Funny, absurd, sad, ultimately tragic and at the same time affirmational, this story of Hanta is one of the great celebrations of the human spirit and of the transcendent value of art and beauty. (It is also a sly and delightful satire on totalitarian attempts to control what we read, think, and feel.) Hrabal is one of the most delightful and unpredictable writers of all time, and for all that this book takes place in a filthy cellar with the background noises of rats fighting in the sewers, it is an exhilarating and uplifting hymn to the beauty and worth of the human spirit.