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Too Loud a Solitude

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Original title
  
Příliš hlučná samota

Language
  
Czech

Published in English
  
1990

Originally published
  
1976

Page count
  
112

Publisher
  
Harcourt (English)

4.2/5
Goodreads

Country
  
Czech Republic

Publication date
  
1976

Media type
  
Print

Author
  
Bohumil Hrabal

Genre
  
Fiction

Translator
  
Michael Henry Heim

Too Loud a Solitude t2gstaticcomimagesqtbnANd9GcRZVhPvuWK8kTWRFY

Similar
  
Works by Bohumil Hrabal, Fiction books

Too loud a solitude trailer


Too Loud a Solitude (Czech: Příliš hlučná samota) is a short novel by Czech writer Bohumil Hrabal. Self-published in 1976 and officially in 1989 due to political censorship. It tells the story of an eclectic and dimwitted 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. The book was translated into English by Michael Henry Heim.

Contents

Interview with director of too loud a solitude


Plot summary

The entire story is narrated in the first person by the main character Hanta. Hanta is portrayed as a sort of recluse and hermit, albeit one with encyclopedic literary knowledge. Hanta uses metaphorical language and surreal descriptions, and much of the book is concerned with just his inner thoughts, as he recalls and meditates on the outlandish amounts of knowledge he has attained over the years. He brings up stories from his past and imagines the events of whimsical scenarios. He contemplates the messages of the vast numbers of intellectuals which he has studied. The novel is vibrant with symbolism. A simple but obscure plot is present, however.

"For thirty-five years now I've been in wastepaper, and it's my love story" says Hanta in the opening line of the book. He goes on to describe his methods for work, and for using his job to "save" incredible numbers of books for reading and storage in his home.

The main theme of Too Loud a Solitude is of the permanence and intangibility of ideas which may, for a time, come to manifest themselves beautifully in the form of books and words. Another theme involves the conflict between Hanta's simple way of life and that of the new and ambitious socialist order.

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

A live action film adaptation was released in the Czech Republic in 1996, one year before Hrabal's death.

In 2007 a stop-motion film was released, directed by Genevieve Anderson and starring Paul Giamatti in the role of Hanta.

Trivia

  • Hrabal's original name for the narrator was Adam, and there can be seen in the novel various parallels between Hanta and the biblical first man.
  • Hrabal penned Too Loud a Solitude late in life after a long bout with illness and forced temperance. He claimed that the book was what he had managed to live for.
  • After the novel's publication, Bohumil Hrabal suffered a fatal fall from the fifth floor of a hospital while feeding pigeons. Suicide from the fifth floor can be found in his stories and he wrote letters in which he admires certain people who had chosen that particular method to end their lives.
  • References

    Too Loud a Solitude Wikipedia