Gottland

April 28, 2014
An already lauded collection of episodic reportage from the pen of a prolific Polish journalist (European Book Prize 2009), this grimly themed but spryly sequenced investigation into the secret-plagued reality of 20th-century Czechoslovakia falls gently short of expectations in an intriguing yet overall monotonous translation. The chronologically progressive, "mostly true" stories depict with varying scales of focus the lives and times of an eclectic cast of Czech individuals, some of them well known, like Tomas Bata, the tenacious turn-of-the-century shoe merchant who transformed his father's languishing cobbler trade into a diversified socio-industrial empire, others with scant name recognition even in their native land, like Otakar Sveck, a depressive Prague sculptor-manque whose commission to design the largest-ever Stalin monument on the banks of the Vltava River proved his own psychic toppling. The leitmotif of these tales is dispossession: the Czech people struggling to remain individuals in a state where individualism is literally a crime. Faced with the hand-tailored sadism and iron whimsy of occupying forces, these men and women must make a choice: resist or submit. With notable and deeply affecting exceptions it tends to be a lugubrious combination of the two.

May 15, 2014
Impassioned, insightful snapshots of life in pre-Velvet Revolution Czechoslovakia.Winner of the 2009 European Book Prize, acclaimed Polish journalist Szczygiel's well-researched, unsunny volume of "mostly true stories" forms an indelible impression of the Czech population. His glimpses encapsulate the struggles of these hardscrabble citizens prior to the nation's liberation in 1993, with strength and resilience as the operative themes threaded throughout. The sweeping opening biography focuses on the rise of innovative Czech entrepreneur Tomas Bata, who revolutionized the shoe manufacturing business using the Henry Ford assembly-line production model. The author also profiles the tangled life of actress Lida Baarova, who, for two years during her early 20s, became the mistress of Joseph Goebbels, the "Minister of Propaganda" for Hitler's National Socialist government. Also of note are creatively drawn portrayals of struggling pop singer Marta Kubisova, whose songs were censored and removed from public consumption, and a poignant report on the life of teenage Prague student Zdenek Adamec, who became increasingly appalled by the conditions in the Czech Republic and committed public suicide by self-immolation. Szczygiel explores the communist takeover of Czechoslovakia in searing pieces revealing the true extent of the mass liquidation of "anything that brings simple pleasure" to the public. The author also offers an inventive take on the metamorphosis of the "Cubist personality" of provocative writer Eduard Kirchberger into pseudonym "Karel Fabian." All of these congruous pieces create a patchwork tapestry of Central European history. Whether chronicling the sculpting of Prague's monument to Joseph Stalin or the dubious allegiances of writer Jan Prochazka, the atmosphere Szczygiel evokes is glumly foreboding yet intensely interesting.A controversial, insightful work from Poland's 2013 journalist of the year.

COPYRIGHT(2014) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

June 15, 2014

Winner of the European Book Prize, Prix l'Amphi, and the NIKE Readers' Award, this is a captivating mix of investigative journalism and essay writing. Szczygiel, an acclaimed Polish journalist who covers both Poland and the Czech Republic for the Gazeta Wyborcza, has compiled thousands of interviews with everyone from celebrities to everyday people on their lives under communist rule, translating them into humorous, heartbreaking, and downright strange essays. Subjects include a woman who made Josef Goebbels cry, a Czech version of "Dollywood," and even Franz Kafka's niece. This is Szczygiel's first book to be translated into English. Readers are in for a pleasurable yet thoughtful historical trip through half of the former Czechoslovakia. VERDICT Readers of travel essays, social history, and eastern European history and culture will enjoy this extraordinary work about the spirited Czech people.--Suzan Alteri, Univ. of Florida Libs.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.