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May 15, 2003-8:41 p.m.
PRAGUE This book is not what it seems on so many levels. First of all, the book is not about Prague, it is about Budapest. It is called PRAGUE because one of the characters feels like people will look back on that time and say that all of the coolest people lived in Prague. The book follows a group of young expatriates living in Prague in 1990. John Price comes because he wants to forge a closer relationship with his brother, Scott. This is the last thing Scott wants. Charles (Karoly) Gabor works for an investment firm in their Budapest office. His parents are Hungarian and he speaks the language. John doubts that Charles has ever felt �an unironic emotion in his life.� Emily is a Nebraska farm girl who works for the US ambassador. John is smitten with Emily even though she clearly thinks of him as a friend at most. Somehow, Arthur Phillips manages to weave an engaging tale around some pretty mundane sounding characters doing some pretty mundane sounding things. It is intensely readable, although once you finish it, you may be asking yourself, �Okay, what WAS that?� **Disclaimer: All characters in this diary are fictional. Any resemblance to actual people living or dead, real or imagined, is purely coincidental and unintentional.** |
