About this title: A group of expatriates living in Budapest in 1990 would rather be in Prague, which seems to them to be the quintessential Eastern European city. Obsessed with a game called Sincerity, which both encourages and exposes lying, five characters interact with each other and with the city they're living in, providing a sharply observed picture of young ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Random House
Date Published: 06/2002
ISBN-13:9780375507878ISBN:0375507876
Description: Good in good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 384 p. Ex-Library expected imperfections. read more
Binding: PAPERBACK
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
ISBN-13:9780375759772ISBN:0375759778
Description: Very Good. 0375759778 light shelf wear / edge wear cover / pages very good condition//"Buy with Confidence-Satisfaction Guaranteed! Customer Service Makes All the Difference. " read more
"I can't say enough about Arthur Phillips' novels while simultaneously recognizing that he would appeal to a narrow audience: those who enjoy literary fiction with a little bit of complicated structure/narrative. Phillips is author with a mastery (some might think gimmicky) use of language. This first novel, Prague, takes place in Budapest. John Price has just arrived in the ex-pat community, having followed his brother there in the hopes of unrequited brotherly camaraderie. In the course of the year we follow John as he develops a variety of (usually unhealthy) relationships. The overall theme is Finding Yourself, minus all the self-helpy goop, but with a very large dose of cynicism and lots of humor. Readers will find most characters to be self-involved, insincere, and unappealing but this is exactly the point. John's odyssey is to evolve beyond juvenile glibness to honesty and something real. John's personal voyage is paralleled by the setting: Hungary establishing an identity as a now-capitalistic country after decades of war, corruption, and Communism. I think it's brilliant."
"Part of being an LDS missionary serving in Romanian in 1992/1993 was the feeling that
a) you were missing out by not being in Budapest (or in Prague) b) you were missing out on not being able to leverage your American exoticism and energy for some sort of vague gain and fun c) you were superior to the expats and the tourists because you spoke near fluent Romanian and met hundreds of the locals in there own homes, and, with many of them, learn their stories d) you were building something more interesting, lasting and useful and care more about the people than the buzzing expats
I'm not entirely sure what it means that this novel confirms a, b, c and d. I recommend it to Gen Xers that aren't yet sick of playing around with irony. No else should really bother."
"A book that doesn't say much of anything, but what it says it says beautifully and with a broad and pervasive irony. Some of the writing is so good that I was just delighted, loved it. The story, if one can call it that, is set in Budapest, Hungary in 1990/91; Prague doesn't come in to it except as a more desirable location. There are some young people from other countries, mostly Americans. One works at the embassy, one works in finance trying to find Hungarian businesses that are worthy of American investment dollars, one works for the newspaper BudapesToday, another is researching nostalgia. There are some other characters, even an Hungarian, but it is mainly a story about these expat dilettantes living in a post Communist Hungary. The most enjoyable parts of the book for me were the parts that traced the history of something. I liked the part about the house that becomes the A Hazam club, and also the tracing of the Horvath family and their printing business. I didn't care for the ending."
"I loved the moment when, while playing the game Sincerity, Emily lies "I think I could live in Hungary forever," and John smilingly imagines Emily "raising her Hungarian children to be the first trusting and cheerful nonsmokers in the nation's history."
Also, when Charles goes with John to arrange a sublease, and Charles translates what is said by the old man leaving the apartment: "Okay, first the bad news. Mr. Szabo is looking forward to returning to the countryside with me. He's missed me. Also, he's very glad you and the army have finally arrived. He always knew the Americans would come to kills the Russians and he thanks you. This puts us in about 1956, I'd say, when the Americans most definitely did not show up.""
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