What do you think?
Rate this book
Spisy Karla Poláčka #2
What Ownership's All about
A darkly humorous novel by the leading Czech Jewish Writer between the wars, his first to appear in English.
- GenresCzech Literature
238 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 1958
About the author
Karel Poláček
44 books9 followersKarel Poláček byl český spisovatel, humorista, novinář a filmový scenárista. Dílo K. Poláčka představuje jednu z nejvýznamnějších hodnot české meziválečné prózy. Ve svých humoristických románech se zaměřil na zobrazení tragikomedie maloměstského života.
Poláčkovy prózy lze rozdělit na humoristické a společensko-kritické. Snad nejúspěšnějším dílem je posmrtně vydaný příběh Petra Bajzy Bylo nás pět.
Poláčkovy prózy lze rozdělit na humoristické a společensko-kritické. Snad nejúspěšnějším dílem je posmrtně vydaný příběh Petra Bajzy Bylo nás pět.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 26, 2014
The plot involves a homeowner avariciously renting out his house to a number of people and then using his ownership and rental to further control the tenants lives. While the descriptions of countrysides and city scenes are beautiful and poetic and the author employs strong memorable metaphors, the characters are very one-dimensional and their spiteful dialogues and thoughts on power seem unimaginative, mundane and unoriginal.
I had been struggling with this book.
Then, however, I was making my way to the local hardware store in my truck, and about to turn into the parking lot when I saw a large cargo van waiting to exit. I was going to wait, of course, for the van to exit before entering, but I then noticed an older man standing in the middle of the driveway blocking any traffic to or from the parking lot. He was looking out expectantly toward the street. Shortly, a car pulled up next to the man just as a tractor-trailer braked loudly behind me, stopped, and idled menacingly.
Now, both the man and a vehicle were holding up traffic, not only to the hardware store but to one of the main intersections in town. It looked now as if he intended to simply get in the car and it would drive off. I saw that there were two vacant parking spaces adjacent to the parking lot entrance. A passenger, without much more trouble to himself, could have easily waited there for his ride.
The man gestured to the driver and started walking to the driver's side, the driver gestured back and shouted something I couldn't hear. The man returned to the passenger side and opened the door. He sat in the car and carefully tapped his feet on the car threshold to knock off the sleet before closing the door so they could proceed. I can only guess how many cars were now lined up behind the rumbling tractor-trailer, braked on the decline of High Street behind me.
It was only as it drove off that I noticed the license plate on the cause of this congestion. The number four, the letter U, the letter two, then the letters, N and V.
As they finally drove off, and the cargo van was allowed to exit, I entered the parking lot, leaving High Street open to the 18-wheeler and the accumulated traffic. I sounded out the letters in my head, 4U2NV.
I realized I hadn't even noticed the make of car being driven. It was nothing that screamed "Hot Rod!", or "Luxury Car!". It was a big lumbering sedan, nothing special. Perhaps the car wasn't what the license plate referred to.
I had just met the people I'd been struggling to relate to in the novel.
This incident helped me read the rest of "What Ownership's All About", but the characters are not very well developed. They don't change from scene to scene or when presented with the same problem again and again.
This aspect of the novel was disappointing especially because the descriptions of city life or neighborhood activity or the change of seasons were so rich.
It's interesting that this novel was published in 1928, but its satirical tyrannies foreshadow the very real brutalities of the Nazi and Communist dictatorships.
There are passages, particularly when the landlord is posting prohibitions to the tenants (or the tenants are reading the signs) that reminded me of Orwell's Animal Farm.
I had been struggling with this book.
Then, however, I was making my way to the local hardware store in my truck, and about to turn into the parking lot when I saw a large cargo van waiting to exit. I was going to wait, of course, for the van to exit before entering, but I then noticed an older man standing in the middle of the driveway blocking any traffic to or from the parking lot. He was looking out expectantly toward the street. Shortly, a car pulled up next to the man just as a tractor-trailer braked loudly behind me, stopped, and idled menacingly.
Now, both the man and a vehicle were holding up traffic, not only to the hardware store but to one of the main intersections in town. It looked now as if he intended to simply get in the car and it would drive off. I saw that there were two vacant parking spaces adjacent to the parking lot entrance. A passenger, without much more trouble to himself, could have easily waited there for his ride.
The man gestured to the driver and started walking to the driver's side, the driver gestured back and shouted something I couldn't hear. The man returned to the passenger side and opened the door. He sat in the car and carefully tapped his feet on the car threshold to knock off the sleet before closing the door so they could proceed. I can only guess how many cars were now lined up behind the rumbling tractor-trailer, braked on the decline of High Street behind me.
It was only as it drove off that I noticed the license plate on the cause of this congestion. The number four, the letter U, the letter two, then the letters, N and V.
As they finally drove off, and the cargo van was allowed to exit, I entered the parking lot, leaving High Street open to the 18-wheeler and the accumulated traffic. I sounded out the letters in my head, 4U2NV.
I realized I hadn't even noticed the make of car being driven. It was nothing that screamed "Hot Rod!", or "Luxury Car!". It was a big lumbering sedan, nothing special. Perhaps the car wasn't what the license plate referred to.
I had just met the people I'd been struggling to relate to in the novel.
This incident helped me read the rest of "What Ownership's All About", but the characters are not very well developed. They don't change from scene to scene or when presented with the same problem again and again.
This aspect of the novel was disappointing especially because the descriptions of city life or neighborhood activity or the change of seasons were so rich.
It's interesting that this novel was published in 1928, but its satirical tyrannies foreshadow the very real brutalities of the Nazi and Communist dictatorships.
There are passages, particularly when the landlord is posting prohibitions to the tenants (or the tenants are reading the signs) that reminded me of Orwell's Animal Farm.
Displaying 1 of 1 review