylines to have rough edges and angles, and you can appreciate a novel where you may not always like the main players, but you can’t stop thinking about them after you’ve set the book down, then this is the “art” for you.
November 18, 2017
“I divorced the girl of my dreams and then I declared my dream of writing a novel dead. I’m a dream graveyard.”
To listen to the flowing narrative in close 1st person from the point of view of Joseph is to know ourselves better. Relentless in his exposure of self-pity, needful desire, and seeking a place to feel whole again… that paradise exists nowhere but inside our own hearts. This to me is the sum of this powerful, fragmented and incredible novel.
An expatriate in Prague remembers and lurches forward into self-destruction, Dani- the delicate, beautiful, numbing softness of first love, then Rachel the independent woman who made a permanent scar on his heart when things fell apart in marriage.
“Memory is too kind. Ink is indelible. This journal is my weapon. I use it to fight misty-eyed romanticism.”
Broken up into segments of history, memory, anecdotes and geological sections, there is such elemental art behind when we are given more to devour.
Like Joseph, I too love the city of Prague. Oddly enough, when I was there years ago. I left my first husband snoozing in our bed at, The Grand Hotel Bohemia and walked alone to the Charles Bridge. The morning fog enveloped me. It somehow knew my truth, the secret of abject failure and defeat in love. I wonder aloud, if this haunting city has the power to force people to face what they already know?
“Like silver, I too am a soft metal. I need to find my copper.”
Taken in thoughtful doses, this story will seep in through the cracks and stay close. As Joseph continues to make mistakes, the third person point of view shows a great distance from himself.
This novel is not merely for world travelers or diviners of personal truth. It is a message for all of us to be bold, brave and to know through this text, that we are not alone.
“My heart has four rooms and three levels. My heart is a Terminal Bar. It is nothing revolutionary.”
To listen to the flowing narrative in close 1st person from the point of view of Joseph is to know ourselves better. Relentless in his exposure of self-pity, needful desire, and seeking a place to feel whole again… that paradise exists nowhere but inside our own hearts. This to me is the sum of this powerful, fragmented and incredible novel.
An expatriate in Prague remembers and lurches forward into self-destruction, Dani- the delicate, beautiful, numbing softness of first love, then Rachel the independent woman who made a permanent scar on his heart when things fell apart in marriage.
“Memory is too kind. Ink is indelible. This journal is my weapon. I use it to fight misty-eyed romanticism.”
Broken up into segments of history, memory, anecdotes and geological sections, there is such elemental art behind when we are given more to devour.
Like Joseph, I too love the city of Prague. Oddly enough, when I was there years ago. I left my first husband snoozing in our bed at, The Grand Hotel Bohemia and walked alone to the Charles Bridge. The morning fog enveloped me. It somehow knew my truth, the secret of abject failure and defeat in love. I wonder aloud, if this haunting city has the power to force people to face what they already know?
“Like silver, I too am a soft metal. I need to find my copper.”
Taken in thoughtful doses, this story will seep in through the cracks and stay close. As Joseph continues to make mistakes, the third person point of view shows a great distance from himself.
This novel is not merely for world travelers or diviners of personal truth. It is a message for all of us to be bold, brave and to know through this text, that we are not alone.
“My heart has four rooms and three levels. My heart is a Terminal Bar. It is nothing revolutionary.”
February 12, 2018
I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley.
I don't travel much, but oddly enough I end up going to the same places more than once.
Prague is one of those places.
It's a mystical, unique city that is more like a living, breathing, ever changing organism. It has different moods for every season of the year. Spring Prague is so much different from Winter Prague, and I find Winter Prague to be the most fascinating.
Prague has a vibrant tourist scene, people are obviously attracted to the city that has so much to offer. Parts of it are very modern, while some parts, especially the old center, are straight out of a Kafka novel.
Rick Pryll is obviously one of the many people who came to Prague and fell in love with it. His descriptions of Prague, complete with historical references, are the best part of the book. Unfortunately, the rest of the book did nothing for me. I did not like the narrator, he seemed immature and one-dimensional. I enjoyed his mother's journal entries more than his, and this section added a little insight into the character, but that wasn't enough to elevate the book from an average status. The writing style was simplistic and lacked individuality which I expect from the first person narrative.
But I would recommend it to anyone who's ever been to Prague and would like to see what it was like in the nineties, and how much it's changed.
I don't travel much, but oddly enough I end up going to the same places more than once.
Prague is one of those places.
It's a mystical, unique city that is more like a living, breathing, ever changing organism. It has different moods for every season of the year. Spring Prague is so much different from Winter Prague, and I find Winter Prague to be the most fascinating.
Prague has a vibrant tourist scene, people are obviously attracted to the city that has so much to offer. Parts of it are very modern, while some parts, especially the old center, are straight out of a Kafka novel.
Rick Pryll is obviously one of the many people who came to Prague and fell in love with it. His descriptions of Prague, complete with historical references, are the best part of the book. Unfortunately, the rest of the book did nothing for me. I did not like the narrator, he seemed immature and one-dimensional. I enjoyed his mother's journal entries more than his, and this section added a little insight into the character, but that wasn't enough to elevate the book from an average status. The writing style was simplistic and lacked individuality which I expect from the first person narrative.
But I would recommend it to anyone who's ever been to Prague and would like to see what it was like in the nineties, and how much it's changed.
November 22, 2017
The Chimera of Prague is a unique romance novel set mainly in Prague. The main character, Joseph, is an expat trying to find happiness in the city he loves. Joseph is a captivating character whose need for female companionship is driven by his desire to fill the hole in his heart. His insecurities make him a sympathetic character as we all can relate to insecurity and lost love.
