Name: Joshua Line's review of Closely Watched Trains by Bohumil Hrabal
Item: Closely Watched Trains
Rating: 4
Author: Joshua Line

Bohumil Hrabal

Hrabal's postwar classic about a young man's coming of age in German-occupied Czechoslovakia is among his most beloved and accessible works. Closely Watched Trains is the subtle and poetic portrait of Milos Hrma, a timid young railroad apprentice who insulates himself with fantasy against a reality filled with cruelty and grief. Day after day as he watches trains fly by, he torments himself with the suspicion that he himself is being watched and with fears of impotency. Hrma finally affirms his manhood and, with a sense of peace and purpose he has never known before, heroically confronts a trainload of Nazis.

Closely Watched Trains

Joshua Line

i felt like it was kind of a drag but had some funny / memorably moments here and there 

chiara

umm holy shit lol. I didn’t love the beginning/middle, kind of felt like a drag. 

Then it picked up with maybe the most epic description of losing your virginity (male POV) ever and that ending .. whoof!

“According to the books I’ve got ejaculatio praecox, you know?”

Annie Millman

umm holy shit lol. I didn’t love the beginning/middle, kind of felt like a drag. 

Then it picked up with maybe the most epic description of losing your virginity (male POV) ever and that ending .. whoof!

“According to the books I’ve got ejaculatio praecox, you know?”

Faith Ho 

a quick review for a mercifully short novel. this guy is supposed to be very humorous but i must confess that the humour almost completely flew over my head. i was all ready to give up on this when i got to the end (not really understanding anything that had happened really) and it made it all worthwhile. it was a single scene, really one short sequence of events, but it was crafted so powerfully, and has left its mark in my mind.

A classic of postwar literature, a small masterpiece of humour, humanity and heroism from one of the best Czech writers For twenty-two-year-old Milos, bumbling apprentice at a sleepy Czech railway station, life is full of worries: his burdensome virginity, his love for the pretty conductor Masha, the scandalous goings-on in the station master's office. Beside them, the part he will come to play against the occupying Germans seems a simple affair, in Bohumil Hrabal's touching, absurd masterpiece of humour, humanity and heroism. Closely Watched Trains, which became the award-winning Jiri Menzel film of the 'Prague Spring', is a masterpiece that fully justifies Hrabal's reputation as one of the best Czech writers of the twentieth century.

por momentos está bueno, pero se hace bastante lento la mayor parte del tiempo.

benja

ren 🎧

A great testament towards masculinity, war, and how they feed into each other!

For gauche young apprentice Milos Hrma, life at the small but strategic railway station in Bohemia in 1945 is full of complex preoccupations. There is the exacting business of dispatching German troop trains to and from the toppling Eastern front; the problem of ridding himself of his burdensome innocence; and the awesome scandal of Dispatcher Hubicka's gross misuse of the station's official stamps upon the telegraphist's anatomy. Beside these, Milos's part in the plan for the ammunition train seems a simple affair. CLOSELY OBSERVED TRAINS, which became the award-winning Jiri Menzel film of the 'Prague Spring', is a classic of postwar literature, a small masterpiece of humour, humanity and heroism which fully justifies Hrabal's reputation as one of the best Czech writers of today.

Closely Observed Trains

Tobias V. Langhoff

Ned Summers 

Ed Kay

Noha Abdelaziz

Youssef Katamish

cenk karagören

Michal Vaculík

Jan Jackson

A classic of postwar literature, a small masterpiece of humour, humanity and heroism from one of the best Czech writers For gauche young apprentice Milos Hrma, life at the small but strategic railway station in Bohemia in 1945 is full of complex preoccupations. There is the exacting business of dispatching German troop trains to and from the toppling Eastern front; the problem of ridding himself of his burdensome innocence; and the awesome scandal of Dispatcher Hubicka's gross misuse of the station's official stamps upon the telegraphist's anatomy. Beside these, Milos's part in the plan for the ammunition train seems a simple affair. Closely Watched Trains, which became the award-winning Jiri Menzel film of the 'Prague Spring', is a masterpiece that fully justifies Hrabal's reputation as one of the best Czech writers of the twentieth century.

Joshua Line &
Closely Watched Trains by Bohumil Hrabal

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Joshua Line &Closely Watched Trains by Bohumil Hrabal

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Joshua Line &
Closely Watched Trains by Bohumil Hrabal