What others say:

Of Kids & Parents contains many typical Czech moments of humor, bickering, sarcasm, irony, and prental chides ... It is a delighlful read in both Czech and English. Tomin's transltion flows well, capturing the Czech linguistic nuances and colloquialisms. The English translation was published by the Twisted Spoon Press ... one of the many remarkable books produced by the press.

— Slavic and East European Journal

It’s so rich, intense, and full of life. But also highly intelligent and lucid. It says a lot about being human and getting older. About history and how it repeats itself again and again. And about the humans who think they are the crown of creation while they are not. And I shouldn’t forget to mention that, at times, it’s a very funny book.

— Beauty Is a Sleeping Cat

It is this vision of Prague that Hakl also wants to convey, where things don't manage to be quite so serious and where you can always count on ambiguity.

— The Complete Review

Anyone who has ever crawled from pub to pub in Prague — or anyone who wants to — should read this utterly beguiling novel of uproarious surfaces and melancholy depths. ... The father-son dialogue, beautifully caught by Marek Tomin's dancing translation, is a delight.

— Boyd Tonkin, The Independent

... vividly translated by Marek Tomin ... the book reveals the high Czech literary art of rambling on about both grave and trivial topics ... Hakl's absorbing narrative spun out of dialogue and the quality of his prose style amply show that his novel is no ordinary fiction.

— John Taylor, The Antioch Review

Skittishly insouciant, direly funny, this is a small, Waiting for Godot-ish gem.

— Ray Olson, Booklist

It becomes clear that family life has continued despite war aand occupation, communism and now under capitalism, and the characters are thoroughly dispossessed of belief in any grand political system. Along with this political ambivalence, a sense of helplessness characterises their whole outlook. Their own relationship is shot through with an antagonism that they are scarcely aware of, much less able to control.

— Alasdair Gillon, The Edinburgh Review

Of Kids and Parents is very funny from the outset but with a creeping prickle of nihilism that keeps in well with the lazy, sometimes awkward, early evening hedonism. It's sneakily bleak on the subject of love and proves modern history to be bleaker still, but the dialogue between the know-it-all Dad and his narky son should keep your mood very much afloat.

— Bookmunch

The father is off in his own world and only intermittently can the son truly engage in an exchange, but mostly it's playing along with his father's tangents and memories.  But what is so interesting about his memories is that they provide a framework for the reader as if she were walking through the history of Prague and Eastern Europe. From Communism to Nazi's to the warring Yugoslavia, we are given a quick tour of fighting aircrafts and the destruction of cities and people.

— Salonica

Of all the unlikely venues for a story, this has got to be it: a tantalizing, suck-you-in, lay-you-out, haunt-your-soul moment-by-moment of a father and son walking the streets of the city ... And there they are, like all of us, stuck with those who bore us, unable to escape those who bear us. Cioran once said that our lives are nothing but stories, and that storytelling is the grace that comes from having lived (or even imagined) our lives. Out of the streets of Prague Honza and Ivan have been conjoined in heart and in soul by a writer who can transform all into gold, using a template as rich and as good as it gets.

— The Review of Arts, Literature,
Philosophy and the Humanities

a very enjoyable melancholy read and Tomin's translation keeps alight Hakl's fiery naturalism in both dialogue and description.

— Disorientations.com

Hakl delineates a commonality of experience that links everyone on earth in the sense that we are kids to a certain extent; we all have parents, whether we relate to them or not; we're still kids, even if we're grown, since, to a point, we're products of the cultural and political environment that surrounds us.

— NewPages

What is the state of the Czech Republic from the perspective of these two sharp if not especially politically oriented citizens? Unsurprisingly, perhaps, its morality resembles that of the West, while its culture - despite its older roots and recent communist history - looks westward, too, so that in many respects, while distinctly Slavic, our two friends might well be sauntering about any Continental metropolis.

— The Review of Contemporary Fiction

Hakl has given us a fine, dark novel whose simple premise allows us to explore Prague and the elusive relationship between two unsatisfied and inseparable men.

— Greg Pierce, New Haven Review

[A] very well conceived novel that's very comfortable. It's easy to slide into the repartee between the father and son, and to enjoy their interactions as they move from bar to bar.

— Three Percent

To my mind Emil Hakl is one of the more interesting Czech writers today. Even though his reality is firmly rooted in Czech reality, I think he would also appeal to an international readership as his core themes are those that would resonate with anyone.

— Jan Čulik, Britske listy

This virile sentimentality is quite exceptional in contemporary art and is ultimately the real core of Hakl's writing, though at first glance it might seem that this core has been fragmented into anecdotes.

— Jiří Penas, Tyden

We see the progresssion of each character's psyche as the effects of their alcohol consumption take hold. Inhibitions disappear and their conversation becomes more candid and intimate. Yet at the same time their age difference becomes more pronounced and hidden barriers surface. Emil Hakl transcribes his stories from life.

— Lidové noviny

Of Kids & Parents displays Hakl's skill in creating a purely personal depiction of the world around him, stemming the flow of time and capturing great dramas in the miniature of a weary mundanity replete with every shade of emotion.

— Pravo