Rate this book

How I Came To Know Fish (1971)

by Ota Pavel(Favorite Author)

4.13 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0141192836 (ISBN13: 9780141192833)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Penguin

review 1: Hvernig ég kynntist fiskunum eftir tékkneska höfundinn Ota Pavel er hugljúf saga af uppvaxtarárum höfundar frá því á millistríðsárunum og á meðan síðari heimsstyrjöldinni stóð. Þetta er safn tengdra smásagna og flestar sögurnar snerta fiskveiðar í ám og stöðuvötnum í gömlu Tékkóslóvakíu. Pavel rifjar upp samveru sína með eldri ættingjum og vinum sem kenndu honum að veiða og oftar en ekki koma veiðimennirnir heim með öngulinn í rassinum. Fallegast þótt mér þó að lesa lokaorð höfundar þegar hann lýsti því þegar hann sturlaðist síðar um ævina og á meðan hann dvaldi á geðsjúkrahúsi þá voru það minningarnar um veiðiferðirnar sem voru hamingjusömustu minningar hans og þær sem smám saman hjálpuðu honum... more að ná valdi á tilveru sinni.Falleg lesning og góð þýðing Gyrðis Elíassonar fer góðum höndum um söguna.
review 2: "I went mad at the winter Olympics in Innsbruck. My brain got cloudy, as if a fog from the Alps had enveloped it. In that condition I came face to face with one gentleman-- the Devil. He looked the part! He had hooves, fur, horns, and rotten teeth that looked hundreds of years old. With this figure in my mind I climbed the hills above Innsbruck and torched a farm building. I was convinced that only a brilliant bonfire could burn off the fog. As I was leading the cows and horses from the barn, the Austrian police arrived. They handcuffed me and took me down into the valley. I cursed them, pulled off my shoes, and walked barefoot through the snow. I was thinking of Christ as he was led to the cross. Back over the border I was delivered to the doctors in Prague.This period wasn’t so bad for me, but it was terrible for those who loved me and watched. In fact, I felt very good, and I did everything with enthusiasm and conviction. It is lovely being a Christ who administers blessings.Then the bad times began. The doctors, with their pills, got me into a state in which I realized I was mad. That is sadness, when you know you are no Christ but a wretch whose brain, which makes a man a man, is sick. So they put you behind bars even though you didn’t kill or hurt anyone, even though you stood no trial. And so you begin to envy the people outside, the people who go on living.Only a miracle can save you. I waited for one for five years, sitting alone in a chair. I won’t say that I suffered like an animal, because no man knows how an animal suffers though he may often write about it. I know that I suffered terribly. There are no words to describe it. And if there were such words, people would not believe them because they do not want to hear about madness. It frightens them.When I was better, I tried to remember what had been beautiful in my life. I did not think about love or how I had wandered all over the world. I did not think about night flights across the ocean or how I played Canadian hockey in Prague. I remembered walking along the brooks, rivers, ponds, and dams to fish. I realized that these were the most beautiful experiences in my life.Why? I cannot explain it exactly, but I tried to come close to it in this book." less

Download links for: How I Came to Know Fish

Advertising