by Bohumil Hrabal
bookshelves: summer-2015, translation, trains-planes-automobiles, published-1965, czech, play-dramatisation, radio-4, war, prague, coming-of-age, period-piece, amusing, existentialism, absurdist, shortstory-shortstories-novellas, tbr-busting-2015 Recommended to Bettie☯ by: Nicole~ Read from March...
Closely Observed Trains or Closely Watched Trains (1965) The coming-of-age story of Milos Hrma - a young, naïve railwayman - unfolds in a small lethargic train station, set in North Bohemia, Prague during the last two weeks of WWII, 1945. Milos narrates the tale which covers a timespan of 48 hour...
I liked it. Didn't think I would. Reminded me a bit of Robert Walser because of the narrator's childlike wonder of it all, except in this version, unlike the wandering and unlucky Walser, this hero gets laid. And in more ways than one.
Actually, 3.5 stars...Set in the final year of the Second World War, Ostře sledované vlaky weaves together the rather exaggerated personal story of a young apprentice for the Czech national train company (embarrassed by premature ejaculation, he tries to commit suicide; his grandfather tries to st...
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