Třetí cesta – Holcman Josef (2021)

I first became acquainted with the work of Josef Holcman about thirty years ago. Even then, I realized – he is not just a writer, he is a force of nature. The assumption proved true; his texts can be likened to the eruption of a geyser: they are conveyed in one breath and can only be grasped in a dizzying flight. Polyphonic Holcman language. A good reader savors it only when the verbal torrent quiets down and the rippled surface offers an increasingly clearer view down to the bottom. And from the bottom, once again soaring upwards. The latest book brings something extra in addition to the mentioned Holcman language. Josef has enriched it with three self-taught writers: Ludvík Vaculík, Karel Pavlišník (an ethnographer), and Miroslav Zikmund (a traveler). He set out with them on an excursion following the Vlárská railway and its surroundings, spending most of the time not in a carriage but on a horse-drawn cart. So it is with the 'mapping' of that original journey, which soon loses its significance. We are drawn into encounters with personalities who have or had some connection to that corner of Moravia or to Josef (Skácel, Komenský, Volavý, Oliva, Pitínský, Polívka, Pivečka, etc.). Additionally, an Angel enters the scene, personifying the author's memory. It hovers over the pilgrims and allows for the enrichment of the simple narrative and authentic thoughts...