Falešný knír – Zeithaml Karel (2024)

How would Milan Kundera's life have unfolded if he hadn’t become a writer? What was the master’s return to his hometown Brno like for a lost novella? Who does Kundera meet in heaven, and how did his Paris meeting with Babiš go? The novel "False Mustache" is an original literary play that refers in its structure and style to the novels and essays of Milan Kundera, whose work and life have become the subject of seven genre-diverse parts into which "False Mustache" is divided. The content is ironically provocative, at times almost parodic. At the same time, it is profoundly relevant and even disturbing. It thematizes the media-known case of Kundera's alleged informant activities, plays with the assumptions that circulated about Kundera and his work, and the image that the writer himself created about himself and his texts. The plot of the novel takes Kundera and other personalities from the literary and political scene to unexpected places and into surprising, often bizarre situations. The author fabricates around known and unknown moments of the writer's life, doing so not only with a deep knowledge of his fates and works but also with thoughtful humor, blending farce with intellectually conceived grotesque. Karel Zeithaml builds his novel on detailed knowledge of facts and on media and social discussions that...