A Season in the West

by Piers Paul Read

Book Overview

This is the story of a Czech writer who defects to the West and gets involved in an affair with the lady who has taken him under her wing. Piers Paul Reed also wrote "The Professor's Daughter" and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 039457530X
• ISBN13: 9780394575308
• Release Date: April 1989
• Publisher: Random House (NY)
• Length: 238 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Politics and Society Will Chew Up the Innocent

This is an excellently written novel about an ex-patriot Czechoslovakian writer who goes to Great Britain to embrace capitalism. He finds out that politics everywhere are the same. He is an innocent, a naive idealist who is victimized by those who purport to care. This happens to him in love, art, government, etc. The author excellently portrays the facades, hypocrisy and pain of each social and economic class, occupation, and political bent. The book is both tragic and satirical. Birek, the protagonist, is taken in by a wealthy family. He has an affair with a wealthy woman, is taken under the wing of a non-profit organization for ex-patriots, and is introduced to literary society. All turn on him and discard him when they have no more personal use or gain to attribute from him. His innocence and political incorrectness lead to many faux pas on his part. The shallowness and hypocrisy of those he comes into contact with, along with their self-serving attitudes, prevent them from ever getting to know Birek, except on the surface. Read shows how politics and society will chew up the innocents every time