''Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age'' ( cs, Taneční hodiny pro starší a pokročilé) is a 1964 novel by the Czech writer
Bohumil Hrabal
Bohumil Hrabal (; 28 March 1914 – 3 February 1997) was a Czech writer, often named among the best Czech writers of the 20th century.
Early life
Hrabal was born in Židenice (suburb of Brno) on 28 March 1914, in what was then the province ...
. It tells the story of a man who recounts various events from his past, and in particular his love life. The novel is written in one long sentence.
Reception
The book was reviewed in ''
Publishers Weekly
''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...
'' in 1995, where the critic described it as a "humorous and breathless affair". The review continued: "Hrabal, who has been cited as a major literary influence by
Milan Kundera
Milan Kundera (, ; born 1 April 1929) is a Czech writer who went into exile in France in 1975, becoming a naturalised French citizen in 1981. Kundera's Czechoslovak citizenship was revoked in 1979, then conferred again in 2019. He "sees himself ...
and
Ivan Klima
Ivan () is a Slavic male given name, connected with the variant of the Greek name (English: John) from Hebrew meaning 'God is gracious'. It is associated worldwide with Slavic countries. The earliest person known to bear the name was Bulgari ...
, among others, is generally considered the most revered living Czech author. It's easy to see why. As this novel (originally published in Czech in 1964) plays around with Czech history, juxtaposing the public life of the country with the private life of the narrator, Hrabal displays abounding energy and a rambunctious wit." Howard Norman of the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' wrote that it "stands up to the best of Hrabal", and argued that his novels "distill complicated human behavior to its basic--albeit at times repugnant, at times joyful--motivations".
See also
*
1964 in literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1964.
Events
*January 10 – Federico García Lorca's play ''The House of Bernarda Alba'', completed just before his assassination in 1936, receives its first perfo ...
*
Czech literature
Czech literature can refer to literature written in Czech, in the Czech Republic (formerly Czechoslovakia, earlier the Lands of the Bohemian Crown), or by Czech people.
Most literature in the Czech Republic is now written in Czech, but histor ...
References
1964 Czech novels
Novels by Bohumil Hrabal
NYRB Classics
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