Even we Americans are having to face it: the personal is political. Kristyna, the middle aged protagonist of NO SAINTS OR ANGELS, is a dentist in Prague, where the turbulent events of the recent past have directly shaped her life. Her Jewish grandmother died in the Nazi ovens and her father was a Socialist official who was too busy mourning Stalin's death to celebrate Kristyna's birth. Kristyna has never been able to forgive her father's coldness but, as a favor, takes a box of his papers home to her grieving mother. Her own sister has foretold that Kristyna will die by her own hand, and the reader, along with Kristyna, has to admit that this seems likely at first. In the meantime, Kristyna struggles with depression, a wayward teenage daughter, her ailing ex-husband, and a new, younger lover. 

The novel, which has been translated from the original Czech, presents three different first person viewpoints: that of Kristyna, her young lover Jan, and her daughter Jana. By far the largest portion follows the despairing and bleak Kristyna, who feels she hasn't much to live for. She continually refers to her ex as "my one and only husband" and seems to remain obsessed with his unfaithfulness and desertion. Meanwhile, she craves Jan's love but can't trust it. She smokes too much and drinks too much wine, which she freely admits, and for the first half of the book, she denies the evidence of her daughter's drug abuse. 

Kristyna gradually confronts some hard truths about her father from reading his papers and she finds the strength to confront the truth about her daughter as well. She commits her daughter for treatment, first to a state institution, then to a private facility outside Prague. From here the novel begins a tentative ascent into something resembling hope and self-knowledge. Kristyna is naturally consumed with guilt over her daughter's addictions. Radek, the psychotherapist at Jana's second rehabilitation home, comforts her. "We've no right to be impatient. None of us are saints or angels." 

Kristyna begins to understand how her refusal to forgive has damaged her and contributed to her depression. Jana learns to analyze her personality and feelings, and makes the decision to try to live without drugs. "It's really horrendous the way everything repeats itself, even the totally stupid things," Jana comes to realize. Ultimately, she finds the strength to take herself out of this cycle of repetition. 
     
I found the first half of this humorless book difficult to get through, but the unrelenting bleakness made Kristyna's later insights more powerful. When her ex-husband dies, she reflects on his equation of God with Time. "Time is awful but it is also the only just thing in the world. It lets us reach places like this where we are finally leveled. But before we end up here we can experience something and do something with our lives and it leaves it up to us what we do. It lets us ruin what we like. Time or God, it makes no difference what we call it."   

Hard core, hard won philosophy, with no sugar coating.