Část, kdy se muži přestali smát – Blažek Zdeněk (2015)

The novel 'The Time When Men Stopped Laughing' is a bitter grotesque about sixty-somethings who have been meeting for many years in the wine tavern 'U Starého vinaře' and discussing their problems, defeats, and rare victories with their own dark humor, as well as their past and present love relationships. They refuse to take their advancing years seriously, nor the fact that their lives haven't turned out as they had hoped. With age comes a lack of money, work problems typical of today's times, illnesses, feelings of loneliness, and wasted years. Their families have more or less fallen apart, no one needs them, no one really cares about them; they have become aging outsiders. Nevertheless, they try to appear confident in front of each other, playing a game of masculinity, aided significantly by alcohol. Their female counterparts are not much better off and certainly do not make life easier for the heroes; the clash between the female and male worlds is a source of numerous comedic situations and gags, paradoxical moments described with a light exaggeration. The heroes and their partners tackle their problems in their own way, albeit clumsily, as it is no longer enough to simply mock and ironize things. The unfortunate death of one of their friends...