Prague

Starred review from April 8, 2002
Everything about this dazzling first novel is utterly original, including the title: it's about a group of young American (and one Canadian) expatriates living in Budapest in 1990, just after the Communist empire has collapsed, and the point of "Prague" is that it's the place everyone would rather be, except they have all somehow settled for Budapest as second best to their idealized Central European city.The author's way of bringing his five central characters onstage is also devilishly clever. They are playing a game—invented by Charles Gabor, the only one with a Hungarian background—called Sincerity, in which scores are made by telling convincing lies and by seeing through the lies of others. This serves at once to introduce these characters and allows the author to play with their sense of themselves. There is sophisticated, devious Charles, working for a New York investment company seeking newly privatized Hungarian businesses to invest in; Mark, a Canadian intellectual obsessed with the elements of nostalgia (and finding Budapest a rich repository); John, who writes a mordant column on the clashes of the old world and the new for the English-language BudapesToday; John's older brother, Scott, who despises him; and Emily, an apparent innocent from Nebraska who works at the U.S. Embassy. At the heart of the story is Charles's attempt to take over a venerable Hungarian publishing company, whose history is brilliantly sketched and whose aged scion, Imre Horvath, is a quintessential Central European survivor. John nurses a hopeless passion for Emily, becomes involved with a bald-headed collage artist and listens, enchanted, to the tales of an elderly pianist in the group's favorite jazz club. Mark disappears, Scott decamps and the publishing caper ends in disillusionment.But what happens in this novel is not nearly so important as Phillips's wonderful grasp Budapest's look, style and ethos, and his sometimes sympathetic, often scathing view of the Western interlopers. His writing is swift, often poetic, unerringly exact with voices and subtle details of time, place and weather. This novel is so complete a distillation of its theme and characters that it leaves a reader wondering how on earth Phillips can follow it up. Agent, Marly Rusoff. (June 18)Forecast:An introductory note to readers from Random editor Lee Boudreaux eloquently makes the case for this brilliant book, which seems certain to be widely and admiringly reviewed. Likely bookseller enthusiasm as well should help launch it to the position it deserves as the most memorable fiction debut of the year to date.

March 1, 2002
Just bumped up to June, this debut is getting lavish treatment that seems to be deserved. It's actually set in Budapest in the early 1990s, as young Westerners seek to make their mark in a city haunted by the 20th century's tragedies.

Copyright 2001 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2002
In 1990, after the overthrow of communism, Budapest is "Paris on the Danube," but it's no Prague. Prague, not Budapest, is where foreign capital is invested, and Prague is where tourists in Budapest would rather be. But Budapest is where five twentysomething expatriates from the West, who would never have wanted to know each other back home, find themselves together. Hungarian American Charles Gabor uses his fluency in his parents' native tongue in a venture capital firm, Canadian Mark Payton intends to produce the definitive history of nostalgia, Emily Oliver holds a new post as special assistant to the ambassador, and Scott Price teaches English and is followed by his younger brother, John, who starts writing ironic columns for " BudapesToday "(which is no " Prague Post"). They frequent cafes and clubs, make some money, and experiment sexually. Phillips, who lived in Budapest from 1990 to 1992, depicts time and place with skill and affection in this ambitious first novel, but there is a little too much brittleness to his characters.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)