The Mournful Demeanour of Lieutenant Boruvka: Detective Tales

Lieutenant Boruvka #1

by Josef Škvorecký

This is an alternate cover ed. for ISBN 0571149723.

From the internationally acclaimed writer Josef Skvorecky comes the first in a series of linked detective tales featuring a highly intelligent member of the Czechoslovak police force and his agreeable colleagues.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Short Stories, Czech Literature

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1966

About the author

Josef Škvorecký, CM was a Czech writer and publisher who spent much of his life in Canada. Škvorecký was awarded the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 1980. He and his wife were long-time supporters of Czech dissident writers before the fall of communism in that country. By turns humorous, wise, eloquent and humanistic, Škvorecký's fiction deals with several themes: the horrors of totalitarianism and repression, the expatriate experience, and the miracle of jazz.

Reviews

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rather light-hearted mild-mannered fare from the Czech master, featuring a woebegone detective whose two favourite activities are showing a profound sadness upon solving each murder and lusting after a female detective with an unflattering chignon. Detective fiction is now so prominent in our culture that these Sherlockian pastiches (written in the 1960s) provide little more than diverting entertainment, rather than a refreshing blast of oxygen to a rubbed-raw genre, and must be approached as products of their time and place. Lt. Boruvka is not a particularly interesting character, with the author relying too much on a lugubrious caricature, and the murder puzzles tend to the pedestrian, making some of the stories a little boring. Humour and charm is here in abundance, fortunately, so shut up, all right? Give me a minute’s peace, you tyrant.

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lieutenant Boruvka is mournful, except when he's melancholic or gloomy. Our author, Škvorecký, in a backside casting blurb on his own book, says you should think of a chubby Woody Allen. Maybe.

These are twelve detective stories, ala Sherlock Holmes, but meant to be read in order - (I did! I did!) - because this really isn't to be read to find out how the various corpses in inside-locked rooms met demise. There's that. But the sequential stories are a slow reveal of Mournful Boruvka.

It's a little shlocky. A little polyester. This is not great literature. Yet I was unexpectedly entertained. Which, as an old guy, let me tell you, is a wonderful thing.

There are way too many characters herein. But there's one, Eva, whom I fell for.

[Rhys · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first Škvorecký book I have read and I was very impressed, so much so that I bought The Cowards before finishing all the stories in this volume. I can already state that Lieutenant Boruvka is one of my favourite fictional detectives (together with Dürrenmatt's Bärlach and Simenon's Maigret). These stories are mostly ingenious, often strange and sometimes playful. There is even a metafictional element that breaks through occasionally, when the characters refer to detective fiction and relate it to their own circumstances.

The stories are stories in their own right but they also work as the chapters of a novel. There is a narrative arc that spans the individual cases, and the stories should really be read in the proper order. The setting is Czechoslovakia of the 1960s (and Italy in two stories when Boruvka is on vacation) and the atmosphere of the time is memorably evoked. There are crimes committed in hotels, in theatres, in the mountains, in apartments and villas. Boruvka's natural tendency to empathy means that the solving of a crime leaves him feeling melancholy rather than elated, because he feels sorry for the perpetrator as well as the victims.

My favourite story in this book is 'The Case of the Horizontal Trajectory'.

[Catsalive · Rating 4 out of 5]

cover:
There was no talking him out of it. Constable First Class Sintak - the only policeman in the entire land who could boast that rank - was firmly convinced that Lieutenant Boruvka wielded powers that were not entirely in keeping with normal human abilities.

From Canada's internationally acclaimed writer Josef Skvorecky comes the first volume in a series of linked detective tales featuring Lieutenant Boruvka - a highly intelligent member of the Czechoslovakian police force.

First published more than thirty years ago, The Mournful Demeanour of Lieutenant Boruvka introduces the sad lieutenant and his agreeable colleagues to all who relish ingenious puzzles. Readers will encounter twelve bizarre plots and a cast of intriguing characters ranging from showgirls and musicians to mountaineers and models. Many of these timeless tales are delightful parodies of "standard" mysteries, and most are set in the author's Czech Republic. Lieutenant Boruvka himslef is splendidly realized - a pensive, conscience-stricken man driven to melancholy by the fiendish truths of murder, yet always wide awake to the strange methods he encounters. Although comprised of separate stories, the book is intended to be read as a continuous account - in the last tale, the reader learns the secret of Boruvka's own mysterious past.
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I really enjoyed reading about the mournful Lieutenant whose face becomes longer & sadder as he contemplates the folly & evil of the criminals he hunts. He is very clever at deductive reasoning. I liked the way each chapter was a complete short story, making it easier to put the book down when necessary. I, too, was saddened by the policewoman Eva's discovery about Boruvka's daughter - always women are his downfall. An interesting & humorous look at the Czech Republic in the early 60s. Great character sketches.

