Living Parallel

By Alexandr Kliment

This novel about conflicts of conscience explores an unusual love triangle of a man, a woman, and the Czech countryside. Mikulas is an architect who has spent his career designing prefab high-rise... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0945774516
• ISBN13: 9780945774518
• Release Date: February 2002
• Publisher: Catbird Press
• Length: 238 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

"You can't grow old under a single flag..."

At least not in beleaguered central Europe, at any rate ("where Prague Central used to be called Masaryk Station. Formerly known as Ferdinand Station"). Yes, the map of eastern Europe has been redrawn how many times in the last century alone?? "But why get worked up over it?" shrugs Mikulas Svoboda, our anti-hero in Alexander Kliment's Living Parallel. Mikulas repeats this same refrain at least 15 times throughout the story, reflecting his helplessness living under the communist regime in 1960s Czechoslovakia. Like other people living in police states, he has learned to survive by living a double life. Who wouldn't feel a little schizophrenic getting schooled as a youngster first under the fascist regime in the 1930s, only to be later followed by the Soviet brand of brainwashing? Mikulas has forged an uneasy truce with his guilt in comlying with his Marxist bosses in designing prefab "ugly, gray kitsch(y) housing cells" for which the Soviets are now infamous; an architect by profession, he "can't cross the border of drudgery to creation." The crux of Living Parallel, though, is Mikulas' dilemma whether to take up the opportunity to emigrate West with a friend or to remain in his native Prague. His story then takes us through the convolutions of his thoughts and feelings as he debates the pro's and con's of leaving home. Yes, living under an oppressive regime is difficult (to say the least) but can Mikulas' finely honed talent of living a successful, parallel life be sufficient for him after all? This book is a complex one, difficult to summarize in a short review; questions of religious faith and politics are woven throughout the narrative. Originally published in 1977, Living Parallel was written by Alexander Kliment, a dissident whose work was banned in his native Czechoslovakia while under communist rule. It was translated by Robert Wechsler, who must be commended for painstaking work. Some of the most beautiful descriptions of the Prague landscape can be found within the pages of Living Parallel.