Finished Prague by Arthur Phillips last night. I burned through the first half, slogged through the third quarter, and regained some interest at the ending.

The book lost steam after the halfway point because characters started abruptly disappearing [desertion, marriage, whatever] which, combined with a series of conflicts and goals apparently coming to resolution, made for a vacant second half of the story. The characters themselves were interesting enough to hold my attention, though. There were a few surprises but also a few gimmies.

One thing that bugged me was Phillips' repeated use of the same observation. He mentions how a character, deep in thought at a cafe, swirls his beverage and stares at the film of liquid left on the mugs' interior. While this is kind of a cool observation to mention, it's only cool once.

Oh yeah, and don't let the book's title fool you. The story is set in Budapest [just after the Wall came down]. The characters only have this nagging feeling that life in Prague is better [they're probably right].

Overall, my favorite part of the book was the writing. The narrator and several of the characters have that wry and biting sense of humor that always puts a smile on my face. There were a lot of funny moments that had me laughing out loud. If you like Kundera, give this book a shot.