I find the book does not adequetly explain the more complex code examples. First of all the code is not adequetly commented. Secondly, it does not explain the code well for programmers. First when introducing a program like in the expert systems shell chapter it should first define an interface for the program, and explain each goal listed. It should adequetly explain what each goal and clause should hope to achieve. Also, for the more complicated programs it should draw some type of diagram, maybe a flow chart or something that explains the concepts involved. It leaves too much figuring out and guessing for the reader. It is not very user-friendly!
On the positive side, it does an adequate job of explaining concepts when complex code is not involved. I found that I could follow along on even the more advanced chapters mostly everything at least until code was suddenly introduced. Then it became a guessing game as to what it was trying to do.
The author does not seem to realize that it is more difficult to try to understand somebody else's program than it is to write your own program from scratch. As a consequence the reader wastes a lot of time trying to guess what his program is doing.
Note: this review is of the 2nd edition and does not necessarily reflect the 3rd. But, then again, every other review on this page prior to mine is about the 2nd edition as well!

... a horrible Prolog tutorial.

This is not a good first book on Prolog. If you are new to Prolog and Logic Programming, you should read 'Art of Prolog' first.

Prolog is quite different from other languages, and you'll need some time to get it. This book doesn't give you that time: after briefly introducing the basic concepts, Bratko dives at breakneck speed into recursion and list processing.

Don't get me wrong, this is a magnificent book on how to do AI with Prolog, but it shouldn't be your first Prolog book. It's an excellent second book.

Professor Bratko has done a tremendous job of putting all the fundamental concepts of Prolog and its applications in various areas of AI. Although this book is focused on Prolog, the concepts that he has discussed are so fundamental that they can be implemented in other languages like Java as well.

I recommend this book to everyone who wants to learn Prolog. I would also recommend the readers to use a Prolog system to work out the examples and exercises as s/he goes through every chapter. A DEC10 Prolog system (like SICStus Prolog) would probably be the best companion for this book.

In giving this book only three stars, I'm not rating Turgenev but rather the translation. I'm not a translator myself, I'm sure it's very difficult rendering dialogue from another time and place, etc., etc. but I finally couldn't abide the translator's choice in this case to render the voices of nineteenth century Russian peasants in Cockney (or other English) slang.

Examples: "He was a right pain to his peasant girls." "They felt right idiots." "He's not a gent, is he?" "Help us, mate." "Judge for yourself, mate." "He's the soul of kindness, he is." "Gavrila comprehended-like how to get out of the wood." The use of "'cos" for "because." The use of "gotta"--"And I've gotta tell you this."

And what was for me the last straw, in the story Bezhin Lea, "Cor!" and "Cor, stone me!"

If you like this kind of thing, you'll love the book. For Russian lit in translation, give me Constance Garnett (and her Edwardian diction--which works so well, perhaps because it seems natural in contrast to the forced quality on display in "Sketches") or else the current team of Pevear and Volokhonsky.

It's taken me until now to get to Sketches From A Hunter's Album. Now I have finished it and now I am grieving. It will stay in my nonlending collection so I can savor it even after the surprise has gone. It's like losing a friend.

Turgenev calls these 'sketches' rather than stories. It's a good distinction. More story writers should concentrate on their sketch pads. The sketches are of places and people in the rural south of Russia in the 1840s. Each is strung thematically on Turgenev's wandrings through the countryside while hunting for game birds. Each begins with a mention that he was hunting in a certain place. He goes into lovely thoughtful and surprising descriptions of the woods or marsh, the sky, the smells, the sounds, the light. Even in translation, these are exquisite. He speaks of shifting light shining through the leaves onto the forest floor, or unbreatheable noonday heat, or changing skies at the advent of a storm, a dawn, or a sunset; he calls up moments from your own life that you thought could not be shared with anyone who wasn't there and he makes you relive those moments as if he had been there with you.

