Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Josef Škvorecký
Talkin' Moscow Blues
. Without doubt the most user-friendly of Šk-
vorecký's works, containing a collection of essays on his wartime childhood, Czech jazz, lit-
erature and contemporary politics, all told in his inimitable, irreverent and infuriating way.
Published as
Headed for the Blues
in the US.
LudvíkVaculík
A Cup of Coffee with My Interrogator
. A Party member until 1968, and sig-
natory of Charter 77, Vaculík revived the
feuilleton
- a short political critique once much
loved in central Europe. This collection dates from 1968 onwards.
KlausWagenbach
Kafka's Prague: A Travel Reader
.Hardbackbookthattakesyouthrough
the streets in the footsteps of Kafka.
Zbyněk Zeman
The Masaryks: The Making of Czechoslovakia
. Written in the 1970s while
Zeman was in exile, this is a very readable, none-too-sentimental biography of the country's
founder Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, and his son Jan Masaryk, the postwar foreign minister
who died in mysterious circumstances shortly after the 1948 Communist coup.
CZECH FICTION
JosefČapek
Stories about Doggie and Cat
.JosefCapek(Karel'solderbrother)wasaCu-
bist artist of some renown, and also a children's writer. These simple stories about a dog and
a cat are wonderfully illustrated, and seriously postmodern.
KarelČapek
Karel Čapek was the literary and journalistic spokesperson for Masaryk's First
Republic,buthe'sbetterknownintheWestforhisplays,suchas
The Insect Play
and
R.U.R.
,
most of which are to be found in classic collections. Čapek's
Letters from England
had the
distinctionofbeingbannedbytheNazisandtheCommunistsforitsnaiveadmirationofEng-
land in the 1920s.
DanielaFischerová
Fingers Pointing Somewhere Else
. Subtly nuanced, varied collection of
short stories from dissident playwright Fischerová.
Ladislav Fuks
Mr Theodore Mundstock
. A very readable novel set in 1942 Prague, as the
city's Jews wait to be transported to Terezín.
JaroslavHašek
The Good Soldier Švejk
.Arambling,picaresquetalebyBohemia'smostbo-
hemianwriterofCzechoslovakia'sfamousfictionalfifthcolumnist,
Švejk
,whowreakshavoc
in the Austro-Hungarian army during World War I.
VáclavHavel
Havel'splaysarenotrenownedforbeingeasytoread(orwatch).
The Memor-
andum
, one of his earliest works, is a classic absurdist drama that, in many ways, sets the
tone for much of his later work, of which the
Three Vaněk Plays
, featuring Ferdinand Vaněk,
Havel's alter ego, are perhaps the most successful. The 1980s collection includes
Largo Des-
olato, Temptation
and
Redevelopment
; freedom of thought, Faustian opportunism and town
planning as metaphors of life under the Communists.
Leaving
is Havel's first play for twenty
years and is a semi-autobiographical satire about a man giving up the top job.
