Utz

I ve never read anything by Bruce Chatwin before, but judging from his biography he was an interesting fellow Born in 1940, he was employed by Sotheby s to work at their art department and quickly became their expert on antique and impressionist pieces, known for his ability to discern forgeries he eventually became the director He was later hired by The Sunday Times and published articles for the magazine while traveling across the world and visiting its remote corners he published a travel boo [...]

Avevo sentito accennare a Bruce Chatwin e l avevo collegato mentalmente ad uno scrittore di viaggi e avventure Incuriosita, ho voluto assaggiare e ho scelto, non so per quali motivi inspiegabili, Utz E mi sono ritrovata non in luoghi di possibili mete, n in posti esotici, n a conoscere gente per il mondo, ma, inaspettatamente, a percorrere un viaggio a ritroso per alcuni anni dell ultimo secolo, tramite le porcellane Meissen Il barone Kaspar von Utz ne possiede infatti, a Praga, una spettacolare [...]

Le cose, riflettei, sono meno fragili delle persone Le cose sono lo specchio immutabile in cui osserviamo la nostra disgregazione Nulla ci invecchia pi di una collezione di opere d arte Il barone Kaspar von Utz, discendente da una nobile famiglia di proprietari terrieri, si rifugia nel collezionismo quasi maniacale di porcellane, che inizia ad acquistare pian piano fin da giovane La sua collezione, composta da un numero esorbitante di pezzi importantissimi, grazie alla sua perspicacia ed attenzi [...]

Set during the last years of Czechoslovakia before the end of communism this short novel is based around a meeting between the author, who descends down into his own novel view spoiler rather as in his travel writing there is an interplay between the potentially real and the probably fictional so to there is an uncertain shifting between the two as though the author was seeking to both expose and cover his nakedness at the same time and blurs the difference between fiction and non fiction, inste [...]

Chatwin s sentences are as chiseled little jewels in museum cases He s part of that wonderful tradition of chilly literary craftsmanship that counts Borges, Sebald, and Nabokov among its members.Utz is the first of Chatwin s fiction works I ve read, and it bears much in common with his travel writing To be, like, ultra lame, I would make the comparison between his prose and the Meissen porcelain he writes about, but I m not Instead, I ll say that it is brilliantly, deceptively simple He just say [...]

Don t get fooled by the shortness of the booklet the story is quite rich We meet this self centered mr Utz on the day of his funeral, through the memories of an acquaintance of his Mr Utz has been a spoiled child and an eccentric adult, a bourgeoisie in a communist country He s a collector, and an addicted to porcelain But the is also delusional I get the sophistication of the story, but I don t get the story I ve been indifferent to Utz s struggling and suffering.

La collezione proibita.Strano romanzo questo Utz, breve quanto intenso, multiforme e cangiante.Non avevo mai letto niente di Chatwin, ma per sentito dire o per articoli letti qua e l mi immaginavo viaggi avventurosi in terre lontane oltreoceano.Mi sono ritrovata invece a Praga, la pi misteriosa tra le citt europee , a viaggiare nella mente indecifrabile di Utz, un ricco collezionista di porcellane settecentesche della casa Meissen di Dresda di origine tedesca, ebreo per parte di madre, Utz un pe [...]

I don t know why or when I began to be suspicious of fiction, but somewhere along the line I came to look on the reading of novels as a guilty pleasure, a distraction from the business of serious reading This is an absurd notion, of course, and it embarrasses me to write it down The undergraduate English major still lurking somewhere deep within me is really quite shocked But I make no excuse for myself I only admit the fact.I ve read a lot of Bruce Chatwin and enjoyed all of it, but I ve so fa [...]

Se Fredrik Sj berg dice che esistono altri libri in cui compaiono collezionisti di mosche, io devo recuperare subito quei libri.Utz per un collezionista di ceramiche e forse ancora meglio, la sua ossessione sinistra, inquietante e malata lo porta a spostarsi, a mercanteggiare, a giungere a compromessi, a mentire ed imbrogliare, a nascondersi e a scappare Utz un personaggio estremamente affascinante e, seppur esplorato attentamente nei meandri della sua mente, non del tutto comprensibile e razion [...]

