Utz- Bruce Chadwin

Time for my second book review and I can honestly say Utz by Sheffield born author Bruce Chatwin is like no other book I have ever read.

On the surface this novella seems like the perfect match for me, combing my two favourite cities: Sheffield and Prague. In that respect it didn't disappoint. After an unsure start I was soon taken in by Chatwin's unusual prose, ultra short chapters and larger than life characters. In only 127 pages Chatwin manages to tell the intriguing and captivating story of a porcelain dealer desperately trying to hold on to his wondrous collection despite the perils of Soviet Czechoslovakia.

The story is told through a first person narrative, who recounts episodes of Utz's life and how he came about possessing such a valuable and impressive porcelain collection. However, in keeping with the novella's unusual tone, our narrator seems to become somewhat hazy of the details of the story and begins to fill in bits with guesses, for example,

"Did he have a moustache? I forget. Add a moustache, subtract a moustache: Nothing would alter his utterly nondescript appearance"

The novella not only tells of Utz and his obsession with porcelain, but also of his slightly reluctant, semi-romantic relationship with his maid Marta, the only person who seems to truly to love him. Marta is a typically bizarre character, who, according to the book, once fell in love with a goose.

"[Marta] was thought to be simple: especially when she fell in love with a gander...Some morning, at first light when no one was about, she would swim with her lover in the lake, and allow him to nibble her long fair hair."

In the end it turns out that there is a bit more to both and Marta and Utz than meets or the eye (or indeed, the narrator can remember) and the ending is bittersweet and somewhat lacking in resolution. For me the joy in this short book is the vivid picture painted of Prague during Soviet time, eccentricities, troubles and all. Chatwin's characters are bright, real and, at times, Dickensian in their quirkiness, making Utz a delightful short read.