Necessary Errors

May 6, 2013
Crain reinvents the novel of the innocent abroad in his well-wrought debut. Fresh off the failure of his first relationship since coming out (at least to himself), Jacob relocates from Massachusetts to Prague, where he discovers a loose-knit community of expatriates, many of whom, like Jacob, teach English to Czechs. It’s 1990, and Prague—perhaps like Jacob and his friends—is poised on the brink of changes it does not yet fully understand. Jacob, an aspiring writer, is both sensitive and observant, a witness to his friends’ romantic entanglements as well as the victim of heartbreak himself. The novel is full of the kinds of conversations shared by intelligent, earnest young people everywhere; the parallels between their idealism and uncertainty and those of their adopted country are handled with great skill. “Being here is what you’re doing, when you’re here,” Jacob observes to a friend; this freedom from responsibility and traditional aspirations is what both attracts Jacob and makes him uneasy. The unhurried pace and lack of conventional plot seem deliberate; instead, it’s Jacob’s ongoing redefining of “exile” and his discovery of self in an unfamiliar community that provide meaning and richness.

May 1, 2013
Crain takes us into the lives of expats teaching English in Prague shortly after the Velvet Revolution of 1989. At the core of this group is Jacob Putnam, a 20-something gay man who wants to become a writer but who's temporarily keeping body and soul together by teaching. He's also exploring his sexuality, a journey that takes him to the T-Club, a gay bar he discovered through an "alternative" guide to Prague nightlife. There, he meets a man, and they have a brief affair that initiates Jacob into the gay subculture of that city. At his day job, Jacob warily befriends a small circle of fellow teachers but is frequently unable to determine how much he should reveal to them about his sexual orientation. Rafe and Annie are a cohabiting couple, though later in the novel, Annie runs away from Prague with Carl, a friend of Jacob's. Another teacher, Thom, is a Scot who makes jokes about gays while remaining ignorant of how much this hurts Jacob. Kaspar is one of the last die-hard socialists in Prague and likes to engage Jacob in conversations weighted with philosophical significance. This brave new world of post-repressive sexual freedom is supposed to be a place where, according to Jacob, "[n]o one is allowed to limit anyone's options," but this remains a Utopian ideal as long as relationships are real (and hence un-Utopian). Ultimately, Jacob takes up with Milo, who believes Jacob to be the author he wants to become, though ironically, Jacob decides he has to leave Prague--and Milo--to become the author Milo already thinks he is. Crain's world is drenched with the climate and colors--sometimes drab--of a post-revolutionary world of possibility and promise.

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May 1, 2013

Crain (American Sympathy) continues his ascendant career with this fully realized debut novel, which delights and surprises with every paragraph. The setting is 1990 Prague, a year after Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution, in the aftermath of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The story follows Jacob, a gay American college graduate whose ambitions of becoming a writer are frustrated by his surroundings. "'I'm an American, ' Jacob protested. 'There's no one I can blame for holding me back.'" The plot is compelling, but Crain's talent for nuance and dialog, particularly in the gay bar scenes, is an observational wonder. Through a historic lens, Crain details the beautiful East European capital city's transition from Communist to democratic rule. VERDICT Not an easy exercise in nostalgia, this novel is a pleasure to navigate with its large, likable cast. Fans of Ben Lerner's Leaving the Atocha Station will find themselves similarly enchanted here.--Travis Fristoe, Alachua Cty. Lib. Dist., Gainesville, FL

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2013
In this novel set in Prague one year after the 1989 Velvet Revolution, young Harvard graduate and budding writer Jacob Putnam navigates the chaotic and exhilarating landscape of a city in transition. Living among a group of colorful expatriates while teaching English, he longs to identify the spirit of the revolution, but it seems forever out of his grasp. Having recently come out as a gay man in the U.S., Jacob at first feels uncomfortable with revealing his sexuality to his new friends and lives a secretive and lonely life. However, his eventual turn toward openness and pride mirrors the transformation of the city itself, as its citizens slowly adjust to their newfound freedom and growth in opportunity. In his first published novel, literary critic and journalist Crain creates a compelling and heartfelt story that captures both the boundless enthusiasm and navet' of youth. In addition, the detailed descriptions of Prague and Czech culture, in general, are sure to please those interested in this fascinating period in Eastern European history.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)