Time's Magpie: A Walk in Prague

Crown Journeys Series

by Myla Goldberg

Sometimes a city can be like a bird. Just as the magpie is an inveterate collector, hoarding beautiful eclectic bits to line its nest, so Prague retains fragments from bygone regimes and centuries past to create a city of juxtaposition that is alternately exquisite and bizarre.

Prague’s personality is expressed as much by its obvious beauty as by its overlooked details. This unforgettable place is brought to life by acclaimed author Myla Goldberg, a former Prague expat, whose first novel, Bee Season , captivated so many with its unique voice and exhilarating prose.

Myla Goldberg lived in Prague in 1993, just as the process of Westernization was getting under way, the city straddling a past it wished to shed and a future it was eager to embrace. In 2003, she returned to see what the pursuit of capitalism had wrought and to observe the integral ways in which Prague’s character had endured. In Time’s Magpie , Goldberg explores a city where centuries-old buildings have become receptacles for Western values and a generation defined by the Communist regime coexists with a generation for whom Communism is a rapidly fading memory.

Wander through the narrow alleyways and cobblestone streets to places most tourists never see—to a neighborhood eerily transformed by the devastating flood of 2002; to an anachronistic amusement park that is home to a discomfiting array of Technicolor confections; and to the cabinets of curiosity in the Strahov Monastery, where hidden among deceptively modest displays of butterfly specimens and ladies’ fans are creatures that defy the laws of taxidermy. This imaginative, individualistic journey will show you the odd and unique corners of a city often seeking to erase what its very stones will not allow it to forget.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, History, Audiobook

144 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Myla Goldberg is the bestselling author of Bee Season, Wickett's Remedy, and The False Friendas well as a children's book, Catching the Moon.

Reviews

[Left Coast Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Magpies are apparently known for collecting bright, shiny tidbits and lining their nests with them. This book is about some of the bright, shiny tidbits of history that one might encounter while walking around in Prague. What this book does not do is really address the state of Prague and its citizens in the present day, an omission that seems to really irritate some reviewers here. Her most extended interaction with a living, breathing Praguer* was a corrupt cop hitting her up for a "fine".

I approve of her writing style, which is sly and assumes a degree of worldliness in the reader:

Considering Prague's nascent penchant for tourist traps--in recent years the city has inaugurated a Wax Museum, a Sex Machine Museum, and a Museum of Torture Instruments--the Museum of Communism is surprisingly restrained...Though whiffs of Western bias are detected in the museum's starry-eyed assertion that Radio Free Europe--and not, say, economic collapse--was a leading cause of the dissolution of the Communist regime, the exhibits strive toward cultivating an air of scholarship rather than polemic...What the museum neglects to mention, however, is that it actually serves as an antechamber to the real Museum of Communism, which is the city of Prague itself.

Here's another example:

The Communist philosophy of architecture viewed building ornament as an opportunity for oversized agitprop; and so the exteriors of Prague's Communist-era constructions are host to kerchiefed peasant women displaying leviathan feet too mighty for shoes and wrench-wielding mechanics caught mid-pull in heroic battles with hex nuts bigger than human heads. Divorced from propaganda and regime there is something sweet about a rectangular relief depicting a man inflating a tire, or laying bricks, or cutting stone, or carrying a food-laden tray to a table. These architectural artifacts retain a seed of Communism's idealism, which after all is a philosophy that contains within its ruptured, rotting heart a beautiful if chimerical concept.

The author skates along the surface of the city, describing parks, museums and dwellings. We visit an anti-war protest and ride late-night trams with drunks heading home, but even these are treated as anthropology rather than interviews.

At several points in the book, I was reminded of something I'm generally deprived of here in California, which is the (for me) exciting but lonely feeling of walking in snappishly cool weather, summer is over and fine needles of rain are lancing into your face, and in all likelihood you're walking alone because sensible people know enough to stay indoors. I suspect that Goldberg, like me, enjoys afternoons spent this way because she, like me, enjoys being alongside people without actually being among them. When I closed this book at the end, I felt a deep sense of the sort of happy loneliness that walking in foreign cities produces in me.

