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Czech Books"The Aluminium Queen" - an extraordinary collection of accounts by women who survived war
Welcome to another edition of Czech Books - our bi-weekly look at Czech
writing today. In this programme we're going to be looking at one of the
most moving books that I've read in recent months, written by the Czech
Republic's best-known war reporter, Petra Prochazkova. "The Aluminum
Queen", brought out by the Lidove Noviny publishing house in both a
Czech and an English edition, is a collection of in-depth interviews that
Prochazkova made with Chechen women she met in refugee camps or in the
ruins of the Chechen capital Grozny. Here's one woman, Elza, recalling her
previous life as a baker, before the first Chechen war broke out, in a
passage typical for the book both in the tragedy of the situation and in
the poetry of the dreams and hopes of the women who speak.
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Current AffairsCzech reading marathon goes worldwide
Next week, from the 25th to the 29th of May, the sixth annual "Nonstop
Reading" literary marathon will take place all over the world.
Organised by the group Jazz Section-Artforum and the Czech Centres, this
year's event is dedicated to former Czech president Vaclav Havel. The
readings will begin in Prague, and will continue in Czech Centres all over
the world and at the United Nations building in New York. My colleague
Dean Vuletic spoke to former dissident Karel Srp, the head of Jazz
Section-Artforum, and asked him how "Nonstop Reading" started:
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Talking PointBooks in the dock
Two books published recently in this country - one a couple of years ago
and the other at the end of last year - raised very strong reactions among
the lay and expert public. In 2000, a Prague-based publishing house put
out a new Czech-language edition of Adolf Hitler's notorious book
"Mein Kampf". This created uproar in the media, and publisher
Michal Zitko received a three-year suspended prison sentence and a fine of
two million crowns for spreading fascist ideas. Last year, the Supreme
Court annulled the verdict but Mr Zitko is to stand trial again in
mid-June on different charges. In the meantime, another book was published
by an Olomouc-based publisher, called "Taboo in Social Science".
Its author, 32-year-old psychologist Petr Bakalar, elaborates among other
things on the relation between race and intelligence. Mr Bakalar is also
facing legal action. Today we take a closer look at the two books that
have so often been compared by Czech press.
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ArtsMagnesia Litera Awards announced
Last weekend, the winners of the Magnesia Litera book awards for the
best Czech books published in 2002 were announced in Prague.
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Czech BooksIva Pekarkova: a Czech writer at home on both sides of the Atlantic
Welcome to "Czech Books", our new fortnightly series devoted to
Czech writing and writers. In a series of interviews over the next few
weeks the writer and musician Pavla Jonssonova, well known from the
popular band Zuby Nehty, will be talking to a number of Czechs writing
today. She starts with one of the most interesting contemporary Czech
novelists, Iva Pekarkova, whose books are filled with energy, eroticism
and heroines who are not afraid to take their fate into their own hands.
Her first novel appeared in English as "Truck Stop Rainbows" in
1992, and is about a young woman who seeks freedom on the open road in the
unlikely setting of communist Czechoslovakia. And Gin, the heroine of her
more recent novel "Gimme the Money" is just as fearless, in a
story inspired by the author's own experiences as a New York cab driver in
the 1990s. Readers in English will soon have the chance to get to know
another Czech heroine or anti-heroine, when Iva's novel "The
Scars" appears later this year. The action heroine is an untypical
feature of Czech writing, and this was what interested Pavla Jonssonova,
when she caught up with Iva a few days ago in a Prague café.
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ArtsRoma artists release new book and CD
Today's edition is devoted to artists from the country's Roma community.
We'll be looking at a new book that's hit the shelves and a recently
released CD of the Roma band Terne Chave:
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WitnessFrom Kundera in Texas to Czech History in New York City
Bradley Abrams is an associate professor of history at Columbia University in New York City, where he specialises in the history of the Czech lands. He received his bachelors degree from the University of Texas and his masters and doctoral degrees from Stanford University. It was at Stanford University that he studied the history of East Europe, and here he describes how a book by Milan Kundera in a Texas bookstore sparked his initial interest in Czech history. More
ArtsBookworld 2003, Central Municipal Library to reopen for public
For the last few weeks it might have seemed that the Czech world of arts
revolved almost exclusively around books. Well this time again, this
programme focuses on two events related to books and literature - as they
simply dominate the arts scene in the coming days. On Thursday, the ninth
Prague book fair, Bookworld 2003 got underway at the Prague Exhibition
Grounds. While it was "water, water everywhere" during last
August's floods, now the Art Nouveau exhibition palace is for four days
flooded with books.
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Current AffairsFerdinand Peroutka: Journalist of Czech Democracy
Twenty-five years ago, on Sunday April 20, Czech journalist and creative
writer Ferdinand Peroutka, affectionately called "Mr.
Czechoslovakia" in America, died in exile in New York. A fierce
fighter for democratic values in Czechoslovak society, Peroutka didn't let
the Nazis or Communists tell him what to think or what to write, and he
did pay dearly for not succumbing to political pressures. I
spoke with journalist and political commentator Vaclav Zak, who believes
that journalists today have something to learn from Peroutka.
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Czechs in HistoryBittersweet prose - a look at the life and work of writer Ota Pavel
'How I Came to Know Fish' - for years I glimpsed this elegant volume of
short stories in Prague's English-language bookstores, at times wondering
over its greenish cover featuring a fish on a hook. I wondered blankly
over the name of its author, without, I admit, inquiring further. Ota
Pavel. The name, though known to most Czechs, said nothing to me then, at
most I had an inkling the author had been a sports journalist for Czech
Radio in the 1950s. Then I caught a glimpse of his photo somewhere - Ota
Pavel, writer - the author in his youth, a black and white picture of a
dashing figure with a slanted fedora, staring thoughtfully into the lens.
I caught a glimpse and when I heard of a film by the director Karel
Kachyna based on the author's work, equally suggestive, I began to wonder
about his life even more. The story of Ota Pavel, with its twists and
final haunting downfall - and 'How I Came to Know Fish' - both looked at
in today's Czechs in History.
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