3.5 Stars.Video review to come, but here are some disjointed and brief thoughts:This was a gritty little novel about an interesting cast of characters. The novel spans only a few days, but was very intense, slightly violent, and raw. Throughout my reading I couldn't help but draw a comparison between Hlasko and Hemingway--both utilize direct, no-frills prose and the plot of All Backs Were Turned reminded me of A Farewell to Arms for some reason that I haven't quite been able to put my finger on. Basically I feel like this book is what would've happened if Hemingway and Camus had a baby.Hlasko's writing is very dialogue-driven, which makes for interesting character development. At first I felt that the female characters of this novel lacked depth, but they were revealed to have interesting motives by the end of the story--even though this felt kind of "too little, too late" to me. What I found very engaging though was the fact that the two main male characters began as acting as foils for each, but in the end turned out to almost merge into one character.Overall, I look forward to reading Hlasko's other novel. He is an interesting Polish writer who I had never heard of until I received this book.
