A
Literary Saloon
&
Site of Review.

Trying to meet all your book preview and review needs.

Contents:

Main

the Best

the Rest

Review Index

Links

to e-mail us:


support the site

the complete review - fiction

In-House Weddings

by
Bohumil Hrabal

general information | review summaries | our review | links | about the author

- Return to top of the page -

Our Assessment:

B+ : charming (auto)biographical fiction

See our review for fuller assessment.

  From the Reviews:

• "Hochzeiten im Hause darf also als (eine) Geschichte des tschechischen Kleinbürgertums gelesen werden, unter sozialistischen Vorzeichen. Es geht immer und überall darum, die „Nummer eins" zu werden, wenn schon nicht aufzusteigen, dann wenigstens auszusteigen. Die Lebensverhältnisse stehen jetzt zwar unter sozialistischen Vorzeichen, aber dahinter hat sich kaum etwas verändert." - Martin Lüdke, Die Zeit

Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.

- Return to top of the page -

The complete review's Review:

       In-House Weddings is the first in a trilogy of (auto)biographical novels by Bohumil Hrabal, with the author taking an unusual approach of writing not in the first person but rather from the perspective of his wife, Eliška -- or Pipsi, as she is usually referred to here. In-House Weddings describes their courtship, leading up to their wedding, in the early years of communist Czechoslovakia after World War II, with this perspective allowing Hrabal to consider himself through the eyes of another, a portrait that is both flattering and critical. Presented in the original as a 'Dívčí románek' -- a sort of 'women's/girls' romance novel' -- Hrabal suggests it is a piece of simple, popular entertainment, but he does offer considerably more than that.
       Hrabal here is called the "doctor" (he had a law degree), and Pipsi first meets him when she visits the woman who had been her father's bookkeeper -- back in the good old days ... -- in the hopes of being able to register with her as being domiciled in Prague (her work, at a hotel, requiring a residency permit). The doctor lives in the same building, and while Liza and her husband won't help Pipsi out, there's some attraction between her and the doctor that might lead to something just as good ..... Pipsi came from a very well-to-do family, but after the war, and with the rise of the communist regime, they lost everything; she came to Prague following her fiancé, but he dumped her, leaving her despondent -- and also leaving her living with her would-have-been mother-in-law.
       Pipsi isn't entirely sure about the doctor: he drinks an awful lot and has some very close relationships with quite a few women -- and she hasn't forgotten her own disappointment (nor quite gotten over the guy). The doctor is both a rather carefree character as well as intensely focused -- especially on his writing. As they get to know each other Pipsi also describes their respective backgrounds, with both accepting their current lots -- "now the era's different" -- but also unable to let go of that nostalgia for the bygone Mitteleuropaean times, lamenting: "we're all actually children who've been expelled from these pavilions, these arbors, gazebos ...". But, as the doctor tells her when they get closer: "Whoever wants into our family ... has to learn to adapt" -- which goes for the situation as a whole, as they also must find a way to make do in the new Czech circumstances.
       The doctor writes a great deal but is rarely presented as a writer. He's done all sorts of odd jobs -- and mystifyingly has a law degree (he was a terrible student) -- but while he's driven to write here barely dares dream it might become his profession. Instead:

You see actually, now it occurs to me, my writing, my writing is also a guard against suicide, as if I run from myself in my writing, but at the same time I ask, what's to become of me ? The person I was before and who I am right now, the writing helps cure, the way confession cures Catholics, the way the Wailing Wall cures Jews, the way confessing doubts and secrets and worries to a mute old willow would cure our forbears [sic], and when all's said and done, the way relaxing and talking about whatever's on their mind cures Freud's patients ...

I never know what I've written, I'm always chasing some thought, there beyond my reach, I want to catch up to it, but it's always one step ahead of me

- M.A.Orthofer, 19 January 2011

- Return to top of the page -

Links:

• Northwestern University Press publicity page
• Suhrkamp publicity page
• Giulio Einaudi editore publicity page

• Metaliterature
• Die Zeit (German)

• Bohumil Hrabal at books and writers

• Vita Nuova

• See Index of Eastern European literature
• Other books from Northwestern University Press - Writings from an Unbound Europe under review
• See Index of Biographical works under review

- Return to top of the page -

About the Author:

       Czech author Bohumil Hrabal lived 1914 to 1997.

- Return to top of the page -

© 2011-2021 the complete review

Main | the New | the Best | the Rest | Review Index | Links