For anyone who has spent time out of doors, these little Aldo Leopold nature essays standing alone would be reason enough to read the 'Sketches', but these are just hors d'œuvre to his descriptions of the persons he meets while hunting. When sketching people, Turgenev does gracefully what Dickens tried to do and did clumsily; that is, he describes the physical characteristics of a person and gives you a fully formed description of their character as well, and he does this without sounding forced and without showing himself. (And you will burst out laughing at the sudden recognition that, indeed, someone does look 'like a root vegetable'.)

"Sketches" was published twice in Turgenev's lifetime and in the second edition he added to it. In the earlier sketches, Turgenev brings a character to life in a description; the character may speak a few words, and disappear from the scene, as people do in real life, leaving the reader to speculate what became of him. Yet, Turgenev has given us enough insight into the character that we think we know what probably happened next, and so the story is complete. These are elegant Aristotelian constructs with the action taking place offstage, and, oh elegance! with the final action taking place in the reader's imagination after the story has ended. If my description leaves you wondering, read them! (Would that I could spur you to act as Turgenev spurs his readers to think. Ah, but it's too much... .) This is what Turgenev does. He starts you thinking, but requires you to complete the story. In the later sketches Turgenev is just as deft in his descriptions, but perhaps to satisfy the market or his editors he adopts a more plot driven model. These later contributions can more truly be called stories rather than sketches. They are equally well-crafted, but they demand less of the reader. Curiously, they give us less as well.

The hunter's travels theme gives the collection an interrelatedness, almost like a picaresque novel. As in Huckleberry Finn or Don Quixote, neither the author nor the protagonist directly express opinions, but as stories accumulate the reader acquires the author's strong politicized view. We meet the aristocrats and peasants of rural Russia. The serf-holding system had been 'liberalized' in the early 19th century, but it is revealed as the unnamed slavery it was. Landlords control peasants' rights to marry; they name the persons to fill regional conscription quotas; they assign agricultural and residential alotments; and thoughtless and uncaring aristocrats use these powers carelessly or maliciously to destroy lives. Liberal aristocrats fare no better than traditional feudalists, as Turgenev details social reformers' well-meaning disasters which beggar both for the peasants and the bumbling aristocrats who direct them.

America often forgets that its civil war was part of a European pandemic of peasant revolts driven by the extended logic of the Enlightenment. As masters and slaves in the United States were struggling with the immorality of a divine order handed down from a prior age, the masters and servants in Europe did the same. The 1840s, 50s, and 60s were tumultuous times in central and eastern Europe. Turgenev, arrested and exiled in 1852 because of the 'Sketches', has an historical place akin to the American abolitionists of the same day, however, unlike Harriet Beecher Stowe, Turgenev draws his characters in three dimensions with humanity, with love and understanding even when he does not forgive them their moral failings. The 'Sketches' would be an interesting book to teach alongside Huckleberry Finn.

I don't like short stories, never have and I don't know why. I had to read this collection for a course and found it pretty good. The professor told us that this was Hemingway's favorite book which Hemingway had read over and over. In fact, Hemingway modeled some of his own stories on those here, particularly the Hemingway stories where nothing happens except someone might make a pot of coffee. But let's face it, these are not so much stories (narrations of events in time) as sketches of characters. Any plot would be too much plot and would interfer with the general effect, which is to show us the life and times of Russians before the liberation of the serfs. I liked "The Singers", as other reviewer have, but the true masterpiece, worth the entire price of the book, is "Living Relic." Nothing happens in that story except we learn again the beauty and strength of the human spirit and in the process the redemptive nature of true literature.

Most businesses in the world today are owned by families, but only a small percentage of these companies will survive and grow into major corporations. The unique challenges posed by family ownership can undermine even the best-performing small business, as issues of control and succession permeate the generations. In Generation to Generation, the authors apply the simple premise that managing a family-owned business to a large extent means managing the family itself. To that end, they provide a rich compendium of research and strategic suggestions for those charged with making a family business work, including the consultants who guide them. We from getAbstract highly recommend this book for these applicable measures and methods, which will help the performance of both business and family.

