Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?

Re:Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impa... by jerzyt on Sunday March 29, 2020 @04:21PM (#22722342)

This is a fantastic book, unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a good English translation. I've read it in Polish, which is close enough to Czech to stay much closer to the original. The English translation loses a lot of the cultural character.

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Re:Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impa... by SamBoogieNYC on Sunday March 29, 2020 @11:13PM (#22724908)

Interesting - I read in Polish but not as well as English. I imagine there could be a lot of good wordplay that is missing. Maybe one day I’ll try and pick up the Polish version

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Re:Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impa... by jerzyt on Monday March 30, 2020 @06:38AM (#22726777)

I don't know if I can give justice to it but there are scenes, like the pub owner explaining that he had to remove the portrait of the emperor, because the flies were crapping on it. There's just something that's missing in the translation. Many jokes rely on language and cultural references. This book is like that.

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Re:Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impa... by erezsh on Tuesday March 31, 2020 @12:52PM (#22739544)

I agree. I read it in English and even though I felt some of the punchlines, for the most part I had no idea why they were supposed to be funny. I assume a lot of it is cultural references.

Catch-22 is great though. Dystopic and hilarious at the same time.

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