My First Loves

by Ivan Klíma

Book Overview

Through four sensuous tales, a young man traces his harsh coming of age in Czechoslovakia, where faith in love, country and human kindness must hold out against increasing political disillusionment. His first affections move from a young kitchen girl in the Jewish ghetto who fills his glass tall with scarce milk to a restless married woman, an undercover spy, and a frail woman who can't escape her past suffering. It is Ivan Klima's keen, ironic eye...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393306011
• ISBN13: 9780393306019
• Release Date: April 1989
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 168 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.4" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Klima's prose is both insightful and beautiful...

Ivan Klima has a way of telling about life behind the Iron Curtain that somehow doesn't make you pity the people there. His short stories let you explore the past and another culture through the eyes of ordinary people. Klima's style is easy to read and even poetic at times. I would definetly recommend Klima to a friend.

very nice short-stories from the Czechoslovak communism

This book shows that even the life in the "goulash communism" had some poetics in it. If you want to learn about the lands that were behind the Iron Curtain and don't feel like going through some horrors or thorough scholarly work - choose Klima.