The Year of the Frog: A Novel (Pegasus Prize for Literature)

From Publishers Weekly
Simecka, the son of a prominent Czechoslovakian dissident, draws on his own past for an extraordinarily rich and compelling first novel about life during the last years of communism before the Velvet Revolution. What makes this winner of the 1992 Pegasus Prize for Literature unique is the dizzying array of experiences the author has captured, from the aimless existence of young intellectuals capriciously excluded from participation in cultural life to the daily drudgery of workers. The narrator, a young intellectual in Bratislava named Milan, is in limbo. Because his father is serving a prison sentence for dissident activities, he may not enroll in the university and therefore is ineligible for any job that requires a degree. Since by law he must be employed, Milan takes a succession of posts: as a hospital orderly assisting in brain operations, then later with abortions; and as a clerk in a hardware store. Through the years, he dreams of becoming a writer and indulges his two passions, long-distance running and his love for the beautiful Tania, whom he eventually marries and betrays. The novel's exploration of a sensitive, ethical young man's coming of age is enriched by haunting descriptions of everyday life that reveal medical incompetence and corruption, bureaucratic favoritism and the dashed hopes of Milan's friends and colleagues. These simple, effective passages are a chilling indictment of the communist experiment. Author tour. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Born in 1957, Simecka is one of the generation of Czechoslovakian writers who were penalized by the Communist regime for the "sins" of their parents. His autobiographical novel, winner of the 1992 Pegasus Prize for Literature, was originally published as three novellas, but the stories flow together in this single volume to reveal the mind-numbing existence of Czech youth in the 1980s. Unable to attend a university because of his father's political activities but required by the state to have gainful employment or face arrest, the protagonist works at low-level jobs in a large hospital where most of the patients face gruesome surgery and low survival rates. Away from work, he pursues the love of his life and accepts the advances of a would-be mistress. Deliberately unemotional, this subdued novel lacks the resonance and rueful insights of more mature writers such as Ivan Klima, but it nonetheless makes an interesting addition for academic and large public library collections.- Olivia Opello, Onondaga Cty. P.L., Syracuse, N.Y.Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
In this coming of age novel set in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, in the waning days of the Communist dictatorship, Milan, son of a former party official now in disgrace for dissident activities, is not allowed into university even though he was once a track star. Originally published in the Slovak samizdat as three separate novellas, Year was selected for the Pegasus Prize, an award designed to introduce American readers to literature less often translated into English. It is easy to understand the choice. Unabashedly autobiographical, the novel recounts its hero's progress as he falls deep into the maw of the state and its organs. Under steady surveillance by the police, Milan must function in a fairly grim daily existence in which failure to work means prison and holding a menial job can mean watching people die in a hospital where doctors are inept and essential medicines are lacking. Milan manages to offset this bleakness with his love for Tania, a university student whom he finally marries, and by means of his inner life. Deliberately a bit naive, the novel delivers in the end a greater punch by contrasting essentially decent Milan with his surroundings. John Shreffler

From Kirkus Reviews
A Slovak writer's Pegasus Prize-winning debut novel--first published in installments in the Czech underground--tells a tragic tale of misery as a young man struggles with a sensitive, caring nature while under the thumb of the repressive, unfeeling state. In a story largely autobiographical, the narrator Milan quits his refinery job in Bratislava, taking a summer off to find himself. A dedicated but noncompetitive marathon runner, he pushes his body ruthlessly, running in the Slovak hills to escape thoughts of his inadequacy and unhappy home. His father is in prison for his subversive views, leaving his diabetic wife without the will to live and his son without a chance for a university education. Milan becomes a hospital orderly, prepping patients for neurosurgery; but when most of his charges die after gruesome operations, he loses his stomach for the job. Meanwhile, with his beautiful lover Tania in college, he feels insecure about the gap between them, almost losing her to more accomplished admirers until the crisis of an ectopic pregnancy bonds them together. A few years later, married and living in a rundown suburban house, Milan has returned to orderly duties, handling abortion cases but shifting to maternity when Tania becomes pregnant again. Even in this life-affirming setting, however, his misery continues: He has a fling with a former abortion patient, witnesses the birth of a deformed monster, and when his own child is born far too early and dies, he is unable to stop its being burned along with other waste in the hospital furnace. Graphic, ghastly, full of bile and bitterness--but also a strikingly realistic, insightful portrayal of human strength and frailty. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.



