NOT one of the great prose stylists, the Prague writer Klima succeeds through his unsentimental realism, calm understanding of emotional chaos and his flair for recreating the awkward, evasive exchanges which pass for conversation between men and women. His reputation is secure on the strength of his ragged masterwork Judge on Trial, which came to publication through a series of underground versions. This slight collection of 12 stories spans some 30 years of his work, from weak early pieces marred by stiff dialogue to some strong recent pieces, including the hilarious "Long-Distance Conversations" in which a married New Zealander persists in phoning a woman, also married, in Prague. His desperation is brilliantly countered by her practicality; far less a tragic romance than a witty satire on bad timing, it shows Klima's occasional lightness of touch. Elsewhere a wife is quizzed by a jealous husband in a piece which resounds with blackly comic exasperation. Messed-up relationships have always overshadowed politics in his work, with Klima emerging as an adroit commentator on domestic triangles. Interestingly, the best story is an utterly untypical fable of sorts about a miserable rich man's last days.