[Dorothy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book appears to be a collection of short stories but the author recommends that you read them in order. Each chapter can be read as a short story but taken in the order published, they become together a novel, describing the life and work of Lt. Boruvka, a police officer in what is now the Czech Republic. Boruvka is a melancholy man, but a brilliant detective. His subordinates may think he is wrong but he always solves the case in his own inimitable fashion. While the rather gloomy atmosphere of Communist rule is well described, there is a lot of humour in these stories...it reminded me a bit of Don Camillo.

[Czarny Pies · Rating 3 out of 5]

Joseph Skvorecky is one of the great writers of the second half of the twentieth century. He once made the short list but did not get the Nobel Prize which puts him nonetheless in very distinguished company.

Skvorecky is a never ending source of insight into the lives of Central Europeans during the communist era. Had his views coincided better with Western misconceptions about these regimes he might have sold more books and won more prices.

Skvorecky experimented with a lot of genres during his long and prolific career. From the mid 50s to the the early 70s he toyed at writing detective stories in the G.K. Chesterton tradition. I still enjoy these books because of what he had to say about Czechoslovakia but do not think they were outstanding mysteries.

I am of the school that mystery novels are about how a sleuth rights an imperfection in an otherwise perfect world. This is certainly what Father Brown, Hercule Poirot, Sir Peter Wimsey and others did. The problem is that the communist regimes were fundamentally flawed and hence the heroic detective was very obviously avoiding the main problem.

The Boruvka mysteries were never read by lovers of crime fiction and I am one of Skvorecky's fans who wishes he had moved onto other things sooner. Nonetheless, this book has rewards for those who are interested in Central Europe during the cold war.

[Kecia · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Czech version of Sherlock Holmes. I purchased mine at the Globe Bookstore in Prague.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

This would definitely appeal to lovers of Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie as the eponymous hero solves 12 separate murders from a classic locked door set on a mountain climb, to a murder in a theatre dressing room, a Italian cable car killing to a mystery in which the inspector is prime suspect. All entertaining with a curious cast of characters including his troublesome teenage daughter. So this incredibly morose hero who seems to be going through a mid life crisis and angst about his marriage manages to resolve the seemingly impossible in a book I really enjoyed. My only qualification is that whilst written in 1966 it does have a leering quality to it's description of some of the female cast as Boruvka , whilst never acting on his fleeting observations of a pretty woman, does occasionally dwell on their physical qualities ( this does echo with the only other book by this author I read), however if you can get past that I'd still recommend this book as a classic whodunit which is a bit different from the norm, great characters and set somewhere very different in communist Czechoslovakia.

[Zany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Detektivky nejsou zrovna mým oblíbeným žánrem, vlastně ani nevím, co bylo impulsem k tomu, abych po Škvoreckého trilogii sáhnul. Byl jsem celkem rád, že jde o poměrné krátké uzavřené povídky, takže jsem se po první z nich mohl jednodušeji rozhodovat, jestli pokračovat nebo ne. Škvoreckého tvorbu jsem znal spíše z televizního a filmového zpracování, jak jsem posléze zjistil, platí to i pro některé z povídek, které byly krátce po svém vzniku také zfilmovány.
Starosvětské detektivky jsou napsané čtivě, vtipně, postavy jsou převážně sympatické, ani odhalení pachatelé nejsou černobílí zloduši.

[Borbíró Andris · Rating 3 out of 5]

A szocialista Csehország izgalmas ízt ad a kriminovelláknak, és a karakterek is kellemesen emberszagúak. A bűnügyek maguk azonban elég kimódoltak (logi-sztori hangulatúak), és az önreflektív kiszólás is túl sok.

