The Grass Is Always Greener: A Review of Prague

Prague is the premiere novel of Arthur Phillips, a young and talented author. Prague received a good deal of critical acclaim when it was published in 2002, and it is deserved for the most part. I read Phillips' sophomore novel, The Egyptologist, last year and thoroughly enjoyed it. Prague actually takes place in Budapest in 1990 shortly after Hungary became a democracy following the Communist era, and it follows the lives of several American expats: Charles Gábor, born in Hungary but raised in the US, returning to his homeland in the hopes of business success; Mark Payton, listless grad student, working on his interminable, impractical research; Emily Oliver, Nebraskan goody two-shoes who works at the US embassy; Scott Price, caustic teacher of English who makes good (if morally questionable) use of the Hungarian girls in his class; John Price, Scott's brother, aimlessly following his brother to Budapest in the hopes of adventure. The novel is mainly told through the eyes of John, and as such he is a protagonist of sorts. The novel has autobiographical elements, although Phillips maintains these are limited (he lived in Budapest for two years in the early nineties). The novel is "modern" (or post-modern?) in that it lacks any real plot. It's filled with the details of quotidian twenty-something existence - sex, drugs, romance, drama, music, parties, depression - flitting between melodrama and ennui as such topics tend to do. Phillips is a talented writer. He has a flair for wordplay, irony, and can turn an excellent phrase. It's certainly a highly literary novel. The novel felt a bit long - its last 50 or so page anticlimax was a bit tough to slog through. But on the whole it was a good read.

Reading the novel was a special joy for me, having spent some time in Budapest this summer, and reading about several familiar places - the Chain Bridge, Vörösmarty Square, Café Girbeaud - added another layer of meaning to the book. According to an interview with Phillips at the end of the book, the title is inspired by an emotional disorder - the idea that "if only I were somewhere else, doing something different, with a different person, things would be better." It's that "grass is always greener" feeling. At the time, Prague was the hot city to visit for young Americans - Phillips' point is that those in Prague probably felt envious in the same way about their counterparts in Budapest. A good novel from a talented up-and-coming author.