Abysme se nezbláznili - Gymnázium Vysočany mezi Palachem a Chartou – Fibich Ondřej (2019)

In connection with the thirtieth anniversary of the regime change in our country (1989), we have prepared an extraordinary publication. It deals with an unknown aspect of the life of a generation of students who were thrown into a time of tragic political changes between Palach and Charter, as the subtitle of the book states. It was indeed a time that was often morbid, yet also charming... Like a dream that has faded and left its smoky beauty imprinted on the soul. The testimonies of students from the Vysočany Gymnasium from 1968-1977, constructed as a collage of literary forms and narrative styles, where each author more or less unwittingly enters the pages with their version of events, as allowed by their memory and sometimes even their conscience, create a remarkable mosaic of the events of that time - those small, ordinary human experiences that took place under the ever-watchful eye of the party and government, as it was called back then - and at the same time a probe into the inner lives of young people during the waning ethos of the 1960s and the onset of communist normalization. Not only on the grounds of the gymnasium. Thus, from the original intention to gather authentic testimonies of witnesses, a literary and almost philosophical artifact was born, which likely has no equal in its genre. We believe that everyone who opens the pages of this exceptional book will find in it everything that...