This novel is a narrative carnival that dresses up the bare facts of a real-life character’s story with unexpected elements and expertly strikes a balance between descriptively historical and ironic storytelling.
In his new book, Petr Stančík looks at the life and work of Pravomil Raichl (1921–2002), a heroic resistance fighter against both Nazism and Communism and failed assassin of the Stalinist prosecutor Karel Vaš. However, he does so in his own unique way: he takes reality as his starting point, but where memory grows vague, he unleashes the full force of his imagination on the text. His flights of fancy blend entertainment with instruction, adventure and play with initiation and understanding.
Major historical events extending from the First Czechoslovak Republic to the 1990s serve as a general backdrop for Raichl’s nuanced account of the everyday in all its profundity and magic. Stančík waxes lyrical about the latest model of tank or plane as well as good food, even better drink and all manner of amorous entanglements on the part of the hero. He plots out his imaginatively developed portrait in detail against the horizon of the volatile 20th century. And not only against the horizon: resistance and the struggle against communist totalitarianism are built up vertically into general, traditional, even eternal qualities such as responsibility and truthfulness towards oneself, others and the world. So what starts out as a bit of postmodern fun ultimately proves to be a noetic novel: a book of knowledge.
Praise:
“Pravomil is a book that reads like a dream, because it is written with the utmost verve and gusto on every page.”
— Lidové noviny
“Petr Stančík’s new novel will probably make historians wince, but those who take it as literature are in for a rip-roaring read.”
— Aktuálně
About the author:
Petr Stančík (1968) entered the world of literature under the pseudonym Odillo Stradický ze Strdic; since 2007 he has been publishing under his real name. His work for adult readers includes the tale of the first Czech superhero Pérák (The Spring Man, 2008) and the gastronomic/pornographic/philosophical thriller Mlýn na mumie (Mummy Mill, 2014), for which he was awarded the 2015 Magnesia Litera Award. His books for children include the juvenile horror story Mrkev ho vcucla pod zem (A Carrot Sucked Him Underground, 2013) and a series of tales about Chrujda the badger. He also wrote the historical monograph Kaple Božího Těla a Krve a Bratrstvo obruče s kladivem (The Chapel of the Body and Blood of Christ and the Brotherhood of the Hoop and Hammer, 2015) about the defunct Temple of Solomon in the centre of Prague’s Old Town.
Selected published translations (1)
Die Verjährung German