cover image How I Came to Know Fish

How I Came to Know Fish

Ota Pavel. New Directions Publishing Corporation, $9.95 (150pp) ISBN 978-0-8112-1165-9

Pavel's poignant autobiographical stories based on his childhood in bucolic, pre-war Czechoslovakia include beautiful descriptions of the countryside and reminiscences about his father's infectious passion for fishing. ``The hurried, tremulous quality of the prose suggests Pavel's emotional turmoil, but perhaps it is a result instead of a desire to capture his memories as they tumbled forth,'' said PW. (May)