The authors effectively present a theoretical, as well as practical model of family business dynamics, incorporating the complexities of development over time. This book is a must-read to gain a deep understanding of families in business from the key perspectives of familiy, business, and ownership. Their use of case examples effectively illustrate the practical application and relevance of theory. To sum it up, it's steak AND sizzle!

I think this is one of the best books available on family businesses! I found it insightful and informative. I think anyone interested in the subject should read this book. I strongly disagree with the review that describes this book as "too theoretical." I found it immensly practical.

If you consider the meaning of death, you come to the question of Life After Death. But if you put that aside, for now, you have still to consider your own relation to upcoming death, from day to day, irrespective of whether there is immortality or not. Ivan of this tale has a sense of his death because physically he is dying. The philosopher Gurdjieff remarked that man ought to know when he dies: what day, what time, and how. This way, we can live authentically.

Heidegger said that man is a being toward death. His treatment of death is well handled, and Tolstoy's account is the only parallel in literature.

By reading this, you may wake up to your own sense of death. Let's face it: almost none of us realize that we are going to leave this world. We had better come to terms with it, now. And if we knew, as Ivan does, that we will die, we will have an awareness of death in which life gains new "shades of meaning."
But the point is this: you don't need a fatal illnes to have an awareness of death.

Commonly regarded as Tolstoy's third greatest work, "The Death of Ivan Ilych," if not his most famous work is, at the very least, one of the most poignant and powerful short stories ever written. For those who are interested in taking their first leap into the Tolstoy ouvre, perhaps it is better to start with a shorter work. I would suggest this one, because despite its brevity, it packs as powerful a wallop as anything else he wrote.

Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Illych is a short novella, especially in comparison to his magnus opus, War and Peace (or, arguably, Anna Karenina), but far from simple. Complex thoughts and themes are interwoven in the space of time the book covers. It centres around the sudden contemplations of a man doomed to die soon who had never before given death a second thought. At the peak of this dark, existential soliloquy, I felt as if I were on my deathbed, and began to wonder myself...

I wasn't expecting this book to be as accessable as I found it. I know next to nothing about life in Russia during the outbreak of WWII, and I knew going in that this was a novel about a man in the Russian army. I figured there'd be numerous names and references to people, places, and policies I'd have to gloss over, and just hope I'd get an idea of the book. I was wrong.

I was also wrong in thinking that it wouldn't be that funny. I found it amusing and entertaining to see slapstick in a "European Classic". But, it wasn't stupid humor. It seems as though Voinovich had a lot of thought behind it, twisting it around so it not only made the reader laugh, but also tied into the plot.

The only thing I thought it may have lacked was character development. It is a short novel, but I felt as if I didn't really get to know Gladishev, Chonkin, or Nyura. Perhaps given a few more pages, I could have identified with these characters a bit more. But, since they are from a culture so foreign to myself, perhaps it would have taken a lot more for me to identify with the characters. Perhaps it's my own sheltered way of life that inhibited a stronger connection with this novel.

If anything, this book is a fabulous introduction into Russian culture at the beginning of WWII. Being that it is a fiction/comedy however, there may not be a lot of accuracy in its content, but it at least leaves one with a sense of lifestyle to which these characters live.

This was the selection of my book club. I was a little leery, because unless it's EXTREMELY well done, satire doesn't work for me - it's an all-or-nothing proposition. Anything less than Mark-Twain-level and I can't be bothered.

Well, "Private Chonkin" was a pleasant surprise. I had the feeling that the writer and/or translator had a lot of fun with this one - I kept hearing a giggle off the page as I read. As is always the case with satire, it helps to be somewhat familiar with the reality that's being skewed, but in this case, it's not a requirement for enjoying the book.

