Summary of Love and Garbage
“Love and Garbage” is a novel about a writer in communist Czechoslovakia who fails to find a publisher and becomes a street sweeper. As he cleans the streets of Prague, he reflects on his life, in particular his romantic struggles, torn between his wife and his mistress, and the guilt that haunts him. Along his way, he muses about literature, freedom, and his childhood in the Prague Ghetto.
Reasons to read Love and Garbage
“Love and Garbage” is a reflective, slow-paced ‘novel of ideas’ about a man who tries to live an honest life despite his own limitations – collecting both his memories and the rubbish from the streets of Prague. Ivan Klíma is now a celebrated Czech writer but, during the communist era, he was banned from publishing and had to take various short-term jobs. He was awarded the Franz Kafka Prize in 2002. Other works by Ivan Klima include the novel “Judge on Trial”, his essay collection “The Spirit of Prague”, and his autobiography “My Crazy Country”, which won the Magnesia Litera Prize for non-fiction in 2010.
Setting: Prague (Czech Republic)
Original title: Láska a smetí
Year of publication: 1986
Nr of pages: 223
