Love and Garbage

by Ivan Klíma

Book Overview

From an internationally acclaimed Czech writer comes a shrewd, humane, and poignant novel, set in Prague before the Velvet Revolution, whose perceptions about love, conscience, and betrayal cut to the bone of life in both totalitarian and democratic societies. "A chilling story from the underground."--The New York Times.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679737553
• ISBN13: 9780679737551
• Release Date: March 1993
• Publisher: Vintage
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

hangin' on by a thread

Suppose you spent a lot of your childhood in a Nazi concentration camp, then got out only to find your country taken over by a lot of idiots with party cards who proceeded to Orwellize everything. Idiocy became excellence and excellence just suspicious lack of patriotism. The less you knew, the more qualified you became. And you wanted to write. What would you do ? Would you run away ? But what if your language was spoken by only ten million people in the whole world ? If you left, you'd be read only in translation--through that glass darkly. Well, you opt to stay. But the idiots--shall we call them `jerkists' ?---don't want to give you any recognition. So, you can collect garbage off the streets with a team of oddball companions and you can assuage your circumscribed little life, your frustrations in literature by having a steamy affair with a rather mysterious woman. Ah, but you're married too, with two kids. So, trapped you are. Isn't almost everyone, everywhere, ultimately trapped in a life they didn't imagine ? At least they are in our world, where choice is a possibility. In a nutshell, this is Klima's autobiography and the dilemma of this strange but beautiful novel. I couldn't help but recall Milan Kundera here, even if Klima is probably sick and tired of the comparison. Philosophy plays a big role, plot takes a back seat. Adultery figures large in both writers' work, as it does in Skvorecky's as well. I think it is because in 20th century Czechoslovakia, living meant being in bed with somebody else; you could never be true to one thing. "Sleeping with the enemy" became a common metaphor. The enemy could be yourself. Klima writes that "the most important things in life are non-communicable, not compressible into words...even though he himself tries to do so." Yes, the whole book reverberates with the battle between being true to yourself and being true to the duties you have by being alive, being part of a social fabric, especially one that is odious to you. I'm not sure the battle is won by the end. Nor is it lost. It just goes on. Kafka has to appear, Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge, the philosophy of garbage, and the idea that we are tied to life by countless threads which form a net for us, but we break them, others break them, and they slowly rot away, leaving us, at last, alone. Love must be paramount---it is a strong thread, while garbage is dangerous, a rotting agent, especially discarded ideas that still hang around (like Communism in the old Czechoslovakia.) If you read this novel, you must be interested in such thoughts, Klima's many epigrams, and his musings on many subjects. You will find a very clear presentation of the dilemmas of adultery. There are some humorous passages. But it's most of all the tracing of one man's very human struggle with the givens of life--marriage, government, authority of any kind, nature, and love---that will keep you reading to the end. It is not a pop literature no

The tenuous nature of our safety nets

Many compare Ivan Klima's 'Love and Garbage' to Milan Kundera's 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being'. Although there are many comparable elements between these two excellent novels, it must be said that 'Love and Garbage' has much more of a real human soul to it. Where Kundera's characters tend to be shallow and cold, Klima's have a warmth and realism that will draw in readers. Even though the narrator is having an affair with a sculptress named Daria, we never see him as a calous womaniser, or anything of the sort. He is merely, like any human being, trying to find the person that will make him whole and keep him form the void. Escaping the aforementioned central void is soemthing that obsesses Klima's narrator. To him the various relationships that he has are likely safety nets that keep him from the abyss that lurks beneath human existence. His wife and lover are dual nets that keep him hanging on above it, perhaps this is one place in which the characters approach Kundera like cynicism. However 'Love and Garbage' does not restrict itself to matters of love and runs ts reader throught the gauntlet that is the human experience. Life is viewed from many different ages and viewpoints through the narrator, his wife, his children, his lover and his aging and unwell father. This is all set against the background of the loathsome, totalitarian regime of the time, as well as its "jerkish" traditions and language. The result is a fascinating examination of the human condition.

Klima's masterpiece

Throughout much of the last thirty years some of the finest literary fiction has emerged from Eastern Europe. Much of this was due to Philip Roth's championing of the work of Kundera and other Czech writers. Klima is less well known than his former compatriot, but is a more interesting writer. This novel is charming, a discourse on life, love, censorship, totalitarianism, and Kafka. The tale of an academic forced to give up his academic career to turn to street sweeping, the central character walks through Prague cleaning, and we find ourselves accompanying him. An engaging humane character wins over the reader, and although this novel is slow to start the conversational style slowly engrossed this reader at least.Klima's work will not satisfy those looking for an easy read. But if you are prepared to be challenged then persevere. I, and many friends, have grown to love it.But if you enjoyed this novel try one of his early books of short stories, My First Loves, or an overlooked masterpiece of Polish fiction, Tadeusz Konwicki's A Minor Apocalypse.

quite good

Granted, this book won't be for everybody. For me, it has quite a few excellent scenes and narrative images that stick.

A very deep and touching novel of love.

If you have ever loved before or maybe you are not quite sure what it is to love I would suggest reading this book. It will not answer all of your questions though it will provoke you to view love differently which might help you understand love. This book is philosophical in nature and the reader has to read between the lines to fully grasp what Klima is trying to say, but do not concentrate so much on reading between the lines or the magic will disappear. Klima's story is very easy to relate too and at times becomes very emotional because of this. After reading this book you might be confused tyring to figure out what each part of the story means, but your other thoughts on life or love will be greatly clarified.