Pink Tanks and Velvet Hangovers: An American in Prague

Rating:
Summary: Essential reading for anyone going to former Czechoslovakia.
Review: Excellent story of an Expat growing up/maturing in a land of beautiful women and cheap alchol. Douglas experiences most of the travails of any foreigner who shows up in a strange and unknown country. His observations of a people who survive on $250 USD a month are interesting. His booze induced stories are well written, yet they get boaring after a while. The excitement of the story grows old quick and his return to the States is welcome. Nothing more than a man comming to terms with his existance in a beautiful place. Excellent first work, though. Just waiting for more.

Rating:
Summary: Boring
Review: I lived in CZ for four years (outside of Prague, a mysterious wilderness to this writer), where a lot of Americans have aspirations to write. Horribly enough, this book was the "first" to describe that whole Prague scene. I say horribly, because this book is likable -- but the narrator does nothing unusual, thinks nothing daring -- he more or less transcribes banal journal entries into a long artless book. I could go on about the amatuerish writing style (a good editor would have cut the book to about the length of a Lonely Planet review) -- or about the lazy typesetting (full of typos), and the benefit a little fact checking would've had (it's "Havlova" not "Havelova", "vul" is "ox" not "bull", and so on....). It seems this book is the kind that would make a mother proud, but would be met with sneers and jeers by all other "expats." A lot of them held off writing this kind of book because they were waiting to synthesize and compose artfully from their Czech experience. What we have here, for all its description, is a "nice" American doing "exciting" things in a foreign country. I thought it was hard to get travel writing published, but now I see it doesn't take a hell of a lot of work. The author does nothing original, thinks no original thoughts, and pretty much stole the fire from anyone else who might put out a "real" chronicle of the Prague experience. Too bad.

Rating:
Summary: A Rambling, Likable, Barely-edited and Unnecessary Work
Review: I lived in CZ for four years (outside of Prague, a mysterious wilderness to this writer), where a lot of Americans have aspirations to write. Horribly enough, this book was the "first" to describe that whole Prague scene. I say horribly, because this book is likable -- but the narrator does nothing unusual, thinks nothing daring -- he more or less transcribes banal journal entries into a long artless book. I could go on about the amatuerish writing style (a good editor would have cut the book to about the length of a Lonely Planet review) -- or about the lazy typesetting (full of typos), and the benefit a little fact checking would've had (it's "Havlova" not "Havelova", "vul" is "ox" not "bull", and so on....). It seems this book is the kind that would make a mother proud, but would be met with sneers and jeers by all other "expats." A lot of them held off writing this kind of book because they were waiting to synthesize and compose artfully from their Czech experience. What we have here, for all its description, is a "nice" American doing "exciting" things in a foreign country. I thought it was hard to get travel writing published, but now I see it doesn't take a hell of a lot of work. The author does nothing original, thinks no original thoughts, and pretty much stole the fire from anyone else who might put out a "real" chronicle of the Prague experience. Too bad.

Rating:
Summary: A more sensible review!
Review: I think the correct review lies somewhere between the worst and best review of this book. It never pretends to give an "artful" description of the Czech and Slovak transformation after Communism. It is simply a book of a journalist's notes (note the conclusion where he describes looking back on all of his notes from his years in Prague - he never hides this fact).

Don't ignore this book simply because you are jealous the writer was published for writing something many of us can and wish we could do. If you are going to be in Prague for some time, it is an eye-opener, especially if you were not there during the transition period. There are probably some ex-pats who could have done it better, but they don't have a book published.

The book is a little long. It is organized very haphazardly. There are many annoying typos. But it is a quick read and does contain some interesting bits. I thought some of his personal experiences were interesting and he made some good points. There were other times where I had no clue where he was going with his writing.

Bottom line: this is not literary masterpiece, but how many travel journals really are? Check it out.

Rating:
Summary: Essential reading for anyone going to former Czechoslovakia.
Review: Mr. Lytle's experiences roughly paralleled mine though I spent a year teaching in the less trendy Slovak half of Czecho-Slovakia.His experience of a society in transition and attitudes toward the West are especially resonant. He was right about the beer; it's great and the women are beautiful (the best kept secret of the Cold War) I should know, I met my wife in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia.

Rating:
Summary: Boring
Review: The first reviewer got it right -- this is an artless and boring book. It totally fails to capture the excitement of the time it's purported to cover -- and contains a great many inaccuracies. The first "half" (I think it's actually less than half) of the book consists of entries from the author's own journal, which he obviously stopped keeping after a very brief period. The second part of the book picks up, chronologically, where the author's meagerly journal left off -- by summarizing the news and events of the period -- in rapid succession and without background information, personal or otherwise. As the author had ceased to keep his journal, this part of the book is sourced from archival stories from the Prague Post. Whether it is from that newspaper or from the author's own misperceptions that the numerous factual errors arise, it makes for a boring and inaccurate read overall.