FROM THE DIARY OF A COUNTERREVOLUTIONARY

by Pavel Kohout ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 1972

Kohout is a literary critic, playwright, and film director who was active in the liberal cause during the Prague Spring of 1968 before the Russian invasion. His book has three narrators: (1) an adolescent living through the World War II German occupation, the liberation, and the '50's deformation of Czech Communism under Gottwald; (2) an insurgent writer; and (3) a party member traveling with his anti-party mistress, a sort of lowgrade spokeswoman for the non-Communist masses. All three more or less represent Kohout himself, especially the writer, who records clashes in the Writers Union. The tales of the '40's dramatize the strength of the indigenous Communist movement in Czechoslovakia. Later the melodramatic episodes in Italy, where the narrator as party representative is privileged to travel with his mistress, offer telling dialogues with a third Czech: ""Are you trying to say we [Party leaders] were criminals?"" ""I am trying to say that we weren't Marxists, and that if we are ever punished, the first and foremost charge will be for our crimes against Marxism. We behaved like quacks pretending to be experienced surgeons."" There are only glimpses of the Russian invasion itself. The hero and his acquaintances remain one-dimensional in a cinematic, typecast way. But the book has enough historical dimension, political play, and circumstantial frisson to enlarge the record.

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1972

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: McGraw-Hill

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1972

Categories: NONFICTION