SOURCE: Enright, D. J. “Czech Mates.” New York Review of Books 36, no. 8 (18 May 1989): 37-9.

In the following excerpt, Enright asserts that readers are likely to empathize with the narrator of My First Loves, though notes that some readers may be irritated by him at the same time.

Ivan Klíma's My First Loves relates to much the same time-span as I Served the King of England by Bohumil Hrabal, and the second of its four linked stories features a wise old violinist, formerly a waiter and a major-domo who once served the Austrian Emperor with a glass of wine at a banquet in Vienna. He tells the young narrator that people shouldn't look down on those who are not ashamed to serve others, for which of them doesn't serve? “I've always maintained that a man can do anything so long as he does it lovingly.” The remark is...