[In the following review, Hooper suggests that the plotless Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age is not designed for the casual reader.]

Hrabal, one of the foremost contemporary Czech writers, has devised a provocative little novel [Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age] for special readers. In a breathless monologue—in fact, in one unbroken sentence—an old shoemaker spouts off to a captive audience of young women about his life and ideas. From political history (“his son, the crown prince, was forced to marry Princess Stephanie of Belgium, but he was wild for Vetsera's body, she had these gigantic breasts and eyes”) to morality (“Christ wanted us to love our neighbors, he wanted discipline, not love on the sofa the way some mealy-brained idiots would have it”), the old man perambulates over a wide range of territory, spreading recollections and opinions far and wide. For readers who appreciate language for its own sake, this short book is fertile ground; for those who need a firm plot as anchorage, they had best turn elsewhere. For active foreign-literature collections.