Too Loud a Solitude

Hrabal was a master of comic tragedy. Even in his own death (he fell out of a hospital window while feeding pigeons) there is an element of comedy in the tragedy. This masterfully written book about the life of a paper compactor was written to move its readers to laughter and to tears. Hrabal managed to distill metaphors of nearly endless depth into a book less than 100 pages long. His writing is perfect. His style is... Read Full Review

"For thirty-five years now I've been in wastepaper, and it's my love story." So begins Bohumil Hrabal's Too Loud Solitude. The narrator, Hantá, has worked as a trash compactor his entire adult life and his job centers on creating machine compressed bales of waste paper. The most depressing aspect of his job is the fact that a core part of the waste left for compacting consists of books, hundred and thousands of books no... Read Full Review

Simply brilliant! Hrabal's story is a stunning piece of work told through the eyes of one of the most interesting charactors in literature. I have read the short novel at least once a year for philosophic ispiration and to take joy in the love of books, like the main charactor. When I finish I am left in wonder at how the western world has overlooked Hrabal for so long. What a poetic and marvelous book!

I have just finished reading Bohumil Hrabal's Too Loud a Solitude and am reeling from its intoxicating effect. This book is not for everyone - there is no real "plot," and readers expecting a traditional narrative style will be bewildered and disappointed. But those readers who are sensitive to the beauty of language and wonderful thoughts will adore this book. It is pure poetry, lyricism, and philosophy. This is an incredible... Read Full Review

On sleepless nights, when seeking for peace of mind, sometimes I take Hrabal's "Too loud a solitude" and read a couple of pages from it. (Well, sometimes a couple of chapters.) Probably the reason it comforts me so much is that the language he uses is so beautiful. You probably have to have East-European origins in order to fully appreciate this kind of beauty, because the stories of Hrabal are all sad after all. But... Read Full Review