Vyhoření – Šesták Petr (2023)

A novel pamphlet about a person's life in a world of cars ***** The text oscillating around the axis of pamphlet—novel—allegory presents an indictment of the fetishization of the automobile as a symbol of progress, independence, power, and the privatization of the world. All vehicles are, in fact, allegorical. The narrative of a courier who delivers food around the city, who thinks too much and walks too much, is scattered among the mutual insults of participants in everyday traffic. The courier, the messenger, the Herald stands on one side of the barricade of a street civil war, and his heightened journey through hostile territory, his uncompromising fight for justice, whether real or imagined, leads him to the limits of ruthlessness and hatred. ***** Following the striking novel Continuity of the Park, Petr Šesták presents another text that defies reader expectations. This hybrid of pamphlet and novel is unafraid to have a clear opinion on the matter. Should literature examine things from all sides? And what if they are unequivocal? The story of the messenger who delivers food by bike to the happier and more ruthless is a prose that strides forward.