I already knew Danny Smiricky, and why? Is he just Svejk, part of the consciousness? Or just omnipresent in Skvorecky's work maybe. He is great in that he's so unlikeable it feels moving when he approaches a truth and then tears his eyes away. I would say it's brave to write this honestly of one's failings, except that I think Skvorecky as an elder still saw women as something just completely other. In any case, if you blur your eyes and skim the endless pages of Irena, there's much of interest in the experience of a volatile time. ( )

Imagine the egocentrism of Holden Caulfield in a world where an adolescent impulse can have devastating consequences... and you have some idea of the genuine peril portrayed by Czech author Josef Škvorecký in his 1958 novel The Cowards set in a small town in Czechoslovakia during the chaos of the German retreat and the Russian advance. His character Danny is preoccupied by girls, jazz and judgmental opinions about the adults in his society, and, fuelled by rumours and naïve heroics from the local administration, his ambition to impress the girl of his dreams leads him into recklessness. It's an extraordinary book.

Josef Škvorecký (1924-2012) grew up in Czechoslovakia when it was a sovereign state, was a slave labourer for two years under the German Occupation, and then became a teacher, editor and translator when Czechoslovakia was part of the Eastern Bloc. He came to the attention of the Soviet authorities with the publication of The End of the Nylon Age (1956) and The Cowards (1958) but despite bans kept writing until forced to flee when the 1968 Prague Spring culminated in the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. In Canada, he and his wife Zdena Salivarová, founded 68 Publishers which published banned Czech and Slovak books by dissident writers. He himself was a prolific author, winning multiple awards and a nomination for the Nobel in 1982. Although he wrote in Czech, most of his books are available in English.

Although it was published after The End of the Nylon Age, The Cowards was Škvorecký's first book and it features themes that (according to Wikipedia) recur in his later works. One of the things the Soviets didn't like was his innovative prose style which mimics mid-century American jazz. It's open-ended and improvisational, and it riffs on certain motifs the way that jazz does. Danny (who plays tenor sax) is besotted with jazz. He and his adolescent pals know all the jazz standards, and the novel, which takes place over the course of six days in May 1945, is book-ended with a band rehearsal as prelude to events on Friday May 4th, 1945, and their 'liberation' concert in the town square that meets with disapproval from the town worthies on the following Thursday. Škvorecký is a genius at evoking the sounds and rhythm of jazz.

Fonda rapped four times on the top of Winter's upright piano and we began to play. Lexa wailed shrilly in the highest register of his clarinet, Venca sank down to the explosive depths of his trombone to build up the bass, and I was playing around with some fancy little flourishes in the middle range, while Benno came out above us with his rough, dirty, sobbing tones that sounded like they came from heaven. (p.17)

Despite his preoccupations, Danny is aware of current events. He knows the fate of the Jewish cantor who he used to visit under the radar when it was dangerous to have Jewish associates; he's had to do forced labour in the local Messerschmidt factory; and one of the members of his band has spent time in a concentration camp newly liberated. While he is playing, Danny muses on his fruitless love for Irena and on the beauty of the Queen of Würtemberg, one of many big shots who'd come from all over the Reich to Kostelec and now things were closing in on them from all sides and there they sat in their plush upholstered rooms like in a trap. But while he hears rumours of an impending revolution and alternately believes and disbelieves them, he is bored. The front is so far away that it can only be heard in the distance, and he doesn't think there will be much resistance from the demoralised Germans anyway. His naïveté is matched only by his confidence that he knows it all.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2022/09/10/the-cowards-by-josef-skvorecky-translated-by... ( )

Freitag, 4. Mai 1945, in einer kleinen tschechischen Stadt namens Kostelec nahe der deutschen Grenze - die Stunde null unseres Jahrhunderts rückt nächer. Ein historisches Vakuum? Die Jazzband probt

Fascinating characters and times. Nicely told story and a beautifully-done contrast betwen world shattering events and the "normal" lives of people living them. ( )

Josef Skvorecky’s groundbreaking novel of he last days of the Nazi Protectorate of Czechoslovakia. Danny Smiricky is as concerned with woman and jazz as he is with the departure of the defeated Nazis and the advancing Soviet army. Still, there is no way to avoid the political absurdities that are just around the corner. ( )