Authors

Ivan Kraus writes optimistic books. However his books weren’t published in the Czech Republic until the 1990s. Up to then readers could only access them via the Zürich-based publishing house Konfrontace. Despite this, Ivan Kraus can be regarded as one of our most popular and widely-read writers of humorous fiction.

Kraus’ oeuvre is characterised stylistically by a certain detachment and attention to minute detail. The short story form that often verges on the feuilleton or on opinion pieces is typical of this author. The nature of his insight and his empathy with "immense minutiae" is similar to Chesterton’s, Čapek’s or to Nepil’s gentle irony. He directs it with precision against small-town mentality and the conservatism that still lingers in all institutions while at the same time he celebrates subtle everyday miracles and seemingly unimportant trifles.

A rewarding resource in Kraus’ books is his own extended family. Parents, four siblings and several cousins, uncles and aunts, guarantee an abundance of experience which re-told in his idiosyncratic way with the addition of some subtle humour becomes a mixture of entertainment and bitter-sweet recollection.  Short stories about his family fill several volumes of his books, for example To na tobě doschne (That Will Dry Up On You), Rodinný sjezd (Family Get-Together) or the four related works of Má rodina a jiná zemětřesení (My Family and Other Earthquakes).

His short stories describing family embarrassments, disagreements and tensions are tinged with humour and he describes how people use comedy or even exaggerated tension as an element of self-preservation. This becomes even more evident in his narratives depicting social systems, be it harsh totalitarianism or the more flexible capitalism. Obvious in his work is the bitterness felt when he depicts as a period of absurdity the Protectorate years and those years following "Victorious February" (the Czechoslovak coup d'état of 1948 – note by translator) writing in the vein of Švejk, recasting it into a bizarre ridiculousness. Political satire is another crucial factor in Ivan Kraus’ writing, for instance in his books Číslo do nebe (Number to Heaven), or Medová léta (Insouciant Years). His mini-short-story volumes Muž za vlastním rohem (A Man Behind His Own Corner) and Muž pod vlastním dohledem (A Man Under His Own Supervision) are satires about contemporary society, especially about the media, the commercial and advertisement-driven reality that’s inhabitated by tireless and over-productive bunglers.

Ivan Kraus’ books revive a Czech tradition of humour that is warm-hearted and nostalgic about the endurance of family and neighbourhoods. This endurance exists despite a grotesque and absurd reality where subtle misunderstandings can grow into the epic proportions of an international conflict. In the hands of these diligent yet desperately awkward people things can get self-destructive. These obstacles can only be overcome with a gentle playing-down. Those who are closest usually enter into the discussion about a problem – family members, neighbours, housekeepers, hairdressers or greengrocers. Everybody has advice to offer, an opinion or a sarcastic remark. The situational humour of Kraus’ stories is refreshing; many experiences being reminiscent of the old carefree world of Karel Poláček, Zdeňek Jirotka or Jerome K Jerome.

Ivan Kraus isn’t interested in writing metaphysical or ‘literary’ novels. He prefers the more comfortable and favourable territory of readable and consumer-oriented, easily digestible literature that guests recommend as a relaxing read, ideal for holidays, rainy days and miserable  mornings. Therefore it’s probably better to prescribe his work in smaller doses. Thus, the reader is reinvigorated and energised without being satiated.

(mmm)