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Indlæser... Skarpt bevogtede tog (1965)af Bohumil Hrabal
Indlæser...
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This slim book, 91 pages of strikingly wide margins, constitutes no more than a novella, but is full of incident. It also treats of those novelistic big issues, love, sex and death. In early 1945 various railway workers play out their lives against a backdrop of military and passenger train movements through their strategic location, a small railway station in Bohemia. The novella’s denouement takes place against the fire-bombing of Dresden lighting up the night sky. Graduate trainee Miloš Hrma comes from a long line of eccentrics, one of whom tried to stop the German invasion in 1939 by the power of hypnosis alone - before being crushed by a tank. In his private life Miloš is troubled in his relationship with his girlfriend Masha by a lapse of physical prowess at a crucial moment. The station is a surprisingly sexualised environment – the Station Master’s oilcloth covered couch has been ripped in several places during an illicit liaison and Dispatcher Hubrićka has used the station’s official stamps scandalously - to imprint the female telegraphist’s buttocks. The feel of the passages dealing with these aspects of people’s lives is akin to magic realism but of course along with these there are always in the background the train movements, which the workers keep under close surveillance, to consider. I know no Czech and consequently have not read the original so cannot say how true it was, but the translation read easily. A slight familiarity with German or Latin may occasionally help the reader with the few quotes from those languages which are included but the context makes most of them obvious and the important one is later rendered in English. In Closely Observed Trains Hrabal has written a fine novella, an impressive work about how life carries on even in trying circumstances - and also an observation on the futility and arbitrariness of war. Tilhører ForlagsserienIndeholdt iHar tilpasningen
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. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Indlæser... GenrerMelvil Decimal System (DDC)891.8635Literature Literature of other languages Literature of east Indo-European and Celtic languages West and South Slavic languages (Bulgarian, Slovene, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Serbo-Croatian, and Macedonian) Czech Czech fiction 1900–1989LC-klassificeringVurderingGennemsnit:
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Sådan starter Hrabals roman fra 1965. På sin vis var sagen afgjort, men krigen var ikke slut endnu, og som i så mange andre lande blev modstandskampen kun skærpet, da konflikten gik ind i sin afgørende fase. Skarpt bevogtede tog udspiller sig i en lille tjekkisk flække tæt på grænsen til Tyskland, hvor transporterne til og fra fronten rumler forbi. Et oplagt mål for modstandsbevægelsen – især de ”skarpt bevogtede” tog med afgørende forsyninger.
Fortælleren er den unge jernbaneelev Milos Hrama, der lige er vendt tilbage til jobbet efter en længere sygeperiode. Baggrunden er både tragisk og banal: Da han første gang skulle være sammen med sin kæreste, kunne han ikke gennemføre samlejet, og skammen og skuffelsen var så stor, at han forsøgte at begå selvmord på et hotel. Det mislykkedes dog, og omstændighederne tyder på, at han i virkeligheden håbede på at blive reddet i sidste øjeblik.
Der er heller ikke meget heroisk over de andre personer på stationen. Stationsforstanderen er mest optaget af sine duer og af at gøre et godt indtryk på baronen på slottet i nærheden. Derudover har han et kolerisk temperament og drømmer om forfremmelse. Faktisk så meget, at han allerede har den nye uniform klar i skabet. Trafikassistent Hubicka tager jernbanedriften meget mindre alvorligt. Han er til gengæld fuldblods skørtejæger og har skabt skandale ved at stemple telegrafistinden bagi med stationens stempler. Ikke just en pryd på for statsbanerne!
Som det fremgår, er det ikke prototypiske helte, og særligt i romanens første del er der et betydeligt element af absurd komedie. Men ekstraordinære situationer kalder særlige kvaliteter frem, og nogen skal jo slå et slag for at standse ammunitionstogene til fronten. Hrabal både bekræfter og fornyer den patriotiske fortælling om krigen som heroisk mobilisering af folket.
Skarpt bevogtede tog er en god roman, som ikke tager sit alvorlige emne så alvorligt, at den ikke giver plads til tilværelsens absurde sider. Det er med til at gøre den til en fortælling, der er værd at læse. ( )