*An actual word. I had to look it up.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow -- some folks really seemed to dislike this one! I really wonder whether that's the difference between reading the print book, or listening to Goldberg's narration (as I did)? She's one of the few writers I've found who can read her own material well.
As for the book itself, she makes it clear (in the police incident) that she's not writing a travel guide, but a series of essays on her impressions of Prague. I'd be interested in more non-fiction by her.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

While we were in Seattle, I happened across Myla Goldberg’s Time’s Magpie: A Walk In Prague at the Elliott Bay Bookstore and decided to read it for my final Armchair Traveler book. I enjoyed Chuck Palahniuk’s Fugitives and Refugees, which is another Crown Journeys book, and had been looking for others in the series.

While Goldberg doesn’t have Palahniuk’s offbeat sense of humor and unexpectedly shocking detours, she does create a vivid sense of place. Each chapter deals with a different attraction, and weaves together physical descriptions, history, events, and anecdotes to create a picture of what it’s like to visit the ancient city.

I’ve always wanted to visit Prague and Goldberg’s essays on its quirky character and mix of cultural aesthetics makes me even more curious. Time’s Magpie isn’t detailed enough to be a travel guide, but the use of essays to spotlight a city is extremely effective and entertaining.

[Samantha · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this take on Prague insulting if anything.

My family is from Prague, and I found her observations generalised, ignorant, and from an arrogant Western perspective.

Some of the "observations" she makes are just condescending. Plus she confuses socialism with communism, and she purports to know what "the Czechs" think and feel about things.

Jim Graham's comment below was my feeling too; much smirking to be had.

I recommend you do your own research and draw your own conclusions about Prague. Try talking to the Czechs themselves for a start...

[sarah]

I'm going to Prague so I read this to prep myself. I learned about the library and the cemetery, two things I enjoy visiting in every city I travel to. That's about all I got out of this book.

[Ciara · Rating 2 out of 5]

i remember reading a review of this book way long ago when it irst came out that condemned it for not really capturing the true sense of prague. having never been to prague, i can't testify as to whether or not this is entirely true, but considering that it clocks in at 140 pages, & is comprised of type large enough to be enjoyed by a kindergartner, i don't think anyone should be surprised if their favorite little prague haunt went unrecognized. i like myla golderberg's writing, i think she has a knack for creating an evocative atmosphere through words, but i definitely didn't feel like i was leaving the book with any more knowledge of prague than what i had going in (which was pretty limited). this is part of a whole series of books in which fairly well-known authors write about cities. another book in the series is chuck palahuniuk (sp?) writing about portland, OR, if that gives you any kind of sense of what to expect. the authors are clearly not taxing themselves here or being asked to conduct any serious research. it's pretty must just a vanity project.

[Kathryn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Goldberg's over-thought, stilted prose lacks rhythm and liveliness. Her knowledge of Prague is that of an outsider--the history provided is clearly from guidebooks, and she doesn't seem to have spent much time talking to anyone, or becoming immersed in the city. The book centers on her observations from afar, which she fleshes out with her unconvincing imagination and an air of superiority. She doesn't do much better when she discusses American life and culture--her experience is clearly as circumscribed in the States as it is in the Czech Republic. She did manage to convey a sense of the physicality of place, which is the only reason I kept reading the book.

[Sezin Koehler · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely set of essays about Prague, but sometimes the beautiful prose ventures into nauseatingly pretentious territory, as it can tend to with hyperliterate expats writing about the city. She has some keen observations about the city, though, and I loved that some of my favorite haunts and old neighborhood were featured prominently in the book.

[Sviatlana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wittingly written and in my opinion, very much to the point. My only correction (perhaps, lapsus calami) would be p.126 "Even on a drizzly, gray Sunday Czechs come to Lunapark, open no matter what the season, ten crowns during the week, twenty-five on weekends, children under two meters admitted free". Two meter tall children?

