Prose

The search for one’s own identity, rootlessness, travel, comparison of cultures, exile, home, return. These are the topics that are in one way or another treated again and again in books by Lubomír Martínek (1954). He emigrated to France in 1979, working in a number of jobs while studying at the same time. He has returned to his homeland, but he keeps leaving it to find his “home” in other countries and other cultures, too – and he informs his readers of his permanent unrest using a polished essayistic style. Nutmeg is another of the author’s books in which he defines himself in relation to the mainstream lifestyle including prejudices, stereotypes and trends. This time, he does so while travelling in Indonesia where he refuses to be a collector of experiences, a global tourist. In a polemic with the “normality” of tourism, with a massive appropriation of space other people’s space, he supports his views with quotes from Joseph Conrad and Robert Musil.