Essay, Prose | English sample translation available
Patrik Ouředník’s novel is a unique version of the history of the twentieth century. Told in an informal, mesmerizing voice, Ouředník represents the twentieth century in all its contradictions and grand illusions, demonstrating that nothing substantial has changed between 1900 and 1999 – humanity is still hopeful for the future and still mired in age-old conflicts. As he demonstrates that nothing can be reduced to a single, “true” viewpoint Ouředník mixes hard facts and idiosyncratic observations, highlighting the horror and absurdity of the twentieth century and the further absurdity of attempting to narrate this history.
Praise
“Touching on subjects and events as disparate as the invention of the bra, Barbie dolls, Scientology, eugenics, the Internet, war, genocide and concentration camps, [Europeana] unspools in a relentless monotone that becomes unexpectedly engaging, even frightening.”
—Anderson Tepper, The New York Times Book Review
“Ouředník presents this material very well: it’s not your usual fiction, but a compelling read nonetheless. Europeana is a convincing sum of that ugly century. Certainly recommended.”
—M.A.Orthofer, The Complete Review
“The narrating voice is funny, scientific, infantile, sarcastic, and eerie […] Europeana is a both a very strange work of history and an ingenious work of art.”
—Martin Riker, Chicago Review
“Heir of Kafka and of the good soldier Svejk, Ouředník takes advantage of the interval between facts of an irrefutable precision to create summaries as disconcerting as they are preemptory.”
—Radio France
“The book’s terrible banality – like the inappropriate appropriateness of a concentration camp Barbie or an assassination manual written in Esperanto, two souvenirs from his century of violence – will make you laugh hollowly at the idea of progress.”
—Ryan Brooks, Chicago Reader
“A tragicomic prose poem to make poets weep with envy, to make everyone weep.”