Ležela kočka s andělem a jiné prózy pro dospělé – Velíšek Jan (2016)

Long and short stories full of humor and tension, curiosities and self-irony, epistolary prose, genre-defying narratives, and even a few essays – all of this can be found in the new book by Jan Velíšek. Above all, you will encounter a lively, refined Czech language that openly aligns itself with the tradition of Josef Škvorecký, which you might occasionally cut yourself on like a sharp blade of grass on a spring meadow. A Czech that some of us sorely miss in today's fashionable aesthetics of pasty disgust, in today's email style that only occasionally remembers that there is something called punctuation, not to mention diacritics. At a time when many authors struggle to express more subtle emotional situations without resorting to emojis or other grimaces. At a time when many of us have forgotten the fragile silent horror of a single drop of blood on the white petals of a rose, lying alone on the polished floors of an Edwardian salon. To the quiet beautiful horror that Ambrose Bierce, Roald Dahl, and above all, one genius Bostonian drug addict and alcoholic knew so well.