Sklepní práce – Bondy Egon (2018)

Sklepní práce (1973) is the very first in a series of Bondy's prose works from the 70s and 80s, and together with Lednem na vsi (1977) and Bezejmenná (1986), it forms a collection of Bondy's autobiographical texts. It is an assemblage of stylized diary entries, philosophical or political reflections, "pub stories," fictional tales, and dream records – all within the specific timeframe of winter 1972–73, with the "plot" predominantly set on the "stage" of Prague's Malá Strana and Hradčany. The book is also a testimony to despair and depression at the beginning of the era of Czechoslovak "normalization," about the rising level of collaboration and Czech submissiveness, while the author confesses to a loss of faith in a genuine socialist revolution, in Maoism, and in the possibility of fighting against the Soviet power that occupies and controls his country. In his philosophical meditations, Bondy more frequently engages with religion and God, presenting his own version of theism, albeit completely non-church and non-traditional. This is already the third book edition, for which the text has been revised and corrected according to the original author's typescript.