The View from Stalin's Head

Rating:
Summary: What a delightful collection!
Review: Hamburger has created something of beauty here. There are no tricks, just the straightforward (and rarely accomplished) building of characters--distinct, human, often strange, yet always believable, characters. Hamburger has a gentle, Chekhovian approach to storytelling, and his saddest moments are tinged with humor. Reading this collection was a pleasure.

Rating:
Summary: Great Stories From Any View
Review: In his "Acknowledgments" to this his first collection of short stories, Aaron Hamburger thanks Christopher Isherwood for his inspiration. Just as Isherwood brought to life the Berlin of the 1930's in BERLIN STORIES, so does this writer make Prague in the 1990's a very real place. His characters are Czechs, American tourists and expatriates, Jew and Gentile, gay and straight. They teach English, They take side trips to Israel, they study in a desire to convert to Judaism, they make a living drawing pornographic illustrations. When in Prague, they visit churches and synagogues, concentration camps and sex clubs. These characters have blood flowing in their veins; they possess both breath and body odor. In "This Ground You Are Standing On," a Jewish woman, along with her husband, returning to Prague, the city her parents fled in 1939, rents a room from an elderly blonde woman she initially mistakes as Jewish who may have aided the Nazis but is not altogether unsympathetic, under this author's pen, however.

Mr. Hamburger's language is both precise and poetic. One character's thin wire-framed glasses had narrow lenses, "as if all she needed to see of the world could fit within those two rectangles." American tourists wear warm-up suits. Some of them are obtuse: "Trying to explain the hazards of privatization to bozos like Jake was like trying to drive a car stuck in neutral." A go-go dancer speaks bad English, "which was all right. . . because his body was a poem."

In addition to creating ten fascinating stories where something actually happens, Mr. Hamburger, whether he means to or not, has written a fine travel book. Reading this collection made me want to visit Prague. I also look forward to reading his novel we are told in "About The Author" is now in progress.

Rating:
Summary: Great Stories From Any View
Review: In his "Acknowledgments" to this his first collection of short stories, Aaron Hamburger thanks Christopher Isherwood for his inspiration. Just as Isherwood brought to life the Berlin of the 1930's in BERLIN STORIES, so does this writer make Prague in the 1990's a very real place. His characters are Czechs, American tourists and expatriates, Jew and Gentile, gay and straight. They teach English, They take side trips to Israel, they study in a desire to convert to Judaism, they make a living drawing pornographic illustrations. When in Prague, they visit churches and synagogues, concentration camps and sex clubs. These characters have blood flowing in their veins; they possess both breath and body odor. In "This Ground You Are Standing On," a Jewish woman, along with her husband, returning to Prague, the city her parents fled in 1939, rents a room from an elderly blonde woman she initially mistakes as Jewish who may have aided the Nazis but is not altogether unsympathetic, under this author's pen, however.

Mr. Hamburger's language is both precise and poetic. One character's thin wire-framed glasses had narrow lenses, "as if all she needed to see of the world could fit within those two rectangles." American tourists wear warm-up suits. Some of them are obtuse: "Trying to explain the hazards of privatization to bozos like Jake was like trying to drive a car stuck in neutral." A go-go dancer speaks bad English, "which was all right. . . because his body was a poem."

In addition to creating ten fascinating stories where something actually happens, Mr. Hamburger, whether he means to or not, has written a fine travel book. Reading this collection made me want to visit Prague. I also look forward to reading his novel we are told in "About The Author" is now in progress.

Rating:
Summary: Combines the bleakness & shadow w/ an eye for the absurd
Review: Reviewed by Colleen Hollister for Small Spiral Notebook

Mysterious and fascinating, Prague is the kind of place that would echo in the mind of anyone who traveled there, leaving them unable to fully forget. There is so much history, so much richness of culture, and so many different varieties of sadness. It is not surprising, then, that so many of the writers who make Prague their subject tinge their works with despair and darkness; it seems almost natural, tradition. Aaron Hamburger's book of short stories, The View from Stalin's Head, is no exception. Hamburger, however, goes a step further, combining bleakness and shadow with an eye for the unique and absurd, creating what is ultimately a sensitive and funny portrait of the city and its inhabitants.

Clearly drawn to Prague as place and subject, Hamburger infuses his stories with the feel of Prague itself, specifically in the post-Cold War 1990s. His details are finely drawn and evocative: the shades of black, white and concrete; the smell of smoke, beer and frying food; the pollution that is so omnipresent that it affects mood and personality, such as that of the main character in "A Man of the Country." The stories are thus firmly grounded in setting, the city fully captured.

Besides Prague, Hamburger's subjects are clear: the outsider, the foreigner, the alienated and lonely. His characters are tourists, expatriate teachers, a theology student throwing all his heart into his conversion to Judaism, and one teenage boy whose mother dresses him in frilly clothes. This is one flaw that makes the book verge on repetitive: many of his characters fit neatly under the heading of sexually confused Jewish expatriate, variations on a single type. If Hamburger were truly trying to capture the full essence of a city from all corners of life, there are many missing elements. The reader may come away wondering if that is all there is. Having chosen such a theme, however, Hamburger does it well, exploring the situations and emotions involved with a sensitivity that never becomes saccharine or morose. His characters speak honestly, like "A Man of the Country"'s young teacher, who is "horribly lonely now, not just for love, but for people to tell everything that's bubbling inside me in full-blown, gorgeously complicated language, with the generosity of a big portion." This man's deep loneliness is offset by his ridiculous, but poignant, relationship with a young Czech "giant" who loves the color yellow and wishes to take a picture of the other man's nose.

Hamburger is true to the complexity of his characters' lives and emotions, capturing them fully and deeply, without forcing them to wallow in despair. His appreciation for the strange and comical is what shines through. The description of romance in "Jerusalem," is funny, stuttering and complicated, as it would truly be, not perfect and shining; the descriptions of Stalin's head and its new residence at the bottom of the river, in the title story, are absurd and clever, the mark of a good storyteller.

In reading these stories, Hamburger's talent for both writing and observation is obvious. He sees detail, character, emotion, and captures them well. The reader wishes, however, that he would take this talent further. He could do more, write a greater range of characters, veer a bit more from the stodgy smoke-filled darkness, expand on the small bits of absurdity he does include. He is, though, remarkably successful with what he has done, with the portrait of Prague he has lovingly and believably created, and with this debut collection promises a strong career ahead.


Rating:
Summary: What a delightful collection!
Review: The characters lack depth. Should have had less stories and focused on developing characters more (like Berlin Stories).

Rating:
Summary: Sorry Aaron Hamburger, you are no Christopher Isherwood
Review: The characters lack depth. Should have had less stories and focused on developing characters more (like Berlin Stories).

Rating:
Summary: A hugely promising debut
Review: These ten stories, about the lives that intersect in booming '90s Prague, are smart, poignant, and deliciously funny. Aaron Hamburger introduces us to a variety of characters - hopeful Rachel, lonely Donald, understanding Jirka -who are straight and gay, European and American, Jewish and Jew-curious. Each one is indelible. This collection is such a delight, and I find myself rereading the stories and always finding something new in them. I hugely recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant debut, I look forward to his next work
Review: This collection of stories caught me by surprise. I loved
the rich characters, and the complexity of the themes. And the
people stuck in my head long after reading it. Also I laughed
out loud several times. Even though I'm not familiar at all
with Prague, the book spoke to me on many different levels.
A definite recommend.