Inspired by Mrs. Tolstoy and Mrs. Dostoevsky, whose biographies about their husbands have now been published in Prague, Bohumil Hrabal decided to produce his own autobiographical work, ostensibly fiction, from his wife s point of view. He would write, he said, not a putdown about myself, but a little bit of how it all was, that marriage of ours, with myself as a jewel and adornment of our life together.
The task, taken up by such a rogue comic talent, could be nothing other than strangely delightful; and in "In-House Weddings," the first of the trilogy that Hrabal produced, we meet the...

"Gaps"begins with Hrabal receiving the long anticipated advance copy of his first short story collection, "Perlicka na dne"("Pearl of the Deep"). Hrabal's career as a successful writer starts here, and the novel details his rise on the domestic front, his relationship with influential Czech artists and writers, as well as the international recognition he gains from novels such as"Closely Watched Trains."
"Gaps"is a more overtly political novel than either"In-House Weddings"or"Vita Nuova." The 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and the subsequent repression of artistic freedom figure...