The Blind Mirror: Stories

247 pp. 8vo. Translated from the original Czech by Jan Hertzfeld. 'Leading off are tales of barracks life and adolescent sexual dismay (a girl prepares for 'ruin' and receives a lecture on mechanics instead; a boy's boasts of virginity backfire) whose charming triviality could belong to any place or time. They make a peculiar introduction to the specific somberness that follows in stories based (like Benes' 1969 novel, Second Breath) on the author's experiences as a political prisoner in a Czech labor camp. He concentrates on the feelings of apprehension and helplessness, the numbing routine and its rare, brief interruptions (the privilege of standing in sub-zero cold to hear a record; an explosion killing a hundred-odd convicts and miners), conveying an undisguised outrage at camp conditions and tire quality of 'the people's justice.'' - Kirkus Reviews