Vaclav Havel Book

John Keane's biography of Vaclav Havel is subtitled A political tragedy in six acts. Havel, of course, came to prominence as a dissident playwright; but come the "Velvet Revolution" of 1989, as Eastern Europe toppled into democracy in a few weeks, ending the Cold War and changing the world, Havel was the iconic protagonist, dressed in jeans and leather jacket, leading a coalition of civil rights and political protest groups against a harsh and ultimately enervated regime. This part of the story is a romantic triumph; the tragedy comes with Havel's later years, clinging to the presidency despite ill-health, unpopularity and the gaffes of his young second wife. Keane is alert to theatricality--whether as metaphor or in the management of news, propaganda and revolution--and describes Havel as someone who, quite simply, remained on the stage too long. So, this is not a hagiography: but, drawing on a vast number of sources, including contemporary letters, interviews and documents, Keane draws a sympathetic portrait of a remarkable man, whose charisma and cunning at a time of revolution achieved something truly astonishing. He places Havel in the context of the 20th century's unique convulsions: Stalinism, Hitler, the Prague Spring and the horrors of Cold War communism. Keane has always been an astute and lucid theorist in his analysis of political structures and the dynamics of violence and political change, and his chapters on 1989 are genuinely moving and exciting. As the subtitle suggests, Keane paints the many faces of Havel with a mixture of hard fact and impressionistic license-- tableaux vivants, as he describes them, and challengeable truths. The result is a thrillingly vivid picture of the man and his times that captures not merely the essences of the revolutionary hero and fading elder statesman but something of the despair and excitement of a troubled country in a violent century.--Robert PottsENDRead More