I really loved this book. I am addicted to books that show heroes and idealists--there are surprisingly few out there where the moral situation feels real. It's interesting how ashamed the narrator is of his ideals--it's a bit like Huck Finn being ashamed of seeing Jim as a person. But he holds to them nonetheless. Sometimes you just know what you know--it's astonishing how few books are willing to admit that fact, perhaps because it seems so silly and arbitrary. Another book in a similar vein, written around a similar time, that I really liked is Udon Von Horvath's Youth Without God, about a teacher in 1930s Hungary whose students slowly succumb to fascism.
It's nice though how Krleza's book is not a political allegory. It applies to all people, all societies, all places. Definitely is up there with "Bartleby the Scrivener" in the literature of refusal.
I really loved this book. I am addicted to books that show heroes and idealists--there are surprisingly few out there where the moral situation feels real. It's interesting how ashamed the narrator is of his ideals--it's a bit like Huck Finn being ashamed of seeing Jim as a person. But he holds to them nonetheless. Sometimes you just know what you know--it's astonishing how few books are willing to admit that fact, perhaps because it seems so silly and arbitrary. Another book in a similar vein, written around a similar time, that I really liked is Udon Von Horvath's Youth Without God, about a teacher in 1930s Hungary whose students slowly succumb to fascism.
It's nice though how Krleza's book is not a political allegory. It applies to all people, all societies, all places. Definitely is up there with "Bartleby the Scrivener" in the literature of refusal.