I purchased this book mainly as a reference for Czech and Slovak women writers, attracted to its self-described need to "stress communality of experiences by countries shaped by similar historical and political processes." The editors claims the intent of the book is to reverse the neglect of women writers in central European countries and touts her own horn by telling us that "this is a pioneering work." It may be so, in that it is the first anthology containing the former Hapsburg-controlled lands, but at least as far as Czech and Slovak women writers are concerned, pretty much the same old material gets rehashed. The Czech section is thorough and is one of the longer chapters in the book; there is some new myth-killing info on Nemcova as it discusses the curious "cult of personality" that surrounded this author of Babicka. Biographical info on other Czech women is interesting (Svetla, Krasnahorska) and there is an interesting addition of a writer named Irma Geisslova. The Slovak section of the texzt is 18 pages in length. The first author discussed in detail is Lehocka, described as "an archetype of the Slovak women's movement" (hyperbole at its worst), for in the the next paragraph, Soltesova is branded as "a pioneer of Slovak women's literature and the women's movement" (yet, the author admits, Soltesova liked to emphasize 'woman's natural role'in daily life). The editors make the claim in the Introduction that "the text does not set out to give a feminist account of material covered" and yet seems eager to hang such titles on each different writer--with a decidedly feminist bent to them. About Podjavorinska: "(she) avoided radical feminism because she needed male writer's support." The disappointingly short blurb on Slovak writer Timrava grossly misjudges her work, calling it "banal" and "sanitized." Since this book hails from Britain and European editorship, though, the text is blessedly free of American academic pomo-jargon; there is little mumbo-jumbo. Ursula Philips, who authors the chapter on Polish writers, has a direct, powerful writing style. Some chapters in the book are frustratingly short (yet understandably so). The valuable bibliography lists all the authors who have works available in English translations.
