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Title: A Desert in Bohemia by Jill Paton Walsh, Jill Paton Walsh ISBN: 0-452-28268-3 Publisher: Plume Pub. Date: 30 October, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.29 (7 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Wonderful.
Comment: I just finished this book and it is absolutely wonderful. It portrays the same event through diffent eyes and times, and the end result is not a grand resolution, but life. I will read this book again.
Rating: 5
Summary: Brilliant and Moving
Comment: I cannot recommend stronly enough Jill Paton Walsh's gripping and edifying novel of communism in Czechoslovakia after WWII "A Desert in Bohemia". It is a "must read" for everyone from age 14 to 94.
The strength of the novel derives not just from the historical aspects, but from the nine interwoven characters who are all compelling and haunting.
Rating: 3
Summary: Some Lovely Set Pieces
Comment: I recognized the title of this book immediately as having been taken from my favorite Shakespearian play, "The Winter's Tale." Since I love that play so much I thought I just might love this book as well.
"A Desert in Bohemia" is set in the fictional eastern European country of Comenia during the years between the appearance of the Iron Curtain at the end of World War II and the fall of the Berlin Wall.
"A Desert in Bohemia" includes a cast of characters...this is essentially an ensemble book...however, the first character we meet is Eliska.
The year is 1945 and Eliska, the only survivor, is emerging from the common grave where more than 300 of her fellow villagers lie dead. Frightened and bloodstained, Eliska makes her way to what she believes is an abandoned castle and finds that it is not abandoned at all...there is a baby inside. The castle is the ancestral family home of the Blansky family and, although it is not entirely deserted (bread is rising on the table and milk is warming on the stove), it does contain many secrets.
Only a few hours later, Jiri, an idealistic young communist makes his appearance in the house and, shortly after Jiri, we meet Count Michael Blansky, the castle's owner. Next to seek refuge in the house is Slavomir, Jiri's Red Army comrade. Slavomir is just as dedicated to the cause of communism as is Jiri, although he is driven primarily by a need for power.
Growing unrest (and the false charge of being a Nazi sympathizer) causes Count Blansky to feel the need to leave the house (and Comenia) and he soon flees to England and seeks asylum with his son, Pavel. Blansky's neighbor, Frantisek Konecny, however, chooses to remain and his life will become entwined with the lives of those now living in the Blansky castle.
Paton Walsh certainly puts her remaining characters through much trauma: forced labor, torture, imprisonment, betrayals, terror, corruption of all kinds and even forced psychiatric hospitalization.
Although I didn't think this book quite came together as it should have, it does contain some lovely set pieces. The saddest occurs when Count Michael, who has been living near the border of Comenia, manages to gain surreptitious entrance to that country with his granddaughter, Kate, in an effort to have one last look at Libohrad, his ancestral home. What he finds instead is heartbreaking and it involves Eliska, Jiri and the baby found in the castle, now a young woman named Nadezda.
The characters' stories do intertwine very nicely and Paton Walsh does a good job in bringing philosophical questions to her narrative without sounding heavy-handed. But the book does seem to change its focus near the middle, or just before. What began as a marvelous book of ideas and of the effects of communism on a disparate group of characters, becomes a thriller instead. It was much better as a book of ideas.
The ending of the book also presented problems for me. I found the rather happy ending experienced by most of the characters to be too pat, too hopeful and almost too "sweet." I would have preferred to read about a more realistic portrayal of communism and circumstances in eastern Europe today.
"A Desert in Bohemia" isn't a bad book at all, but neither is it an outstanding one, or even one above the ordinary. It has some lovely set pieces and some memorable scenes. It is well-written, but for me, at least, it just didn't come together. It just didn't gel.
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Title: Knowledge of Angels by Jill Paton Walsh ISBN: 0552997803 Publisher: Bantam Pr Ltd Pub. Date: 1998 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Angels & Demons by Dan Brown ISBN: 0671027360 Publisher: Pocket Star Pub. Date: 26 June, 2001 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Book 5) by J. K. Rowling, Mary GrandPré ISBN: 043935806X Publisher: Scholastic Pub. Date: 21 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.99 |
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