Bohumil Hrabal … [has] a splendid ear for the trivia, the ephemera that make up so much of our discourse. The conversation at a bar, at a family picnic, even on a lover's walk reveals a design essentially patternless and, when juxtaposed to events of some weight or significance, results in a series of weird, grotesque tales. It is precisely the contrasts in ["The Death of Mr. Baltisberger," a] collection of stories, that hold the elements together….

The key to Hrabal is that though the details are always realistic, the uses he puts them to are not.

The range, in these stories at least, is not wide, and a certain monotony begins to set in. But Hrabal shows an offbeat, original mind, a fey imagination and a sure hand in constructing his tales. I would be curious to see what the rest of his output is like. (p. 46)

Thomas...