Reviews

Szigorúan ellenőrzött vonatok by Bohumil Hrabal

olgaokhrimenko's review against another edition

adventurous challenging informative fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

monicalewinsky6969666420's review against another edition

funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Prob one of the best books I’ve read this year

nb_leftist's review against another edition

dark funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

There’s something about Hrabal’s work that I always have a hard time with, but I don’t know how to describe it. I think “Too Loud a Solitude” is better and more interesting but I’m glad I gave this a try. Definitely some interesting stuff. The most interesting part for me was the killing of the animals, everyone is guilty, not just the German’s. The Jew’s were not just killed by the Germans who pushed the button or escorted them on the trains, but by the station workers who watched and knew, by the spouses of those workers who knew.

dkeatingmyers's review against another edition

5.0

This is the finest novel I've read in a long, long time. It's a pity Hrabal isn't more widely celebrated than the film he ultimately spawned. In fact, Hrabal's lack of acclaim in the English world is nothing less than bizarre to me, based on the merits of his work here. This is so much more than a coming of age story. It is so much more than a war novel. It is a study in human action, and inaction, in the razor's edge that divides life into an unspeakably horrible collection of failings and disappointments and a startlingly easy enjoyment of simple pleasures and the humor of even the blackest situations. Young Milos is provided with meaning by the articficial construct of the railroad bureaucracy as he recovers from his suicide attempt. This is in no way due to the formal merits of the bureaucratic pursuits of Hrma, Lansk, or the antihero Hubicka. Rather, it is the gently recognized absurdity of the war, of the failings of the hyperformal Nazi state, of the power and station provided by the inanity of a railroad uniform. The characters of the novel turn their staid station into an oasis of life as it is actually led. Sex, death, power, and subversion frolick here, without undue seriousness. Indeed, the strength of the novel is undoubtedly the manner in which its spits in the face of Continental existentialism through the facility of Milos' rehabilitation. His suicide attempt is a clear indicator of his horror at the very thought of sexual dysfunction, of powerlessness in a land where his forefathers have literally been overrun (see Grandfather anecdote) by the Nazis. The station provides him with jocular meaning, the envy of Hubicka's ass-stamping with the means to reach sexual maturity in the station master's office, the recovery of a sense of investment in the war effort in the novel's final scene, as Milos finally destroys the German ammunition train. I love this book, plain and simple.

kk_123's review against another edition

dark

3.0

antonia_delarose's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.75

tiffany_lishan's review against another edition

dark funny reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt and War

shimmery's review against another edition

4.0

Milos is an apprentice at a Czech railway station at the end of the 2nd world war. Coming back to work after a suicide attempt, he slips back in to life with his two colleagues: the train dispatcher, who finds creative ways to be scandalous, and the station master, who when not seeking a promotion rushes upstairs to shout rants in to the ventilator or else disappears in to his loft of pigeons.

This book manages to be charming and funny while also having real horrors and sadness in it. The whole thing is only 85 pages long and the story is revealed in small scenes that slip from past to present and back so that it feels almost like a piece of cinema jumping between snapshots.

It's the kind of book that makes you braver for having read it. Some parts are downright silly, others heartbreaking; the juxtaposition is masterful. I really enjoyed it and will probably read it again.

ellabur's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

elspethm's review against another edition

3.5

It was sort of on par with other "1001 Books You Must Read" books.  A short novel on a young man who works as a conductor in the Czech Republic during the War.  It didn't really seem to have much of a statement to me other than "War is Hell", but I'm interested in watching the movie to see if I get more out of it then.