Language Notes
Text: English (translation)

Simon & Schuster
Set in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, in the 1980s, Martin Simecka's stunning first novel, The Year of the Frog, portrays a young man struggling to come to terms with his circumstances in the last days of communist dictatorship. Milan, the son of a former party official now imprisoned for dissident activities, is barred from the university despite the fact that he is a brilliant student and an extraordinary runner. Forced to work, Milan takes a series of menial jobs -- first as a surgical orderly in a hospital, next as a clerk in an under-stocked hardware store, lastly as an assistant in a maternity hospital for both births and abortions -- all of which serve to break open his life.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Set in Czechoslovakia in the early 1980s, during the waning years of Communist rule, Martin M. Simecka's startlingly original first novel, The Year of the Frog, shows a young man struggling to understand the circumstances of his life. Simecka, born in Bratislava in 1957, is the son of a prominent Czechoslovak intellectual who was imprisoned for his dissident beliefs. Though not overtly political, Simecka's novel is unabashedly autobiographical. First published in installments in the underground Czechoslovak press, it was reissued in one volume after the lifting of restrictions. Written in engagingly simple, unadorned prose, The Year of the Frog follows the fortunes of Milan, a young intellectual forbidden to attend college because of his father's political activities. Unable to pursue his studies and under surveillance by the authorities, who frequently trail him in their yellow-and-white Zhiguli cars, Milan takes a succession of menial jobs, first as a surgical orderly in a hospital, where he witnesses death on a regular basis, and then as a clerk in a perpetually understocked hardware store, and then again in a hospital, this time as an assistant in a maternity ward. After Milan's father is arrested, his mother, a diabetic, spends her days pining for her husband and listening to the Voice of America over Viennese radio. Once, following a trip to Poland, Milan himself is briefly detained by the police. But the grimness of Milan's day-to-day existence cannot blunt his ever-agile, ever-questioning intellect, nor can it diminish the joy he derives from his two great passions: long-distance running, which he pursues with almost Zen-like dedication through the streets of Bratislava and the surrounding countryside, and Tania, a university student with whom he falls in love and with whom he discovers that the world, even one as circumscribed as his own Communist-controlled one, is full of possibilities. Milan's story is told with the exuberance and innocence of youth

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Simecka, the son of a prominent Czechoslovakian dissident, draws on his own past for an extraordinarily rich and compelling first novel about life during the last years of communism before the Velvet Revolution. What makes this winner of the 1992 Pegasus Prize for Literature unique is the dizzying array of experiences the author has captured, from the aimless existence of young intellectuals capriciously excluded from participation in cultural life to the daily drudgery of workers. The narrator, a young intellectual in Bratislava named Milan, is in limbo. Because his father is serving a prison sentence for dissident activities, he may not enroll in the university and therefore is ineligible for any job that requires a degree. Since by law he must be employed, Milan takes a succession of posts: as a hospital orderly assisting in brain operations, then later with abortions; and as a clerk in a hardware store. Through the years, he dreams of becoming a writer and indulges his two passions, long-distance running and his love for the beautiful Tania, whom he eventually marries and betrays. The novel's exploration of a sensitive, ethical young man's coming of age is enriched by haunting descriptions of everyday life that reveal medical incompetence and corruption, bureaucratic favoritism and the dashed hopes of Milan's friends and colleagues. These simple, effective passages are a chilling indictment of the communist experiment. Author tour. (Oct.)

Library Journal

Born in 1957, Simecka is one of the generation of Czechoslovakian writers who were penalized by the Communist regime for the ``sins'' of their parents. His autobiographical novel, winner of the 1992 Pegasus Prize for Literature, was originally published as three novellas, but the stories flow together in this single volume to reveal the mind-numbing existence of Czech youth in the 1980s. Unable to attend a university because of his father's political activities but required by the state to have gainful employment or face arrest, the protagonist works at low-level jobs in a large hospital where most of the patients face gruesome surgery and low survival rates. Away from work, he pursues the love of his life and accepts the advances of a would-be mistress. Deliberately unemotional, this subdued novel lacks the resonance and rueful insights of more mature writers such as Ivan Klima, but it nonetheless makes an interesting addition for academic and large public library collections.-- Olivia Opello, Onondaga Cty. P.L., Syracuse, N.Y.

BookList - John Shreffler