The premise is pretty good, and ripe for satire - hapless nudnik of a soldier is assigned to guard a downed plane in a remote village in the Soviet Union just before the beginning of WW II. His superiors forget about him as he settles into the life of the village, and when they finally remember him, all hell breaks loose as he proves to be a lot smarter than any of them. The author skewers everyone and everything, but none as savagely as the Party and the Army.

The depictions of life in remote areas can be hair-raising; the villages, the people, and their lives are pretty primitive. I had the sense that this part of the world hadn't changed in centuries. And I also had the feeling that these were accurate descriptions, rooted in some pretty harsh realities. The only parts that I felt bordered on tedium were the lengthy descriptions of Private Chonkin's dreams; they played a role in the overall satire but otherwise didn't move the story forward.

With translations, it's hard to tell what you're really appreciating: the art of the writer or that of the translator. Obviously, the translator has to have something to work with, but the nuances could be credited to either. That said, I found this book well-written and highly amusing, and I recommend it to anyone who appreciates this kind of writing.

Voinovich was expelled from the Soviet Writers' Union, because of his poignant satire. The guardians of the communist order could not stand his free, humorous exposition of the follies of the Soviet society. "Private Chonkin" is his masterpiece. Voinovich shows much that plagued the Soviet society: pervasive alchoholism, bureaucratic intransingence, sychophantic officials, horrific abuse of power, and the spread of pseudo-science (much fun is made in the book of Lysenko's approach to evolution.)

Voinovich is not bitter or angry. He finds a place for good-natured humor, even amid the appalling conditions of Russian's brutal rural communism. This book is invaluable to all those who want to be acquainted with the character and spirit of communist despotism in Russia in the twentieth century. But in the end, one does not put down this book feeling discouraged and sad. Orwellian gloom does not prevail here. And why is that? Because people retain the ability to laugh at themselves and at the life around them, not taking too seriously grave doctrines and events. Chonkin survives the advent of terror, and his simplicity and good nature prove superior to dogma and repression, suggesting, at least to me, that a single human being is generally more valuable than all utopian doctrines and insane plans for implementing them.

I first read the Tale of Genji and became fascinated by the Heian time period and I recently reread this book because I wanted to know more about it. Morris does a really good job of defining and describing the government and other functions that are necessary for understanding the Heian times and the Tale of Genji. Unfortunately, I found this book to be extremely dated in its outlook. There's an implicit understanding of how very exotic and strange these funny Japanese people were. While this may have been and still may be acceptable in some circles, I found that it hindered my understanding of the times and my empathy with the characters in the Tale of Genji and also the historical figures today. It's too bad that Morris wasn't able to step away from his time and see the Heian Japanese as real people not just strange exotics.

I liken the experience of reading this book to a childhood memory of peering through the glass into a Victorian automata musicbox. Through the protective glass cover, the moving birds and scenery of the automata evokes a strange mix of fascination and mystery. Near enough for you to appreciate the delicate beauty it engenders but far away enough that the poetry of motion is not intruded upon by the sounds of the mechanism that made it possible.

Portrayed in great detail but not mired in it is the cultured and time-obscured world of Heian Japan. All the things associated with "traditional" Japanese culture like Bushido, shear-walled castles, geishas and tea ceremonies were clearly absent in Heian Japan. In their place were values quite alien to our image of modern Japanese history with its martial ethos culminating in the apocalypse of 1945. Heian high society held up ideals for the courtier so diametrically opposed to the samurai that I re-read many of the passages again to relish the contrast in my mind.

The author successfully conjured images of Heian architecture and the characters that peopled it Utopian landscape, a major feat since so little material from that period actually survived the ages. Yet it was in its very fragility that the essence of Heian aesthetics is ascentuated. Later ages of Japan, the bakufu governments of the Kamakura and Tokugawa periods are comemmorated by menacing suits of armor and brooding castles. The Heian period is best remembered by the elegant prose of courtly ladies, as colorful and fleeting as butterflies.