The vivid descriptions of Prague made me feel like I was experiencing the city with Joseph. The author clearly has spent time in Prague. Interwoven throughout the book are stories of the history of the city, which adds to the depth of the novel.
If you want to lose yourself in a novel, then I highly recommend The Chimera of Prague.
The vivid descriptions of Prague made me feel like I was experiencing the city with Joseph. The author clearly has spent time in Prague. Interwoven throughout the book are stories of the history of the city, which adds to the depth of the novel.
If you want to lose yourself in a novel, then I highly recommend The Chimera of Prague.
September 8, 2018
The Chimera of Prague is one of the most exceptional books I have ever read. The style is unique - perfectly balancing literary prowess against a determined unpretentiousness. The imagery is sublime, the tone informal. It is written beautifully, but is rarely (if ever) preoccupied with the prose. It's rare to find a book - or indeed an author - that is able to hit all the sweet spots like this does.
The story itself is quirky and introspective, so I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys books with real depth of character. It's a journey in psychology and self-discovery from beginning to end, peppered with sexual escapades and immersed in the culture of 1990's Prague.
Overall a terrific book, and one that I would (and will) recommend to anyone willing to listen.
The story itself is quirky and introspective, so I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys books with real depth of character. It's a journey in psychology and self-discovery from beginning to end, peppered with sexual escapades and immersed in the culture of 1990's Prague.
Overall a terrific book, and one that I would (and will) recommend to anyone willing to listen.
February 1, 2018
3 things I liked about this book:
1. I learned a new word, "Chimera", which means either
(in Greek mythology) a fire-breathing female monster with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail.
Or, a thing that is hoped or wished for but in fact is illusory or impossible to achieve - which makes a perfect title for this book.
2. I enjoyed the format of this book, as journal entries from a man who takes a year off from work to visit Prague after a divorce and to come to terms with his marriage dissolving.
3. The brief summary of historical events in Prague before each journal entry was very interesting, in fact more so than the various relationships he wrote about.
I understand he needed a few sexual conquests to build up his self esteem after his heart is broken by his ex wife, but nothing else really happened. I don't feel the protagonist ever grew from any of his experiences.
And why go all the way to Prague to just sit around and do nothing but pick up women?
Rick Pryll is a good writer and his Part 2 (the beginning of which is at the end of this book) may more interesting.
1. I learned a new word, "Chimera", which means either
(in Greek mythology) a fire-breathing female monster with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail.
Or, a thing that is hoped or wished for but in fact is illusory or impossible to achieve - which makes a perfect title for this book.
2. I enjoyed the format of this book, as journal entries from a man who takes a year off from work to visit Prague after a divorce and to come to terms with his marriage dissolving.
3. The brief summary of historical events in Prague before each journal entry was very interesting, in fact more so than the various relationships he wrote about.
I understand he needed a few sexual conquests to build up his self esteem after his heart is broken by his ex wife, but nothing else really happened. I don't feel the protagonist ever grew from any of his experiences.
And why go all the way to Prague to just sit around and do nothing but pick up women?
Rick Pryll is a good writer and his Part 2 (the beginning of which is at the end of this book) may more interesting.
January 20, 2018
Joseph has left a troubled relationship at home in the US and travelled to Prague to change his life around. This is his journal of what happens next.
I did really struggle to read this book, sadly I just did not enjoy it at all. I thought it would have some magical scenes of a fascinating city and some interesting characters to take me around it. Interspersed with the awful scenes of Joseph desparately hitting on every woman he met, the Prague scenes were indeed interesting and I enjoyed them very much. In fact, the story of Joe and Dani was also very well written, although it wasn't clear for quite some time that it was also part of "our" Joseph's story.
In the end though, I just found Joseph to be a generally unpleasant, selfish and narcissistic character who seemed to only exist to get into bed with the next girl, even when the last one was still on the scene.
I'd very much like to get to know Prague still but I'll be reading another book to get that information!
I did really struggle to read this book, sadly I just did not enjoy it at all. I thought it would have some magical scenes of a fascinating city and some interesting characters to take me around it. Interspersed with the awful scenes of Joseph desparately hitting on every woman he met, the Prague scenes were indeed interesting and I enjoyed them very much. In fact, the story of Joe and Dani was also very well written, although it wasn't clear for quite some time that it was also part of "our" Joseph's story.
In the end though, I just found Joseph to be a generally unpleasant, selfish and narcissistic character who seemed to only exist to get into bed with the next girl, even when the last one was still on the scene.
I'd very much like to get to know Prague still but I'll be reading another book to get that information!
September 13, 2018
This story is mainly told from the journal perspective of Joseph, a young expat that has recently uprooted his life and moved to Prague. After getting a divorce on giving up on his dream of writing, it seems he is longing to find his direction and learn to build up relationships again. During his time in Prague he goes through many women, but often struggles with the emotions he attaches to them – is it real love, jealousy, lust, anger? Through his flashbacks we see his past two loves and how those relationships breaking apart has created the emptiness he yearns to fill. I thought the journal and stream of consciousness approach was an interesting way to convey the story and I enjoyed the way little historical facts were woven into the entries. However, it was difficult to feel sympathetic for the present day Joseph and the ending left me wanting a bit more; perhaps this will come in part II, but as a standalone story I would like a little more conclusion.
September 24, 2018
Rick Pryll doesn’t conform to the tried-and-true writing form. In a time when authors want to copy the fad or compete against the modern literary giants (think Tom Clancy, Dean Koontz, and Stephen King), his writing is a refreshing diversion from template novels. He focuses on the raw aspect of storytelling. More in line with old-style literary form, Pryll’s character development is often strange but entertaining. He doesn't dish the plot out on a silver plate, but, rather, takes his time to give readers a deeper understanding of the personas.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews