Abstract

Our Czech uncle

This article presents information on the book "The Little Town Where Time Stood Still and Cutting It Short," by Bohumil Hrabal and translated by James Naughton. This novel is comprised with to fairy tales having a reflection of literary style of twentieth century that is mainly based on stories of unhappiness. In this century, the most influential "father writer" of Eastern European literature has been Franz Kafka. He is well known in Europe and America for his preoccupation with alienation, sorrow and loneliness-three gloomy themes that flit back and forth across the Atlantic like round-trippers on the Flying Dutchman. However, when considering Hrabal's heritage, it is supposed to be more useful to see his happy fictions as descended from the works of Czech novelist Jaroslav Hasek.