I recommend reading this book together with the Tales of Genji to achieve a more profound understanding of Murasaki Shikibu's masterpiece.

Social/historical study of various *aspects* (not a true "history") of Heian Japan that really, REALLY helps one understand the behavior/attitudes of the characters in "Tale of Genji"! The "Genji" genealogical charts & character listing in the appendices - by themselves - justify the price (keep it at your side when reading Genji!). Furthermore, the book is entertaining to read as the author actually knows how to write well. I would also recommend this book to anyone that didn't plan to read "Genji" but was curious about that period of Japanese culture.

AND - if you are a student that has an assignment to read GENJI and don't have time to read all of the 900+ pages of the original - you could probably fake your way through any exam after reading this! (And will later be curious enough to slog through the original).

I will probably read this book a second time.

Funny as it sounds, I had no idea of a "Moor" until I saw "Black Knight" with Martin Lawrence. I was wondering why they constantly kept calling him "Moor", was this the equivalent of "Nigger"???

So naturally I went to my Encylopedia (sooo dated by the way) and looked up the term "Moor". Some truth was in their descriptions of Moorish Spain but of course there were lies. One of the most shocking was "Moors were NOT black. Moors come from a European stock".

tsk tsk

Wouldn't you say that's a tad bit misleading? Well I used common sense and didn't take this seriously, and started looking elsewhere. Eslewhere you also hear "Moors were not Black, they were Arab" or "Moors were of a mixed Arab & European race"...pretty much anything besides Black.

I'm guessing if you perpetuate such nonsense it WILL stick.

Dr Ivan Sertima is trully a force in Academia. This book is a perfect example of that authority. This is my 2nd book by the world reknowned scholar & I must say he's outdone himself again. Since a Historian like Dr. Ivan van Sertima is practically forced to emphasize skin color in his work, a Historian with such drive shall prevail.

I'm very tempted to long hand certain commentary from this book but that wouldn't be fair to the Doctor or future readers.

What we call Eurocentric Academia, I feel, has left a gigantic void in World History. This allows Historians like Ivan van Sertima to easily destroy accepted rhetoric in Academia. With the help of Runoko Rashidi, James E. Brunson, Scobie & others, they cover every angle from language to Shakespeare to Spanish Music. Along with convicing photos & credible sources, Arab/African/European, I would say Moors shouldn't be a mystery to anybody, especially what race they were in this time period.

Anybody trully interested in History should own this book, as well as any Ivan van Sertima book you could get your hands on.

To the usa reader who made the poor comment about the moroccans not identifying with sub sahara descent, yes this would be true of the berbers (the mulattos) who were a mixed breed of caucazoid nomadics and black africans (moors), who were the original indigineous ppl of north africa and through out the continent. The berbers and other caucazoid mixed ppl do not identify with their so called negroid roots because they were trained to be bigots about what they stole and took from the original ppl of the land. It is physically impossible for the caucazoids to have develop in north africa with the type of physical features and skin texture that is designed as it devlops in a cold icy region such as europe which is were these ppl came from as invaders ( the lost mutated black ppl). It would help in the future that when one who disagrees with ones views of historical events, provide something other than emotional baggage, evidence would be nice which is what Mr. Sertima presented and so should not be overlooked or taken out of context because you cannot handle the truth. For more evidence study the correlation between anthropology and physics and be forever humbled disturbed one, the oldest anthropological finding of human remains possessed 99.9 percent melanin in the recovered minute tissue remains and they also found tools which showed that these early humans were civilized beings, being that they had agricultural understanding. Show me what caucazoid has 99.9 percent melanin pigmentation, such a person does not exist and so this can only be what is described about black ppl(african moors) of our so called negroid features inwhich white scientist did admit to this( see discover magazine or the site )................... So please no more out crys from charlatans who cannot give evidence for evidence, hmmmmm very dishonest and immature. Also stop using the lame excuse of afrocentricity being some restoration of black pride, no pride was ever lost, for the blacks had no reason to iniate invasion upon others like the caucasions( the transformed blacks), so how is that for pride?! On your part, foolish pride for overlooking and trying to find a way around the laws of physical science especially in the area of how melinin develops on the pigmentation level, tsk tsk to your foolish pride! The original humans went through three physiological changes as it pertains to nature/nurture 1. development duration 2. climatical influence 3. human nurture influence. But anyway i give The Golden age of the Moors 5 stars for what it supports ( EVIDENCE ) not empty speculation which is what the cowardly usa reader cryed about with no detailed reference of his or her supposably more inclined authors.