[Hillary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought her characterization of American cops was absurd and misguided. Aside from that (and that's not what the book's about anyway) totally beautiful.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliantly written. An astute and historically rich description of some of the hidden jewels of Prague. Full of fun facts not likely known by the average tourist.

[Tabitha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is lyrical and poetic--wonderful to read if you just want to get the feel of Prague; terrible to read if you want concrete information about the city. In a few months I'll be headed to Prague. I read this book in anticipation for that trip. For me, then, it was a wonderful read. For anyone to pick up, especially if there are no plans to travel to Prague and the reader has never been there before, the book will probably read as a little trite.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to this audiobook while in Prague. I don't think I would have read it otherwise. I enjoyed hearing a unique perspective beyond my Rick Steve's Guidebook. I picked up some useful history of the city I otherwise would have overlooked. The book was enhanced by Goldberg's quirky personality shining through her reading.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting collection of stories that gives a snapshot of Prague in 2003. While I don't believe that this is a realistic portrayal of everyday life in Prague, it is relavent from the persepective of the visitor. I read this before visiting Prague, and it illuminated many aspects of the city and helped me understand the pulse of the city.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

audiobook (6/12/2024-6/17,18,or19/2024ithinkitwasthe 18thbutnotsureanymoretimeisanillusion) — if I had absolutely nothing left for me in America I would move to Prague and live out my days frolicking around the city I love it so much I’ve never felt more at home somewhere that wasn’t my home it really is the most magical place on earth move over Disney you and your silly mouse are nothing to me

[Catherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book prior to visiting Prague and was looking for more substance or out-of-the-ordinary sights to see. Instead I found these travel essays a bit bland. The book wasn't a waste of time, but I've enjoyed other books of this same genre much more.

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Prague is far, far more interesting a city than this "travelogue" makes it out to be. Dry, hardly giving one a sense of the city at all (and that's from someone who has spent time there!). I expected better, being an admirer of her fiction.

[MikeFromQueens · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a light read of a visitor to Prague, and some of the lesser-known places to visit. Some vivid scenes of the author's interaction with the locals were interesting, including the police. I could have written this book myself.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe more a 3.5/5.

There were some flashes of brilliant writing in this, and I really enjoyed how vividly I was able to imagine the city through them, but there were also some places I wished everything tied back into the clever magpie idea a little more tightly.

[Crystal]

This book was not helpful in keeping me awake on a long drive. I found it hard to focus. It wasn't terribly interesting and I am not sure how informative it actually was. Also, she didn't seem to have a very high opinion of the Czech people.

[William Milks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some nice writing and a heartfelt paean to Prague, but the book feels really incomplete. There’s no sense that the author fulfilled her goal of describing the timelessness of Prague.

Still, not a bad way to get a quick intro to some of the districts and sights of Prague.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having gotten engaged in Prague and married into a Czech family, I loved the author's talk of her walks through Prague and how her impressions were similar to or different than my own.

[cat · Rating 3 out of 5]

listened to this on one of my many roadtrips and enjoyed the travel essays despite their admitted blandness at times.

[Judy]

An easy way to take a quirky walk through Prague without the hassle of flying there. Some of her sentences are so lush I had to stop and just enjoy them.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

from Nancy A.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very different perspective of Prague from an expatriot who knows the city's best and worst attributes. I enjoyed her book, but frankly she made Prague sound a bit like a slum.

[Tyger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, I listened to this on audio does that still count? Anyway it was a great look at Prague by a wonderful guide!

[Tuck · Rating 3 out of 5]

not that great of an insight into prague, but enjoyable read. it could have been a desription of spokane just as easily. from a great series (now defunct) called Crown Journeys)

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this in preparation for our trip to Prague. It was a small, easy to read, walk through the city. What fun, to walk some of the places I had read about.

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a good read and both illuminated and brought back memories of Prague.