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Hašek's The Good Soldier Švejk is an absolutely essential read, it has to be in the list of the top 100 books to read before one departs this planet! Not only
by hilbert42 3y ago
Hašek's The Good Soldier Švejk is an absolutely essential read, it has to be in the list of the top 100 books to read before one departs this planet!
Not only is it hilariously funny it's also full of the tribulations of life and how the system—bureaucracies—here the army—lands one in absurd and unexpected situations.
It's a great shame Hašek died so young (he was a great observer of human nature).
Do yourself a real favor, read it or get an audio book.
- mooreds 3y agoHow does it compare to Catch-22?
- Lariscus 3y agoJoseph Heller claimed he would have never written it had he never read The Good Soldier Švejk.
- mooreds 3y agoHmm. A quick Google didn't find that. From https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/17/theater/newsandfeatures/the-model-of-a-soldier-but-no-model-soldier.html https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/17/theater/newsandfeatures/t... "Heller, who died in 1999, told various interviewers that Céline and Kafka were his most powerful influences and that "Svejk" was "just a funny book.""
- Zircom 3y agoFound a quote, had to use the anglicized spelling though. https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2011/08/heller-201108 https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2011/08/heller-201108 "The Czech writer Arnošt Lustig claimed that Heller had told him at a New York party for Milos Forman in the late 1960s that he couldn’t have written Catch-22 without first reading Jaroslav Hašek’s unfinished World War I satire, The Good Soldier Schweik. "
- malermeister 3y agoGermanized, really.
- _visgean 3y agothere are some references in catch-22 and its follow up Closing time.
- bee_rider 3y agoI was really surprised by Closing Time. I forget all the details of it, but I remember finding it just relentlessly depressing. The only degree to which I thought it worked was, it really emphasized the extent to which we really don’t need to know what happens to characters after the story is done, it is better if we just imagine they go on to have their lives.
- _visgean 3y agoSame. It was so heavy compared to catch-22. But I am not sure the aging perspective could have been written any different.
- rightbyte 3y agoI think if you like one, you like the other. I think the Svejk book have a more innocent tone and is less cynical. But I was way to young when I read them to have a "deep" understanding of the contexts.
- romwell 3y agoI'd say it's more cynical. There's a place for hope in Catch-22. In Svejk, the gruesome absurdity of the war prevails in all situations.
- imjonse 3y agoI found Catch-22 much more hilarious than Švejk.
- ufocia 3y agoI thought Svejk was more available to a younger reader. However, like someone already mentioned, it has enough layers for a reader of almost any age to enjoy. I'd read them both.
- watwut 3y agoIt makes sense unlike Catch-22 that does not make sense.
- soperj 3y agoit only makes sense once you've already read it once.
- red-iron-pine 3y agoCatch-22 is funny during the read but after the end, and in reflection, is pretty dark. Svejk is generally funnier, IMO
- mcepl 3y agoŠvejk is too much slanted by the expectations of “just funny” and by (absolutely awesome, but too nice) illustrations by Josef Lada. When listening to the audio version of the book, I was shocked how actually horrific story it is. I have mentioned elsewhere in this thread a Czech literary historian (M. C. Putna) who called “The Good Solider Švejk” as “Kafka’s ‘Trial’ by other means”. I think he is quite correct.
- The_Colonel 3y agoAs a child, I understood Svejk as pure comedy and didn't get any of the darkness.
- sireat 3y agoI thought Švejk to be much funnier. Rather I thought Catch-22 to be a so-so imitation of Švejk. Then again I've been re-reading Švejk since childhood. Similarly, how you can tell when Hasek dies before finishing Švejk and his friend takes over with the ending, the jokes just fall off a bit.
- romwell 3y ago>How does it compare to Catch-22? It's the Catch-22 of WW1. A bit more gruesome and obscene, both less serious and much darker than Catch-22, and highlighting a wider scope of social (and military) issues.
- poloniculmov 3y agoHis short stories are also hilarious and in the same vein as Svejk's adventures.
- weinzierl 3y agoI've enjoyed Švejk's adventures, but never read any Hašek's short stories. Can you recommend a particular one you like?
- dhosek 3y agoThere was a recent collection of new translations of his stories, many of which had never previously appeared in English. They’re not ideal in that the translations are translations of a German edition of his stories and not the original Czech texts, but they’re still a fun read. https://paradiseeditions.net/products/the-man-without-a-transit-pass https://paradiseeditions.net/products/the-man-without-a-tran...
- mcepl 3y agoYes, they are only hilarious. Švejk on the other hand is in my opinion much more serious. One Czech literary critic call it even “Kafka by other means”. Yes, Hašek was a satiric writer, so that’s how he wrote, but Švejk is IMHO actually a serious book about the horror of a human being liquidated by the impersonal power of modern society.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- hulitu 3y ago> about the horror of a human being liquidated by the impersonal power of modern society it is now forbidden to call war by its name ? /s
- The_Colonel 3y agoŠvejk is what I call a "scalable" book. It works for readers of almost any level. The first time I read it I was maybe 8 years old and had a lot of fun, even though I completely missed most of the nuance.
- hilbert42 3y agoVery true, I wouldn't have recognized many of the nuances had I not had military training and having worked in government bureaucracies.
- runlaszlorun 3y agoOh yeah? I’ll add it to my list. I’ve served and I was thinking of passing on it. Luckily I was well versed before I showed up to Uncle Sam’s doorstep. Catch-22 paints paints a good picture. And had a high counselor who was a Vietnam vet and said Apocalypse Now was the most realistic Vietnam movie he’d. And I can’t say that my experiences in were too far from my expectations. I think the thing people don’t get about the military, at least speaking of my experience in the US’s, is even in places like special operations units and doing the stuff that reads great in a newspaper, often enough there’s an absolute, epic, comedic shitshow going on inside with a cast of characters that you couldn’t even do justice to in a goofball comedy. Suppose that might apply to lots of things. Luckily, no military really has to have their shit together, they just gotta be better than the other side.
- 48864w6ui 3y agoOne of Napoleon's cavalry generals said his average trooper's horsemanship was mediocre at best, yet they still made the tour of Europe. (Later, in the time of Napoleon III, the Prussians would outdo the French in utilizing mediocrity, providing yet another example that for a conscripted military, quantity is its own quality)
- lukan 3y agoMore examples of "scalable" books please?
- sigma5 3y agowhat's the other books that are on your 100 books list to read before one departs this planet ?
- niccl 3y agoNot the original commenter but I'd include: Vanity Fair by Thackeray Mr Johnson by Joyce Cary Lavengro and Romany Rye by George Borrow The Descent of Woman by Elaine Morgan Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies by Douglas Hofstadter et al. Identity Crisis by Ben Elton
- leononame 3y agoI would add One Hundred Years of Solitude to the list. Probably the book that impacted me the most of all the books I've read. I just can't recommend it enough
- scandox 3y agoThe audio version read by David Horovitch is incredible.
- rompledorph 3y agoOrdered!