Book description
In Search of the Essence of Place is a memoir of Petr Král's
experiences growing up in post-war Czechoslovakia and subsequent years
in Paris. Armed only with his poetic sensibility, Král sets out to
explore our relationship with the places that we inhabit and with the
apparently unremarkable everyday objects, which often inform and
enrich our lives. Král bears witness to Flaubert's observation that Â
in order for something to become interesting, we simply have to look
at it for a long timeâ . He reveals not only the inner lifeÂ-the very
essenceÂ-of mundane objects and places, but also simple yet profound
truths about ourselves.
Petr Kral, born in Czechoslovakia in 1941, was a member of the Czech
surrealist movement alongside Vratislav Effenberger and the poet
Vitezslav Nezval. He moved to Paris in 1968, where in the forty years
since he has gained a considerable reputation as a prolific poet,
essayist and film critic. He has also written a remarkable two-volume
work on the burlesque comedies of the silent era. Petr Kral lives and
works in Paris and Prague where he returned in 2008.
