Helpful Score: 5
Loved this book completely. It's a new member of the prestigious Top Ten Books I've Read list. Anyone who has lived abroad will find themselves laughing, sighing and crying along with five main characters. Also, Phillips writing style is glorious. I was so thoroughly impressed with the content and style of this book, it was practically impossible for me to put down. My only regret is that I've finished it!
Helpful Score: 3
From what I understand, people either love or hate this book. I don't love or hate it, but I get it. And I enjoyed it. It is the story of five (well, it starts with five) ex-pats living in Budapest in the spring of 1990 after the Velvet Revolution. And it encompasses everything that being twenty-five in a foreign (and in this case newly established) country is...the ennui, the homesickness, the people, the restlessness, the sex, the culture shock...
Helpful Score: 2
Best read so far this year.
Helpful Score: 2
Don't let the title fool you - the story takes place in Budapest! This book makes me want to hop the next plane to central Europe.
Helpful Score: 2
If you've ever been an expat, even for a few months, this book is definitely for you. A little slow to start, but it's hard to put down once you're into it.
I've started reading Prague, but I'm not at all sure I will finish the book. It's very difficult reading, and it hasn't caught my interest yet.
Well-written novel about several Americans and a Canadian who move to Budapest in 1990. Some funny moments, but it takes a while to get into. Towards the end, I realized I found most of the characters more annoying than anything, and wondered why they remained in Hungary while admiring ex-pats who live/work in Prague.
actually set in Budapest; gets better as it progresses
It was difficult to get into but well worth the work.
Set in Budapest (while all the action is in post-communist Prague), the young group of expats is thrown together by common circumstances, love, resentment and familial ties. John, who follows his brother to the city, falls in love with a naïve Nebraska farm girl, an enchanting (and quite possibly insane) old woman and a shaved head photographer. Interesting representation of the generational mindset and the east meets west world.
Set in Budapest (while all the action is in post-communist Prague), the young group of expats is thrown together by common circumstances, love, resentment and familial ties. John, who follows his brother to the city, falls in love with a naïve Nebraska farm girl, an enchanting (and quite possibly insane) old woman and a shaved head photographer. Interesting representation of the generational mindset and the east meets west world.
Prague is a novel about..... Budapest. It tracks a year in the life of a group of young expats in the early '90s. A first novel, it won numerous awards, including NYT notable book, SF Chronicle top book of the year, People best book of the year and LA Times best book of the year.
A novel about five expats who come to Budapest in the early 1990s to seek their fortune. They harbor the vague suspicion that their counterparts in Prague have it better, but they still hope to find adventure, a gold rush, or history in the making.
