Disturbing the Peace: A Conversation with Karel Hvizdala ANNOTATION
Although in many ways this book stands as an informal autobiography of the playwright turned statesman, these eloquent and often witty interviews do much more than just recapitulate how Vaclav Havel helped transform Czechoslovakia into a democracy. Havel gives insights into Czech history, the social and political roles of art, and a statement of the values underlying recent events in Eastern Europe. A national bestseller.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
An intimate history of Czechoslovakia under communism; a meditation on the social and political role of art, and a triumphant statement of the values underlying all the recent revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe.
FROM THE CRITICS
Robert Brustein
In 1986, Vaclav Havel tape-recorded his answers to 50 questions mailed to him by a friendly interrogator, the emigre Czechoslovak journalist and playwright Karel Hvizdala. The result is ''Disturbing the Peace,'' and it unquestionably is the finest work this Czechoslovak artist has yet produced. -- New York Times
Publishers Weekly
Havel discusses his transformation from absurdist playwright to activist to president of Czechoslovakia in interviews conducted during 1985 and 1986 by exiled journalist Hvizdala. ``Mingling autobiography with discussions of politics, literature and theater, his ruminations add up to a disarming and involving self-portrait,'' said PW . (Apr.)
Library Journal
In 1986, as his 50th birthday approached, then-dissident Czech playwright Havel submitted to a mail interview with exiled Czech journalist Hvizdala. The essays written as answers for that interview, here translated into English, range over all aspects of a varied life: Havel's childhood in a bourgeois family in Prague during the 1930s, as well as his unusual education--adolescent intellectual circles in the 1950s, experimental theater, and Charter 77 activities. A complex portrait emerges of a man long involved with his community and his state because he considers such involvement a moral imperative. With Havel as president of a newly organized Czechoslovakia since December 1989, expect interest in this title. Highly recommended for all libraries. Previewed as Long Distance Interrogation , Prepub Alert, LJ 2/15/90.-- Marcia L. Sprules, Council on Foreign Relations Lib., New York
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