Konec nylonového věku - CDmp3 (Jan Meduna)

Swinging and loving are coming to an end. It is remarkable that the ball at the Municipal House is taking place at all. Organised by the American Institute in Prague, with taffeta gowns glittering everywhere, it marks the closing of a brief episode of regained freedom. In the early spring of 1948, the dancers’ steps and the jazz musicians’ notes are out of time with the forced folk songs outside, while their unhappy loves, insecurities and the simple desire to beat tuberculosis also make themselves heard. For the elegant Sam Gellen, Irena Hillmanová remains unattainable after foolishly marrying Robert, a careerist determined to deal with her lover in the Bolshevik manner. Monty Bartoš is distressed that on Monday he will march off to a teaching post at a small school in the Ore Mountains. There is also Jiřka Kočandrlová, an unattractive farmer’s daughter left on the shelf, who has no choice but to plot revenge in the foyer. This novella about the last blues of the former swing devotees, who had so enjoyed defying the Nazis with their music, is wonderfully syncopated. Josef Škvorecký, the chronicler of this lost generation, drew inspiration directly from behind the tenor saxophonist’s stand and already recognised that the golden youth were giving way to falsehood, if not collaborating, because that was the easiest way to make life in the supposedly “happy future” more comfortable. No one is born into an ideal time, and disillusionment with ourselves always arrives regardless of the regime. After the February coup, however, a person feels even more down, even if Glenn Miller is still playing. This audiobook is in Czech.