Loutky boží – Benýšek Zbyněk (2012)

The novel Loutky boží by Zbyněk Benýšek is a readable chronicle of the life of a generation born in the early fifties, a testimony to the individual roots of the transforming social evil, and an extraordinarily moving love story. The epic breadth of the narrative allows the author to capture, in finely described details, the atmosphere of life in a Moravian town from the early fifties, the inspiring Prague of the late sixties, a journey through the Balkans, and the World Festival of Socialist Youth and Students in Sofia, to be 'on the road' through France, as well as to describe the dark and cruel face of normalized Prague in the seventies. The prose is rhythmically interspersed with excerpts from period song lyrics, which form the backdrop to the life story of the main character, Vilém, and his fateful love, Ostružinka. Vilém navigates the generational world of rock and folk music, is inspired by beatnik poetry, and the nonconformist artistic environment. The novel step by step follows how the ideals of Vilém's generation are brutally attacked and destroyed from the outside - and not only in our country - until it is stated in the middle of the novel that 'the revolt is falling asleep.' With extraordinary precision, it captures the transformations of the social climate in our country over more than forty years. Although the novel to some extent follows the life story...