The Engineer of Human Souls
Author: Josef Škvorecký
Desc: The Engineer of Human Souls is a labyrinthine comic novel that investigates the journey and plight of novelist Danny Smiricky a Czech immigrant to Canada. As the novel begins he is a professor of American literature at a college in Toronto. Out of touch with his young students and hounded by the Czech secret police Danny is let loose to roam between past and present adopting whatever identity that he chooses or has been imposed upon him by History. As adventuresome episodic bawdy comic and literary as any novel written in the past twenty-five years The Engineer of Human Souls is worthy of the subtitle Skvorecky gave it: "An Entertainment on the Old Themes of Life Women Fate Dreams The Working Class Secret Agents Love and Death."