{"product_id":"the-gentle-barbarian-bohumil-hrabal-9780811228589","title":"The Gentle Barbarian","description":"\u003cem\u003eThe Gentle Barbarian\u003c\/em\u003e is Bohumil Hrabal's moving homage to Vladim? Boudn?, a brilliant but troubled Czech graphic artist who died tragically at the age of forty-four a few months after the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968. \u003cp\u003e \u003cem\u003eThe Gentle Barbarian\u003c\/em\u003e takes us to the heart of Boudn?'s creative drive: his gift for infusing the objects and events of everyday life with transcendent magic, and his passion for sharing his ideas and his art with anyone willing to listen. Hrabal's anecdotal portrait includes another controversial figure in that early postwar Czech avant-garde: the poet Egon Bondy, the pen name and alter ego of a self-styled \"left-wing Marxist\" philosopher called Zbynek Fiser.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHrabal's amazing memoir celebrates the creative spirits who strove to reject, ignore, or burrow beneath an artificial \"revolutionary\" fervor. Fueled by vast quantities of beer, emboldened by friendship, driven by a sense of their own destiny, they filled the intellectual and spiritual vacuum around them with manic humor, inspiration, and purpose, and in doing so, pointed the way to a kind of salvation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Bohumil Hrabal\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0811228584\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780811228589\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e New Directions Publishing Corporation\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/02\/2021\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 128\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.35lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.20h x 5.40w x 0.40d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 01\/11\/2021\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e 02\/01\/2021","brand":"Bohumil Hrabal","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44042823500031,"sku":"9780811228589","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_e7f9e856-0149-4d24-a531-492d7195cfaf.jpg?v=1684963744","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-gentle-barbarian-bohumil-hrabal-9780811228589","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}