And there were wires everywhere in the sky and they crisscrossed like a million black lines. I haven’t visited Prague, but Parrett, through Luděk via Martin, brings it alive: The Prague scenes, she writes, “would be nothing” without his help. Luděk’s story is, the Author’s Note says, drawn from the experiences of her cousin Martin. The stories, as mentioned above, are told through the eyes of Malá Liška (in first person) and Luděk (in third person.) I suspect Malá Liška’s is first person because she is modelled on Parrett herself, thus providing a grounding authenticity.
Such is the call of home, about which more later. They managed to do this every four years, sometimes every three years if they were careful. My grandparents saved their fifty-cent coins to buy aeroplane tickets. Through it all, although physically separated, they stay in touch, via letters and the occasional visits back to Prague by Máňa and Bill: Separated during World War Two, with young Máňa going to England, the women’s lives are further up-ended by the 1968 Czechoslovakian Revolution. Now, if you know your European history, the above description will have suggested to you the book’s framework, and you’d be right.
It’s one of the fastest reads I’ve had in some time. It’s a carefully constructed book, one that benefits from close reading, which is not to say it’s hard reading, because it’s not.
The novel is set mostly in 1980, and alternates between these two places, with occasional forays into other places and/or times to fill in some backstories. Melbourne-based Malá Liška or “Little Fox” lives with her grandparents Máňa and Bill, while Prague-based Luděk lives with his Babi (grandmother). The novel revolves around the lives of two Czech sisters, one who ends up in Melbourne with the other remaining in Prague, but their story is mainly seen through the eyes of their grandchildren. Just the sort of novel, really, that I tend to like. Favel Parrett’s third novel, There was still love, is one of those novels in which not a lot happens but has a lot going on.
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