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Too Loud a Solitude
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Plot Summary of Too Loud a Solitude
"Hanta has spent 35 years compacting paper in order to save rare books from destruction. In communist Czechoslovakia books are banned. Whilst being a beer soak he also drank the words of the great writers and philosophers ,‘sipping them like a liqueur until the thought dissolves in him like alcohol, infusing brain and heart.' He has saved over 3 tons of books some of which he sells to a professor and some that he gives away to a friend. The rest are stored precariously above his bed at home. We hear about the mice that infest the cellar where he works and sometimes get crushed in the crusher and at other times are carried unwittingly in his pockets or trouser turn-ups to the inn where he gets his beer.

We hear how his boss harangues him and calls him a Nitwit. Sadly his boss sacks him from the job he loves and replaces him with two efficients, members of the Brigade of Socialist Labour, who work at the giant new compacting plant. Distraught Hanta gets drunk and then finds himself back at the cellar where he decides to follow Seneca and Socrates and take his own life by crawling sublimely into the jaws of the crusher with his favourite quotation in his hand. "

John Marcel, Resident Scholar



Review Analysis of Too Loud a Solitude
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Tone of book? - thoughtful
Time/era of story - 1960's-1970's
Political/social activism Yes
Plotlet: - fighting for free speech/press
Life of a profession: - blue collar worker
Internal struggle/realization? Yes
Struggle over - nature of existence (heavy philosophy)
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Job/Profession/Status story Yes
Druggie/Wino problems? - alcohol

Main Character
Gender - Male
Profession/status: - scholar
Age: - 60's-90's
Ethnicity/Nationality - Eastern European
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Very much smarter than other characters
Physique - druggie/wino disease

Main Adversary
Identity: - society
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - an above average amount

Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings? - 3 ()
Europe Yes
European country: - Eastern Europe
City? Yes
City: - dirty, grimy (like New York)

Style
Person - mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death? - generic/vague references to death/punishment
Sex in book? Yes
What kind of sex: - vague references
Amount of dialog - significantly more descript than dialog
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