Bibliograph

The odyssey and Dr. Novak, a memoir, Ann C. Colley

Type

Label

The odyssey and Dr. Novak, a memoir, Ann C. Colley

Language

eng

Index

no index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

The odyssey and Dr. Novak

Medium

electronic resource

Nature of contents

dictionaries

Responsibility statement

Ann C. Colley

Sub title

a memoir

Summary

One summer afternoon in northern England in 1946, when Ann Colley was a child, she met a man from Czechoslovakia named Dr. Novak. This encounter launched her lifelong fascination with Central and Eastern Europe, one that resulted in her spending two years, in 1995 and 2000, teaching at universities in Poland and Ukraine. In The Odyssey and Dr. Novak, Colley records personal experiences, interactions with colleagues, and descriptions of the landscape, creating a composite portrait of these countries at a time when each is struggling to chart its course after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. She recalls moments that are disturbing, absurd, discordant, frustrating, humorous, and endearing-a missing parrot flying in through the window; a robber on a train threatening her life; clouds of smoke from Chernobyl hanging over Kiev. Colley's journey ends with her return to the figure of Dr. Novak when she searches in the archives of the Harvard Divinity School Library for letters sent from Prague in 1945-letters which, just like her memoir, speak of a past that pursues the present

Target audience

adult

Classification

Contributor