I own this book and it is one of the greatest pieces of literature that I have read. Ivan van Sertima tells it like it is. The Moors were African people who hailed from the northwestern part of Africa. No other people would come out of that continent but BLACK people. They were many, many years ahead of their time and everybody else's time, too. An advanced, superior civilization of Africans that was the center of culture, education, and arts/crafts to the entire world made their presence felt. And when it came to war with France and England, even the greatest of warriors from those places couldn't stand up to the powerful onslaught of these people. Many intelligent African/Arabic/Ethiopic men were a huge part of this era (i.e. Abd-er-Rahman II-III, Ibn-Aby-Amir). These rulers were very powerful and not even the biggest of Christian rebellions led by extreme, hypocritical bigots could put a dent in Morrocan rule. From the Abbisade to the Ummeyyad, Almoravide, and Almohade dynasties everything is covered from the Moors superior knowledge of irrigation and astrology to their lavish lifestyles. The Europeans sat at the feet of African Moorish scientists and teachers (both men and women) and learned everything there was to learn. That's why I look at the Renaissance Period as a time frame when Europeans finally learned to think and do for themselves. Something that African-Morrocan descendents like myself have been doing for eons. This information is the last thing America wants its black citizens to know about as a whole. It's the reason why big, strong, and intelligent black men like me are easily intimidating to whites. This book is a must for all African-Americans nationwide. Pick up this book and KNOW THYSELF. Peace.

After a recent trip from Seattle to Juneau on a small cruise ship (100 passengers) I read this book, which is based upon a true story, upon the recommendation of a fellow passenger. It was the perfect post script to a modern day cruise up the coast of British Columbia and Alaska's "inside passage" (along its southeast coast). Author Voig's four Swedes, all indentured servants escaping from the the Russians, take a similar route, but they do it in 1860 (when Alaska was "Russian America") and they head South from Sitka to Astoria, Oregon. They travel in a twenty foot open dugout canoe stolen from the "Kaloshes", a sect of Northwest Indians (Tlingit). The Swedes experience the same unpredictable weather, seas and coastline as they modern day traveler, but they have no cablin, dining room or tour director. And they have to paddle all the way - a distance of over one thousand miles. The tale is a tribute to the human spirit. Ivan Voig knows this part of the world, and he enabled me to relive my fabulous trip as high adventure from my living room chair.

This is a stellar example of how beautiful prose writing can be. Story telling is an art, a skill, and this is as good as it gets.

So much more than an adventure tale. Doig captures the threatening beauty and drama of this coast and gives a strong sense of the time period. As is the case with all his books you can reach out and touch the characters. Their interactions and relationships couldn't be more realistic.

Turgenev creates prose so spare, yet so elegant you find yourself rereading entire paragraphs just to try to net some hidden agenda behind the simplicity. Turgenev's influence on Hemingway was probably never more brilliantly expressed than in these understated words from A Moveable Feast: "I had read all of Turgenev...(of Dostoevsky) frailty and madnesss...were there to know as you knew the landscapes and roads in Turgenev..."

