Kurz diskrétní samohany – Divišová Jana (2013)

The book The Course of Discreet Self-Pity straddles the line between a generational testimony and the confession of a woman approaching forty, whose life has somehow spiraled out of control. On the brink of adulthood, after 1989, she left for abroad as a teenager with her head full of revolutionary ideals and a determination to live independently and on her own terms. At first, it seems she is managing to find a solid place in her new life, but her marriage to an American, which she sees as a chance to give her existence meaning and order, slowly turns into hell. There is no other way but to return to her old homeland, even at the cost of leaving her little daughter behind in the USA. However, the return to nowhere proves to be just as much a dead end as the departure... The story of Jana Divišová's novel is very powerful, but by no means depressing. In the protagonist's reflections and assessments, ironic detachment, pragmatism, and a rawly truthful description of realities and phenomena that every woman has encountered at some point in her life are intertwined.