Here's the Czech Republic. I think.
Here's Love Letter in Cuneiform:
Set in Czechoslovakia between the 1940s and the 1990s, Tomáš Zmeškal’s stimulating novel focuses on one family’s tragic story of love and the unspoken. Josef meets his wife, Kveta, before the Second World War at a public lecture on Hittite culture. Kveta chooses to marry Josef over their mutual friend Hynek, but when her husband is later arrested and imprisoned for an unnamed crime, Kveta gives herself to Hynek in return for help and advice. The author explores the complexities of what is not spoken, what cannot be said, the repercussions of silence after an ordeal, the absurdity of forgotten pain, and what it is to be an outsider.
In Zmeškal’s tale, told not chronologically but rather as a mosaic of events, time progresses unevenly and unpredictably, as does one’s understanding. The saga belongs to a particular family, but it also exposes the larger, ongoing struggle of postcommunist Eastern Europe to come to terms with suffering when catharsis is denied. Reporting from a fresh, multicultural perspective, Zmeškal makes a welcome contribution to European literature in the twenty-first century.
Is it Czechoslovakia? Czech Republic? Czechia? Pick a name, guys!
I could give lots of different excuses for my late entry this time, but I won't. I'm wondering when I'll come across another book that I can't wait to read each day. I haven't really disliked them, but I haven't been overly captivated either.
As I've just come to expect with male authors, here's the obligatory sexist remark: "At first I attributed it to her women's problems, which surely God, in his omnipotence, had inflicted on them as punishment for the suffering they caused men..." Cue eye roll.
There wasn't much else to really take note of. The story may not always be the same, but it's the countless one of people being horrible during times of war and taking advantage of those they have authority over. I think I might need to find a few books that are a bit less depressing to get my hope back.
So that's the end of the C countries. This is a short one but I'm very tired and have to get up early, and my brain wants to be done.
