The Engineer of Human Souls - Softcover

SKVORECKY JOSEF

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0671556827 ISBN 13: 9780671556822

Publisher: Washington Square Press - Pocket Books, 1985

Synopsis

RO60105275. THE ENGINEER OF HUMAN SOULS. 1985. In-8. Broché. Etat d'usage, Couv. défraîchie, Dos satisfaisant, Pliures. 571 pages.. . . . Classification Dewey : 420-Langue anglaise. Anglo-saxon

About this title

Review

A deep pleasure to read.

Starred Review.This powerful, moving, yet often hilarious novel is an example of cultural meditation at its best.

Skvorecky is so much of a writer that the moment he puts pen to paper, he can't help being an artist.

What better check on general doctrine than the poet's and the novelist's 'small stories, ' the kind that Josef Skvorecky recounts with such verve and generosity.

A complex, challenging analysis of contemporary politics and society, The Engineer of Human Souls will become a milestone in the evolution of world literature.

Josef Skvorecky is unquestionably an important writer, blending a great humorous talent with a restless, sustained, probing moral inquisitiveness . . . The Engineer of Human Souls will certainly introduce the reader to the distinctive Skvorecky world.

[Skvorecky is] one of the major literary figures of our time . . . a novelist of the first rank . . . one of the masters of current Czech literature . . . His novels are sad, funny--and utterly gripping.

By turns comic or sad and bitter, Skvorecky's book is a marvelous exploration of the human condition.

Among its many other virtues, The Engineer of Human Souls is perhaps the funniest academic novel since Malcolm Bradbury's The History Man.

Starred Review. This powerful, moving, yet often hilarious novel is an example of cultural meditation at its best.

Skvorecky would probably chide us for dismissing any of the injustices and griefs that abound in [the novel]. They are real and they are gruesome. And yet we put the novel down with a sense of joy at the plenitude of life. --Michael Henry Heim

A funny, despairing, satirical, compassionate, sprawling, gloomy, provocative, prophetic, angry, and entertaining book. One of the most important novels ever written in Canada. --Canadian Forum

It is magnificent! . . . It marks an exceptional moment in history . . . It is a magnum opus. --Milan Kundera

It is a relief to read him, to know that there are still writers like him who have things to say that are vitally important for all of us . . . What he writes about rivets the soul. --Alan Sillitoe

About the Author

Josef Skvorecky is the author of "The Cowards," "The Bass Saxophone," "The Engineer of Human Souls," and "Dvorak in Love," among other works. He is the winner of Canada's Governor General's Award. He and his wife, Zdena, divide their time between Toronto and Venice, Florida.

Edition details

• Publisher: Washington Square Press - Pocket Books
• Publication date: 1985
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0671556827
• ISBN 13: 9780671556822
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 571