The controversial biography of Milan Kudera, the most discussed Czech book of the year
Jan Novák, famous for his short stories and novels, now presents the genre of literary biography. The subject of his attention is Milan Kundera, probably the most famous writer in the world today with domestic roots. His "Czech life" is the subject of Novák's extensive biography, which maps in four parts Kundera's family background, his poetic beginnings in the Stalinist era of the 1950s, his prominent work in the 1960s and his life in the crosshairs of the State Security Service before his departure for exile in the first half of the 1970s, when Kundera was no longer allowed to publish and appeared in public under pseudonyms.
Novák is not writing a standard academic biography, but an admittedly personal biography, in whose colourful, lively style one can safely recognize the author of a novel about the Mašín brothers (So Far So Good) or short stories about Czechs in America (Hic a kosa v Chicago). It is based, however, on a careful study of archival sources, contemporary documents, personal testimonies and Kundera's published texts, which come to life in the pages of his book in eloquent quotations as well as insightful or pithy summaries. As a striking counterpoint, the text includes fictionally stylized portraits of personalities who touch closely or more loosely on Kundera's life and work as his unprivileged contemporaries, politically advantageous inspirations or unsuspecting victims. Over this material, which in Novák's interpretation is basically chronological, the author makes direct, bold judgments, or, in the absence of source documents, asks about the possible causes of Kundera's actions in life and his practices in artistic creation.
Unlike many of the books that were written under Kundera's direction, Novák's work represents an extraordinary contribution of independent research and original portraiture. Milan Kundera emerges from it as an author who throughout his life has strived to have absolute control over his public image. Jan Novák, however, eloquently shows that this is not only a futile effort, but above all a foolish one, for in the process one loses oneself and increasingly perceives oneself as an idea that was originally meant to be imposed on the audience.
