| Engineer of Human Souls Contributor(s): Skvorecky, Josef (Author), Wilson, Paul (Translator) |
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ISBN: 1564781992 ISBN-13: 9781564781994 Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press OUR PRICE: $15.26 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: March 1999 Annotation: Fiction. The expression "the engineer of human souls" is held, by many political indoctrinators, to be Stalin's definition of a writer: as an engineer constructs a machine, so must a writer construct the mind of the New Man. "The Engineer of Human Souls" is a labyrinthine comic novel that investigates the journey and plight of novelist Danny Smiricky, a Czech immigrant to Canada. As adventuresome, episodic, bawdy, comic, and literary, as any novel written in the past twenty-five years, The Engineer is worthy of the subtitle Skvorecky gave it: "An entertainment on the Old Themes of Life, Women, Fate, Dreams, The Working Class, Secret Agents, Love, and Death." "Josef Shvorecky 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" (Ernest Gellner, Times Literary Supplement). |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Fiction |
| Dewey: FIC |
| LCCN: 98-23362 |
| Series: Czech Literature |
| Physical Information: 1.3" H x 6" W x 9" (1.75 lbs) 592 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Canadian |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: "The Engineer of Human Souls" is a labyrinthine comic novel that investigates the journey and plight of novelist Danny Smiricky, a Czech immigrant to Canada. As the novel begins, he is a professor of American literature at a college in Toronto. Out of touch with his young students, and hounded by the Czech secret police, Danny is let loose to roam between past and present, adopting whatever identity that he chooses or has been imposed upon him by History. As adventuresome, episodic, bawdy, comic, and literary as any novel written in the past twenty-five years, "The Engineer of Human Souls" is worthy of the subtitle Skvorecky gave it: "An Entertainment on the Old Themes of Life, Women, Fate, Dreams, The Working Class, Secret Agents, Love and Death." |