I have a special relationship with this book I read it while I was living abroad and it really sparked something special inside me To me this book is the perfect intersection of language, humor, and intelligence, and I realized that was the same feeling I hoped to stir with my own writing.It s a very simple story and a short one, almost a child s fable The narrator goes to Prague during the iron curtain days to track down a man rud to have an incredible collection of Meissen china What follows i [...]

About 3 4 of the way in and I m finding it really easy to read It s sneakily subversive, witty, elegant in a quiet way and really gets its hooks into you Absorbing, slightly absurd, legitimately funny and slyly knowing.It was pressed on me by a drunken friend who insisted that I check it out It was also among the 5,000 books namedropped by Hitchens in a personal essay, though, and I think he probably knew the author well so that s always a plus.So far at least it s the kind of book that feels lo [...]

Una perla questo ultimo scritto di Chatwin, che ci d un idea di quanto fosse colto e curioso C anche l opportunit di imparare qualcosa sulla storia delle porcellane di Meissen, da farne buon uso nelle conversazioni al bar per stupire gli amici.

A British academic travels to 1960s Prague to research the art collection of Rudolf II A historian friend introduces him to the eccentric and utterly dogged porcelain collector, Kaspar Joachim Utz From this encounter an extraordinary story of obsession and survival emerges for Utz has protected his vast collection of Meissen figurines from Nazis, Stalinist ideologues and the demands of Communist museum curators.After the Soviet invasion of 1968, all contact between the men ceases and Utz dies In [...]

I, of course, am a dealer of porcelain and some of them Meissen , so this book was unusually close to my everyday life Chatwin s passages on the pleasure and insanity of collecting particularly the intense negotiation scene were some of my favorites, though I don t know how well they d translate to the collective you.But The book s treatment of Czechoslovakia is fascinating, Utz himself is a pleasure of a character, the book is light and funny, and there s a sequence in homage to Magic Mountain [...]

On the surface this is a story about an obsessive porcelain collector in Prague whom the narrator encounters in the 60s But this short novel explores the idea of art and people who collect It also examines the idea of perception and whether things are ever as they seem An interesting and thought provoking work by an author I recently discovered and am thoroughly enjoying.

Enjoyable novella about a collector living in Prague who remains an enigma until the end He collects porcelain, is obsessed by it Lots of information in the story about porcelain and mythology A really interesting read.

I finally got around to reading this I recall there being quite a stir about it when it came out various friends were sure I d love it because I had been to Prague.I m not entirely sure what I think of it It s well written and I might have been quite taken with it had I read it in 1989 Unquestionably I would have liked it very much had I read it earlier in the 80s but of course it wasn t yet written then Now, however, I m not particularly taken with the title character which is perfectly all rig [...]

I will order trout There are no trout, said the head waiter What can you mean, no trout said Utz There are trout Many trout There is no net What can you mean, no net Last week there was a net Is broken Broken, I do not believe The head waiter put a finger to his lips, and whispered, These trout are reserved For them Them, he nodded.Four fat men were eating trout at a nearby table Very well, said Utz I will eat eels You also will eat eels I will, I said There are no eels, said the waiter No eels [...]

Ao preservar da colectiviza o a sua colec o particular de porcelanas de Meissem, Kaspar Utz encontrou um ref gio contra os horrores do s culo XX Comparadas com a delicada realidade das suas figuirinhas, salvas e seguras na m gica cidade de Praga, a Gestapo e a pol cia secreta eram para Utz de somenos import ncia Confinado ao pequeno apartamento onde as preciosas figurinhas ocupam todo o espa o, servido pela fiel criada Marta com a mesma cerim nia de outrora, Kaspar Utz tem o supremo snobismo de [...]