This book is more than a simple love story between a young man and an older woman, though the idea of the shortness and depthlessness of young love is an important theme. There are also such themes as the dissolution and fall into poverty of the Russian nobility as seen in Zinaida and her mother, a former princess; the idea of 19th century Russia shrugging off the chains of serfdom and royal dominance is also explored in the vastly superior Fathers and Sons. Another noteworthy theme is alienation from parents and society in general; Vladimir Petrovich is dominated utterly by his menacing father and carking, gossipy mother. He grows to become a bachelor, rehashing his tragic story before a fireplace in an inn. Towards the end of the book, when Vladimir's father, who shares with Vladimir a strong affection for Zinaida, flogs the young girls arm with a riding crop, as well as the threat the father gives to one of Zinaida's numerous suitors, we are made to wonder exactly what part romantic relationships have in the alleviation or exacerbation of violent mental illness, or at least a violent and cold mindset.

This book, however deep and lovingly crafted, is a cipher next to Fathers and Sons. It's also a lot shorter; first time Turgenev readers might want to start here.

An old man reflects on his most dearest love in his life: his first love at 16 for a girl of 21.
His love is not requited for a truly astounding reason.

This short novel is a masterful evocation of an adolescent love, pure and without interest, but dramatic and cruel (whipping).

An unforgettable masterpiece.

Turgenev's brief novel, "First Love" is about growing older and lossing innocence. Vladimir, the central character who tells the story, makes a large memory excersice to remember, to write and to communicate his unusual first love experience when he was sixteen. He does that in beautiful prose, realistic and lyric simultaneusly.

Love in this novel for Vladimir is mainly an emotional experience, not physichal. There is no sex and, more important, not explicit sexual desire. This could be considered old fashioned or artificial by contemporary readers but somehow Turgenev manages to make it credible and moving.

The translation by Isaiah Berlin is excellent, at least much better that the one I've read into Spanish.

It's unfortunate that Klima's brilliance is translated so poorly in this edition. I wish I could read the original Czech version. But the novel was engaging and contained good insight about human relationships. Portions were greatly worded, and had a well-constructed plot. But at times the author lapses into tedious unnecessary narrative. Overall a good read and a nice introduction to the genre.

Ivan Klima is an astonishing man. His writings are usually fabulous. Being a Terezinstadt survivor, a Samizdat writer and distributor, his history is the material of a life larger than fiction. Perhaps that is why I found this book so disappointing. It is a nice, long read, but in the end, I found myself rather unconnected to the characters, and tired of the drum-beating of the intimacy concept... weary of the book. The resulting effect was, for me as a reader, a great distacing and lack of intimacy with the characters, and the novel itself. This makes the title rather ironic. The novel was very sterile, the characters were unappealing and hard to feel anything for. I don't know if I liked or disliked any of them enough to muster up sufficient passion to say anything powerful about the book, except that I was glad it was over. I should have probably stuck with Klima's earlier works, or the likes of Bohumil Hrabal and Josef Skorecky. Some Czech critics say that older Samizdat writers like Klima can get away with writing anything these days, on the weight of their name/history alone. I think this book is proof of that.

THis was the first book by Ivan Klima that I read and based on the back cover description I picked it with a little doubt--will it be one of those haughty books that try to explain the meaning of life, love and faith in a language that nobody can understand or care to. But it was not.

The novel is about a married pastor who falls in love with a married woman. Tormented by the deception he lives in, contrary to everything he has preached and believed in, he begins to question everything around him--his relationship with his family, his wife, his dead parents.

Through the eyes and words of the pastor, his wife and kids, his lover and her husband and other characters in the book, the reader is forced to think about some major issues: What is love? Are we always looking for an excuse to justify our not always perfect judgements? How do you adjust in a time when moral values in a society change (the novel takes place in the early nineties, when the Czech republic is on its painful way to recovery from communism and rediscovering itself)?

Yet, Klima manages to discuss all these issues and more in a very palpable way, without turning his book into a philosophical treaty. The characters of Dan (the pastor), Hana (his wife), Bara (the lover) and Samuel (the lover's domineering husband) are very well developed and portrayed with all their insecurities, doubts, emotions and loyalties.