The Four Sonyas

In this 1971 satire, the Czech author of Catapult combines shrewd comedy with a highly critical picture of an inefficient, corrupt Communist bureaucracy. Its spirited, much-put-upon heroine is the beautiful Sonya, who is almost magically transformed from drudge to career woman. Sonya's travails begin when she is a teenager, working as a maid in the provincial Hotel Hubertus, where she is seduced and abandoned. Her employers regard her as little more than a prostitute and hold ``floricultural evenings'' in which their customers buy raffle tickets in order to kiss and fondle her. During one such evening she manages to escape with a mysterious stranger, and falls passionately in love. Her romance sustains her through the bewildering events that lie ahead--an abduction by a besotted engineer who brings her home to his sadistic family; her meteoric rise from kitchen helper to executive secretary at a large corporation. Throughout, Sonya is guided by messages from a ``fairy-tale prince,'' who, of course, turns out to be a far cry from charming. Full of melodrama and twists and turns, Paral's tongue-in-cheek adventure never falters. (Feb.)