Skvorecky, Josef

New York. 1979. January 1979. Knopf. 1st American Edition. Very Good in Dustjacket. 0394502671. Translated from the Czech by Kaca Polackova-Henley. 212 pages. hardcover. Front-of-jacket illustration by G. Freschet. keywords: Literature Translated Czech Eastern Europe . FROM THE PUBLISHER - The two haunting, poetic novellas that comprise THE BASS SAXOPHONE brilliantly evoke the comedy and sadness of life under the Nazi and Soviet dictatorships. They are prefaced by a remarkable memoir of Skvorecky's jazz-obsessed youth. Jazz is a symbol of freedom in both these novellas. In EMOKE, which is set in the shadow of the Communist regime, jazz becomes the means by which a jaded young man plots the seduction of a mysterious girl enmeshed in superstition and the occult. Spurned, but fascinated, he is drawn into her tortured existence until catapulted into the final bitter comedy. In THE BASS SAXOPHONE a young Czechoslovakian student living under the rule of the Nazis is lured by his love of jazz - the ‘forbidden music' - into secretly and dangerously playing in a German band, with bizarre and unexpected results. Written with the lyrical intensity of a great jazz performance, these two extraordinary novellas are among Skvorecky's finest works. inventory #26884 ISBN: 0394502671.