[Life · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just could not get into this collection at all, but there are some really clever ideas here. Might check out the film adaptation, I think it'll be better seeing these stories on the screen rather than reading them.

[Tomáš Bazinek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Takové starosvětské detektivky.

[Argel Landeros · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderfully plotted...!

[Marta · Rating 2 out of 5]

Když já na ty povídky prostě nejsem. Potřebuju si k postavám utvořit nějaký vztah, a to u povídek (čest výjimkám) prostě nejde. Nejvíc mě asi dostal profesor Kotě. :-D

Dvě a půl hvězdy.

[Kotai Gyuri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Univers Enigma 1969Ebook
Tristetea locotenentului Boruvka

[A.K. Kulshreshth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was drawn to this book by its very unusual title. It gave me a very entertaining peek into a place and time that is very remote from my experience of the world.

Lieuteant Boruvka is a rotund, elderly police chief who goes around cracking cases without talking much, but conveying a lot when he does.

Skvorecky seems to mock cozy thrillers, but on the other hand also does very well at re-creating them. Love/hate are the most common motives for murder. The stories are neatly constructed and very logical, though not always set up so that there is an "aha" moment at the end. There are interesting instances of concepts from musics and physics.

This is a good read on many counts--character, setting, genre.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love a lot of Skvorecky's books, but, for the most part, these detective stories lack the humor, pathos, joy, and anger of his other works. Skvorecky taught detective stories, and these most often come across as puzzles that he posed to himself - the characters and situations usually are underdeveloped and uninteresting. The exception is the last story in the collection, which draws on Skvorecky's own experiences as a teacher, and which gives some gravity to the titular sadness of Lieutenant Boruvka.

[Mrsgaskell · Rating 4 out of 5]

These linked stories, twelve puzzling cases featuring the melancholy and intelligent Lieutenant Boruvka were entertaining and humorous. The setting in the Czech Republic and an intriguing cast of supporting characters, including his wife, daughter, and the policewoman with the large chignon added to the overall atmosphere of the stories. Recommended.

[Rene Stein · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ani nevím, proč jsem se detektivkám od Josefa Škvoreckého prozatím vyhýbal. Možná proto, že se vyhýbám většině detektivek, ale (mikro) povídky o poručíku Borůvkovi jsou slušným letním čtením s jemnými náznaky Škvoreckého umění ironie, které se naplno rozvine v "politicko-detektivním" opus magnum Mirákl a také v Inženýrovi lidských duší.

Dodatečně jsem ocenil, jak výborně je od Jiřího Menzela přepracována a natočena povídka Zločin v dívčí škole.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of sequential short stories was like nothing I've ever read before and Skvorecky's Lieutenant Boruvka is like no crime investigator I've encountered before. He's not flawed in the ways so many are, yet he is a quietly tragic figure. The Communist Czechoslovakia setting (when Boruvka's not on his holidays) is lightly done but enough of it is there to give a distinctive flavour.

I loved the way the stories work together moving forwards and backwards.

[Sofia · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is very self-aware of itself which becomes a bit of a joke at times. It took me w bit to get into reading this, but it proved to be an interesting read nonetheless. Each mystery was intricate and added to the overall embedded story of Lieutenant Boruvka. It is a bit heartbreaking, but ultimately wonderful.

[Ross Burton · Rating 5 out of 5]

The start of a perfect series, where you follow the downtrodden but never defeated detective and his two characterful sidekicks all the way to Toronto (to say more would spoil it for newcomers, but suffice to say it's a wonderful journey)

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first of Josef Skvorecky's Lieutenant Boruvka mysteries. . .

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually read this several years ago, but was just recently reminded of it while reading some piece of crap detective story. This is how it should be done. First rate.

[Ulf Nilsson]

A wonderful kind of comedy dressed up as a series of mysteries. It started slow, but then proved impossible to put down.

[Yankevhersh Desover · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful stories
I reread this book every few years
What a writer!!!

[Bookfan53]

I found this book quite difficult to get into at first, but it gradually grew on me. I'm not sure if it was because of the translation or not. Without giving too much away, my favourite part of the book were the stories pertaining to Lt. Boruvka's holiday in Italy with his teenage daughter. They were both humourous and serious. If you like short stories (even though the author insists this is a novel) and you like detective stories,you would probably enjoy this book.