The Hangwoman

by Pavel Kohout

A novel translated from the Czech by Kaca Polackova-Henley. A wildly funny satire about a black-comic Lolita. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0399124160
• ISBN13: 9780399124167
• Release Date: January 1981
• Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group
• Length: 293 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Clever, Nasty, and Elegantly Done

This book is brilliant and heartless, as it must be when the subject of its thoroughgoing satire is sadism that is officially sanctioned by the State. There are no faltering steps or sentimental lapses anywhere in the work. The story revolves around a year in the life of Lizinka Tachezy, a beautiful girl of fifteen who has been rejected by the Drama Institute and the regular high school academic program. Her parents are desperate about her schooling and future. They suddenly find an educational opening and a strong recommendation from people who count, people with official connections - unfortunately the available spot is at a school training hangmen, and she is chosen as the first female candidate to fulfill this post. This is the new, experimental School of Executionary Sciences. The school is created by the nation's most illustrious hangman, Bedrich (Frederick) Wolf, who is assisted by a former secret policeman highly skilled in the art and science of torture, Pavel (Paul) Simsa, a man whose name echoes Czech (or German) literature's most famous man-as-insect, Gregor Samsa. While, for the time being, they must conceal the nature of their program from the public, they have behind-the-scenes supporters in high places -- the Prosecutor, the Judge, and most importantly, the mysterious "Doctor". In the course of his life the Doctor has realized a true "revenge of the bureaucratic clerks" in the manner of the Wizard of Oz (I will not reveal his hilarious secret here). This novel was written in Czech (as "Katyne") in 1970 and published in tranlation in 1978. The English translation by Kaca Polackova-Henley is excellent and does justice to the alternating whimsy and bluntness of Kohout's style in dealing with a tricky subject (the depraved practices of individuals and societies, practices and institutions which have their own bleakly comic dynamic as they devour themselves.) And what are those practices and institutions? In short they are torture and execution. As in any decent Communist society there is theory and praxis in this limited but very meaningful realm. Theory is presented in the self-justifications of Wolf, who convinces himself that torture and death are the mainstay and fundamental element not only of his own State, but of civilization. In addition to conveying this idea (and ideal) to his pupils, he also provides a dry, factual and appreciative history of punitive techniques throughout the ages - a history of sadism. And there is plenty of practice, as we learn of Wolf's and Simsa's gory (and in their mind, glorious) pasts. Wolf's own early years are murky and typical of men who came of age during the years of the Protectorate, and his relationship with his wartime German sponsor who induced him to betray a feckless resistance group (and his sponsor's surviving brother, who ran his own little euthanasia center in Bavaria) must be concealed in order to protect his patriotic reputation and his position as

Cruel but fascinating and funny

The book is filled with descriptions, excerpts, quotes etc from the rich history of "lawfull" homicide. Every method of execution or torture, are minutely explained. Do not mistake, this is not a reference book. All the above comes within a story about an aficionado hang-man opening a school for executioners. There is much more to tell, of course, mainly about the feminine student that gives the book its title, but I will let you read for yourself. If you ever read another Kohout, you will like this one, if not, it's as good as any to begin with. Enjoy.