Co všechno je muž – Szalay David (2021)

What is a man, after all? British novelist David Szalay seeks an answer to this question in a mosaic of stories about nine men of different ages, nationalities, and diverse life experiences, opinions, and fates. For instance, a seventeen-year-old British student sets off on a journey across Europe (including Prague) with a friend, a tabloid Danish journalist heads to Spain to confront a high-ranking politician, and a Russian billionaire on board his yacht watches as his empire – and private life – collapses before his eyes like a house of cards... The disparate heroes and the situations they experience are not connected by a unifying plotline, but the book is held together by a common, almost elemental theme: the author's attempt to capture the various aspects of contemporary 'manhood.' Szalay's view of European men today is certainly not flattering; the author does not idealize the characters, their actions, or their motivations, yet it is not a blanket condemnation either. In times when the phrase 'crisis of masculinity' is discussed in academic papers, social magazines, and self-help guides, the stories contained in Szalay's book offer a perceptive, imaginative, entertaining, and non-schematic catalog of possible answers to what, who, and how European men are, what they strive for, and how...