Patricia S. (curlygurl) reviewed The Republic of Whores: A Fragment from the Time of the Cults on + 11 more book reviews
From Inside Cover: This book takes place on an army base in rural Czechoslovakia, where the draftees of the Seventh Tank Battalion reluctantly prepare for the inevitable war with America.
This is life in the Czechoslovak Stalinist People's Democratic Army at it's most insane, bawdy, and raw. It's a romp though the idioces that prevailed under Soviet occupation and bred fear and nonsense. For all the rules and regulations of oppression, though, the human spirit triumphs here.
With endearing ideological indifference, the young men fake tank maneuvers, study Russian texts with horror novels stuck inse, and mock patriotic songs with their own lyrics. Tank Commander Danny Smiricky, the hero of many Skvorecky novels, is at his most subversive and charming. While Danny tries to cope with his boisterous, not-too-bright, homesick troop, he dreams of love and getting out of the army by fair means or foul.
Review - a great read for the fans of the Smiricky character.
This is life in the Czechoslovak Stalinist People's Democratic Army at it's most insane, bawdy, and raw. It's a romp though the idioces that prevailed under Soviet occupation and bred fear and nonsense. For all the rules and regulations of oppression, though, the human spirit triumphs here.
With endearing ideological indifference, the young men fake tank maneuvers, study Russian texts with horror novels stuck inse, and mock patriotic songs with their own lyrics. Tank Commander Danny Smiricky, the hero of many Skvorecky novels, is at his most subversive and charming. While Danny tries to cope with his boisterous, not-too-bright, homesick troop, he dreams of love and getting out of the army by fair means or foul.
Review - a great read for the fans of the Smiricky character.