Difficile esprimere un commento.E scritto benissimo ma non sono riuscita a entrare nella storia forse perch troppo breve, forse perch il protagonista non mi ha trasmesso niente, forse perch mi sono dovuta fermare e ricercare informazioni che nel testo erano date per conosciuteUna lettura breve ma difficile e pesante

Bruce Chatwin considered Utz to be a work of fiction, but it s written in such a way that it feels true The narrator s voice is identical to that of the author s in In Patagonia, a journal of his travels although one with than a hint of the surreal and bizarre , and stylistically Utz follows a similar structure The story centres around the character of Kasper Utz and his amazing and valuable collection of Meissen porcelain, both trapped in Czechoslovakia during the turbulent and dangerous years [...]

I read this beautiful little book with the Lincoln Park Book Group and fell in love with the writing of Bruce Chatwin More recently it was included in a class I took at University of Chicago on the literature of Prague Fundamentally it is the story of Kaspar Utz, who lives in Prague and who is consumed by collecting figurines and living a quiet life under the communist system Utz is painted as a prisoner to his dolls while he lives under a totalitarian regime, so when he leaves on his annual sab [...]

Utz is the story of Utz, a collector of fine porcelains I have to admit the story was bizarre and somewhat hard to understand The basic premise is before the war, Utz was a baron with a large estate As a young child living with his grandmother, he took a fondness to porcelain figurines, using his money to purchase pieces As he got older, he refined his tastes to learn between those pieces which were great and those which were fakes or sub par With the onset of World War II, he packaged up his po [...]

Bruce Chatwin is one of my favourite authors He educates richly regarding each book s context as he writes This book provided insight into how humans seek to control their world, and for men motivated by a fear of death His main character collects porcelain objects a very wealthy man , and when the Soviets took control, he remained the custodian of his now Soviet owned collection It turns out that his motive for collecting porcelain figurines, was that they retained their beauty, never aging, an [...]

Bruce Chatwin ficou conhecido pelos seus livros de viagens, mas foi um livro de fic o o ltimo que escreveu antes de morrer Em Utz, ficamos a conhecer a obsess o do protagonista, Kaspar Utz, pela sua cole o de porcelanas de Meissen, obsess o tal que condicionou toda a sua exist ncia.Judeu a viver em Praga no per odo da Guerra Fria, ao longo da sua vida Utz tem uma s rie de oportunidades para desertar para oeste, mas o amor sua cole o f lo sempre voltar a casa Ao longo da hist ria, narrada por um [...]

Piccolo libricino, preso quasi per caso e che invece si rivelato una lettura molto coinvolgente Primo romanzo che mi capita di leggere di Bruce Chatwin, anche l ultimo che il grande viaggiatore ha scritto prima di morire La storia racconta del barone Utz e della sua fantastica collezione di porcellane Meissen e di come tutta la sua vita sia stata condizionata da questa passione Molto profondo nel descrivere i tratti di questa ossessione, racconta la lotta di Utz per preservare dallo sfacelo la s [...]

I have read non fiction by the author and was impressed In Patagonia was excellent as I recall So I was a bit surprised to see he had written fiction Fiction about a porcelain collector too He really does capture the spirit of the collector How he ends up intertwined with his collection Almost like a married couple that starts to look alike as they get older, the collector becomes and like a part of his collection All in all a well told tale.

I think this might be my favorite book about Prague I ve read so far The story is charming and dark in that distinct Czech way even though it s not written by a Czech And it so perfectly encapsulates life during some of Prague s darker days The ending left me chuckling with its almost painful irony.

Well told story, yet missing something like maybe the reason for telling it The narrator seems too detached from it, as if he s being forced to tell it Still, for the cultural aspects alone, it s worth reading it s short and reads quickly , as it gives one a good look at Czechoslovakia during and immediately after the Iron Curtain.

In Grimm s Etymological Wordbook, utz carries any number of negative connotations drunk , dimwit , cardsharp , dealer in dud horses Heinzen, Kunzen, Utzen oder Butzen , in the dialect of Lower Swabia, is the equivalent of Any Tim, Dick or Harry funny, riveting and a quick read.