Too Loud a Solitude

Too Loud a Solitude

First self-published edition
Author	Bohumil Hrabal
Original title	Příliš hlučná samota
Translator	Michael Henry Heim
Language	Czech
Genre	General Fiction – Political
Publisher	Harcourt Brace (English)
Publication date	1976
Publication place	Czechoslovakia
Published in English	1990
Media type	Print
Pages	112
ISBN	0-15-190491-X

Too Loud a Solitude (Czech: Příliš hlučná samota) is a short novel by Czech writer Bohumil Hrabal. It was self-published in samizdat in 1976 and officially in Czechoslovakia in 1989 due to political censorship. It tells the story of an old man who works as a paper crusher in Prague, using his job to save and amass astounding numbers of rare and banned books; he is an obsessive collector of knowledge during an era of censorship. The book was translated into English by Michael Henry Heim in 1990.

Biographical and publication information

Despite earning a law degree from Charles University in 1946, Hrabal never practiced as a lawyer and instead worked various jobs until beginning to write full time in 1962. He compacted wastepaper in a recycling facility from October 1954 until February 1959, and during this time wrote his first fictional account of his experiences featuring Haňt’a as the protagonist.

After working many odd jobs, Hrabal eventually began writing full time, but he was banned from publication after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 and the normalization of the communist regime. He continued writing, though, and returned to the topic of paper compacting in three versions of Příliš hlučná samota. The first he wrote on a typewriter in 1971, the second some years later by making photocopies, and the third in 1988 by word processer.

Hrabal was permitted to publish in Czechoslovakia again starting in 1976, but his texts were heavily reworked and censored. At the same time, though, his work was published abroad in translations from the uncensored samizdat. Too Loud a Solitude was printed in Czech in the Federal Republic of Germany and translated into several languages. In the 1980s, the text was published in France after having been adapted to theater productions. Sergio Corduas first translated the text into Italian for the publishing house Einaudi in 1987 as Una solitudine troppo rumorosa and revised the work in 2003.

Because of the complex and censored history of the book, copies printed before 1989 may vary. However, in 1989, shortly before the Velvet Revolution, Too Loud a Solitude was finally officially published in Czechoslovakia, but to little acclaim. In 1990, the book was translated into English and received positively by some critics.

Plot summary

The novel is narrated in the first person by Haňt’a, a reclusive man nearing retirement who has spent his life compacting wastepaper for recycling in a cellar in Prague. In addition to compacting butcher paper, wastepaper, and scraps, he also compacts banned books ordered to be destroyed. He stops his work to read and rescue books, and over the thirty-five years of his career, has gained an encyclopedic literary knowledge and filled his home with over two tons of books. He has a particular penchant for works of philosophy and religion. Moreover, he works incredibly slowly as he wraps each bale of paper with reproductions of classic European artworks, and places at the center of every bale a rare book.

Haňt’a considers these bales to be works of art and hopes upon retiring to buy his hydraulic press, just as his beloved uncle bought a railroad signal tower and a locomotive when he retired from working on the railroad. His uncle now gives rides on the train to local children and his friends. Haňt’a similarly dreams of creating one bale a day once he retires. Each bale will be a true work of art, and after one year, he will invite people to view the bales in an exhibition and help visitors create their own bales.

Haňt’a continues with his work, dreaming, recalling memories, and ruminating on his daily activities. His uncle dies, and he is called to take care of the body, which sparks Haňt’a to remember the long-lost love of his youth, who he refers to only as a Gypsy girl. He recalls flying a kit together. One day, she was not waiting for him when he came home from work. Haňt’a later learned she was picked up by Gestapo and sent to a concentration camp. When she did not return at the end of the war, Haňt’a burned their kite. He now does not remember her name.

Haňt’a hears of a new automatic paper compacting press run by the Brigade of Socialist Labor. He visits the press and is shocked by its efficiency and the impersonal approach of its workers. He runs back to his own press and begins working fervently, feeling that his artistic days are over. It is too late, though, as his boss says he will waste no more time on Haňt’a. In a dream-like sequence, Haňt’a visits another love of his youth, who has taken up with an artist who is building a statue of her in the form of an angel.

"Because when I read, I don't really read; I pop a beautiful sentence into my mouth and suck it like a fruit drop ...."

Two Socialist Laborers take over Haňt’a’s press, and he is reassigned to compacting entirely clean paper. Unable to watch the Socialists work efficiently and impersonally, Haňt’a rescues one last book to bring to a friend. He embarks on another dream-like sequence through town, stopping at multiple breweries and contemplating the change he is facing. He finally walks almost unconsciously to his cellar. Defiantly, he places himself in his press, clutching a book by Novalis, he starts up the compactor. At the moment of his death, Haňt’a sees a vision of his Gypsy girl flying a kite with his face. Through the images, he finally remembers her name, Ilonka.

Style

Biographers have cited the influence of Hrabal’s uncle and childhood on his writing style. Hrabal did not take to schooling well, and instead preferred an informal education, rambling around town, observing people at their jobs, and listening to how they spoke and what they spoke about. In addition, his uncle stayed with his family for an extended period in his childhood, and he enjoyed listening to his uncle’s long-winded reminiscences. This rambling fashion of storytelling informed the way Hrabal would write much of his prose.

Too Loud a Solitude is written in this characteristic style, which Hrabal called pabeni and which most closely translates to “palavering.” The narrative meanders through Haňt’a’s daily life as he travels between work and home, through his interactions with others, through his memories, and through the wisdom he learns from his beloved books. This wandering narrative style advances the plot slowly and takes the time to explore symbolism and themes within the novel.

Genre

In part because of this narrative style and because of the complex themes of the novel, Too Loud a Solitude is not easily categorized into a genre.

Total Realism

In many ways, Hrabal followed the genre conventions created by his friend and fellow Czech author Egon Bondy of total realism. Bondy’s early works of total realism took the form of poems described as “very short life studies” and characterized by “an intense tension between the natural quality of everyday situations and the non-natural quality of social and political life” in Czechoslovakia in the 1950s.

Under censorship once again, Hrabal returned to total realism in the 1970s. He similarly creates “tension between raw spontaneity and learned wisdom” in Too Loud a Solitude. Thus, the novel may easily be categorized under total realism. However, because total realism is a relatively unknown genre, readers tend to categorize Too Loud a Solitude differently.

Allegory

It is tempting to read Too Loud a Solitude as an allegory for resistance to censorship and oppression. The New York Times review of the 1990 English translation described the book as, “a parable of the effort to maintain a semblance of sanity despite the presence or the memories of Nazi jackboots and Russian tanks in Prague.”

The book deals with the complexities of life in Czechoslovakia throughout three and a half decades, such as destroying Nazi propaganda and gold-gilded books from the Royal Prussian Library after World War 2. However, the novel defies a straightforward reading as a single allegory or parable by exploring multiple themes that can each be read allegorically.

Adaptations

A live-action film adaptation was released in the Czech Republic in 1996, one year before Hrabal's death. Adapted for film by Véra Caïs, the Czech-French-German production starred Philippe Noiret as Haňt’a.

In 2007, director Genevieve Anderson released a 17-minute stop motion and puppetry short film based on the novel starring Paul Giamatti as Haňt’a. According to the film’s website, the creators are still working to make a feature-length film.

See also

• Czech Literature

External links

• tooloudasolitude.com, a new feature film