Too Loud a Solitude / The Little Town Where Time Stood Still
Bohumil Hrabal · 1976
Hrabal's compressed prose novellas function as extended short stories. The internal monologue of a paper-press operator is one of the most lyrical achievements in Czech literature. His influence on Central European fiction is immense.
The case against
Hanta tells you he has been compacting wastepaper for thirty-five years, then tells you again, and again; the incantation is the architecture, and it either hypnotizes you or reads like a drunk repeating himself at closing time. Hrabal's unbroken paragraphs give you nowhere to rest, and the companion novella is the slighter work, there to thicken the spine.
Short Stories · the Pro canon
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
if this one calls to you, so will these →
