{"product_id":"a-czech-dreambook-9788024638522","title":"A Czech Dreambook","description":"It's 1979 in Communist Czechoslovakia, ten years into the crushing period known as normalization, and Ludv k Vacul k has writer's block. It has been nearly a decade since he wrote his powerful novel, \u003ci\u003eThe Guinea Pigs, \u003c\/i\u003e and it was in 1968 that he wrote his anti-regime manifesto, \u003ci\u003eTwo Thousand Words\u003c\/i\u003e, which the Soviet Union used as a pretext for invading Czechoslovakia. On the advice of his friend, the poet and surrealist painter Jiř  Kol ř\u003ci\u003e, \u003c\/i\u003eVacul k begins to keep a diary, \"a book about things, people, and events.\" This marks the beginning of \u003ci\u003eA Czech Dreambook\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFifty-four weeks later, what Vacul k turns out to have written is a unique mixture of diary, dream journal, and outright fiction--an inverted \u003ci\u003eroman   clef \u003c\/i\u003ein which the author, his family, his mistresses, and the real leaders of the Czech underground play major roles. Undisputedly the most debated novel among the Prague dissident community of the 1980s, it is a work that Vacul k himself described as an amalgam of \"hard-boiled documentary\" and \"magic fiction,\" while V clav Havel called it \"a truly profound and perceptive account. . . . A great novel about modern life and the crisis of contemporary humanity.\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eA Czech Dreambook\u003c\/i\u003e has been hailed as the most important work of Czech literature in the past forty years. And yet it has never before been available in English. Flawlessly translated by Gerald Turner, Vacul k's masterpiece is a brilliant exercise in style, dry humor, and irony--an important portrait of the lives and longings of the dissidents and post-Communist elites.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Karolinum Press, Charles University\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 01\/23\/2020\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9788024638522\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 574\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 2.10lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.20h x 6.10w x 1.70d","brand":"Ludv\u0026#237;k Vacul\u0026#237;k","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":36675539697820,"sku":"9788024638522","price":22.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_9c4f8091-a336-45fc-8fdd-0d86d6ede163.jpg?v=1603934452","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/a-czech-dreambook-9788024638522","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}