Good-Bye, Samizdat: Twenty Years of Czechoslovak Underground Writings FROM THE PUBLISHER
Good-by, Samizdat offers the first collection of some of the best of underground texts. Divided into three sections, it includes fiction, cultural and political writing, and philosophical essays. The writings reflect the creative thought of some of the best minds of modern times, from the well-known - Ivan Klima, Ludvik Vaculik, Vaclav Havel - to writers who are as yet unknown in the West.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Czechoslovakia's Communist government banned writers, but it couldn't silence them. Unable to publish openly, these writers secretly exchanged works, of which 35 samples are offered in this intriguing and remarkably diverse collection, ranging from fairy tales to philosophical and political essays. Alexander Kliment tells a story of a shrewd tailor and his unusual house guest--Death. Petr Fidelius's essay discusses the self-justifying ``discourse of Communist power'' and its destructive impact on language and thought. Ivan M. Havel, musing about knowledge, finds that the conventional scientific community accepts comfortably only what ``fits well into the mosaic of previously accepted pieces of cognizance.'' Such works offer a glimpse of what people wrote to sustain themselves and one another in times of artistic and intellectual repression. Unfortunately, aside from general introductory essays and a few explanatory notes, Goetz-Stankiewicz ( The Silenced Theater ) provides pk little assistance in clarifying the subtler or culture-specific aspects of the more complex pieces. (July)
Library Journal
This fascinating selection of ``unofficial,'' self-published texts documents the wealth of Czechoslovakia's parallel culture and the spiritual resilience of its banned authors during Communist domination. Divided into three sections--literature, cultural and political essays, and philosophical texts--these 36 pieces present a broad spectrum of voices reflecting the experience of totalitarianism. The literary texts range from poignant allegories to intensely personal commentaries and include the works of writers known here (Vaculik, Klima, and Hrabal) as well as newcomers (Kliment, Pecka, Tatarka, and Kriseova). The remaining essays are dominated by the theme of ``life in truth,'' as writers such as Havel and Kanturkova differentiate their independent thought from the official ideology. This thoughtfully prepared anthology, with informative section introductions, bibliographical notes, and a list of 250 banned writers, will be of interest to both lay readers and specialists.--Marie Bednar, Pennsylvania State Univ. Libs., University Park
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