Podzim – Sloboda Rudolf (2019)

The novel Autumn (Jeseň) is a loose continuation of Sloboda's most successful work – the novel Blood – and is also the last book published during the author's lifetime. On its pages, the writer once again becomes the main character of his text, but instead of the Host, there is Grandpa, a man not so much old as tired from the daily grind – the craft of living. Beyond the fields flows the Morava River, with the heat and storms of the summer of 1993 alternating. We observe scenes from Grandpa's ordinary life, his work in the yard and on the play, flashbacks to the past, interactions with his wife, daughter, and granddaughter, and comical misunderstandings with neighbors. We ponder Grandpa's analyses of biblical themes, judgments about public life, aging, and the impossibility of love. Grandpa's sentences are infused with bitterness and querulousness; he constantly argues (with himself) about the meaning of existence. This is the gift we take away from our encounter with Sloboda's text: we become witnesses to the intense struggle to live and write honestly and authentically.