Time's Magpie: A Walk in Prague

by Myla Goldberg

Book Overview

Sometimes a city can be like a bird. Just as the magpie is an inveterate collector, hoarding beautiful eclectic bits to line its nest, so Prague retains fragments from bygone regimes and centuries... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1400046041
• ISBN13: 9781400046041
• Release Date: November 2004
• Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.1" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Engaging stroll down Prague's narrow streets

Myla Goldberg's trip through Prague is brief, but enjoyable. Her writing style is amusing, if slightly self-conscious, but it is fluid and evocative. I enjoyed it. As someone who has visited Prague eight times in the last eleven years, I found her observations accurate, honest, and interesting. She sees both the bad and the good of Prague. She mentions a few places I will definitely want to take in on my next visit. Her initial image of Prague as magpie is apt, though she doesn't really take it very far. In fact, my one dissapointment is that the book is so short... and there are so, so, so many more things that could have been included. In fact the books feels more like a series of magazine articles than a real book. In fact the final chapter seems to just stop, rather than sum up the experience she has so beautifully described. Still, even if it is brief, it is a joy to read. I will recommend this book to friends.

Grate mate

All in all, a nervous reverie for those who have visited or have no intention of visiting the city. But not for those who have yet to travel there. Best to check out standard guides, talk to veteran itinerants, and read "Prague Walks" and Ivan Klima's essays collected as "The Spirit of Prague." Goldberg, like her book-jacket picture reveals as its contents affirm, remains too showy an interpreter--she dresses in black, but the loudly-striped leggings give her away instead of camouflaging her presence