Bringing Up Girls in Bohemia

<p>MICHAL VIEWEGH’s short and witty novel <strong><em>Bringing Up Girls in Bohemia</em></strong> is the story of Beata Kralova and her not-so-young tutor. Beata is a 20-year-old drop-out and daughter of Denis Kral (i.e. King) a Czech “new millionaire” of dubious connections. Beata embraces lover after lover as well as causes new to Eastern Europe: the environment animal rights feminism consumerism new-age religion. </p><p>This satirical look at Prague today by the best of the new Czech writers entertains with a parade of unnforgettable charactersthe new mafiosi and their ex-secret police bodyguards the expatriate Americans and many an extraordinary Czech from a cremation enthusiast to a hopelessly naïve sex-education teacher. </p><p>The novel is also a serious exploration of the role of the writer in post-communist Central Europe. The narrator himself a writer and teacher who is in love with Beata must portray her fate in terms that explain her nihilism without losing faith in his own positive craft of story- telling. His hard-won credo as artist is to be an entertainer in a world of newly felt cruelty and suffering. </p>