Keeping Bedlam at Bay in the Prague Cafe: A Novel
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.91 (775 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0982578180 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 240 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2017-04-18 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
The novel is darkly comic (reminiscent of DBC Pierre’s Lights Out in Wonderland, 2011), immersive, nostalgic, and thoroughly enjoyable. An ode to expatriate living, culture clashes, and the heady days of early 1990s Europe, this novel is a manic, wild ride with a loose narrative style full of off-the-cuff observations. From Booklist John Shirting, a quiet Chicago native with a passion for excellent coffee and a bad habit of self-medicating, has been let go from his barista job at a branch of the Capo Coffee Family, an ee
Shirting makes it his mission to return to the frothy Capo's fold by singlehandedly breaking into a new market and making freshly postcommunist Prague safe for free-market capitalism. Unfortunately, his college nemesis, Theodore Mizen, a certified socialist, has also moved there, and is determined to reverse the Velvet Revolution, one folk song at a time. Poised to be an underground classic, it asks: what does it mean to be sane in a fast-changing world? . Not long ago, John Shirting--quiet young Chicagoan, wizard of self-medication--held down a beloved job as a barista at Capo Coffee Family, a coffee chain and global business powerhouse. When he is deemed "too passionate" about his job, he is let go. After Shirting experiences the loss of his sole "new-hire" -
M. Henderson Ellis lived in Prague for two years in the first half of the 1990s and there taught English and tended bar. . He makes his living as a writer and freelance editor at Wordpillediting. A Chicago-area native and a graduate of Bennington College, he has lived in Budapest, Hungary, since 2001, where in 2004 he co-founded the Engl
"Phantasmagorical debut novel on 1990s Prague" according to Josephine Bell. The mood of euphoria and confusion that followed the fall of the Iron Curtain reflects a unique moment in recent history. Just as Vienna around the turn-of-the-century, post-Communist East Central Europe exerts a powerful hold over the imagination; there is a sense of nostalgia for what seemed to be a time and place of endless possibility, of frantic and uncoordinated jumps into freedom.In Keeping Bedlam at Bay i. "delivered with a fast-paced over caffeinated energy, a touch of whimsy and a sense of humor" according to Gaele. Set in 1990's Prague and delivered with a fast-paced over caffeinated energy, a touch of whimsy and a sense of humor that ranges from dark to pointedly satirical M. Henderson Ellis has created a book that amuses as it confuses, only to right one upturned idea as it turns another on its side. So entertaining: I picked it up to read expecting to read for a couple of hours, and finished way past my bedtime, never on. xxx- pats and irony Be prepared for something extraordinary. Keeping Bedlam at Bay in the Prague Cafe is master satire delivered through the lens of free-market touting, company man, John Shirting. The problem here- Shirting is not employed by any company, let alone the coffee chain he pretends to represent. If you're ever had one two many with certain xpats, you will giggle yourself dizzy through Shirting's exploits and delusions.