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Jiří Gruša: Dotazník (Questionnaire)

Our hero/narrator is Jan Chrysostom Kepka, from Chlumec. Like the author, he has been struggling to find a job. Every time he submits an application, it is rejected. Finally, he goes to Prague, to a company called.Granit where he meets ComradePavlenda. As with the other applications, Comrade Pavlenda gives him no instructions on how to fill out the questionnaire, but simply give it to him and tells him to get on with it.

Comrade Pavlenda may have regretted this oversight because what he does is to give a full, highly colourful and some of the time decidedly weird account not only of his own life, but the history of his family, his village and the various people he encounters. As regards his own story, he starts with his conception, with which he seems to be particularly familiar, and carries on well past his death. It is all wonderfully inventive a while fascinating for us to read, it was probably less so for Comrade Pavlenda.

His parents – he a soldier, she still at school. meet in 1938. He, Edvin, an army deserter, and she, Alice, have a passionate tryst, which Jan seemingly remembers. Jan is the result. Except for her French teacher, her obvious pregnancy does not appear to be a problem. Of course Jan remembers his birth as well and we get a colourful description of it. Indeed, he tries to delay his appearance to avoid being born on a day when the sun is in the Eighth House, apparently an in auspicious day. Alice does not like the baptismal name of Chrysostom – she thinks it sounds like a brand of toothpaste – and opts for Jan, not least because all the men in her family have been called Jan.

Jan tells us some of the history of his family which includes the takeover of the country by the Habsburg Empire.
We see an issue, for example, where an ancestor is a deist,something that is very much not approved of by the Habsburgs and punishment is swift and cruel. However, this is compared with the present day when the Nazis are in control.Cmmissar Boldt prepares an execution ground behind what had been a pleasure park, and we follow both the trials and the executions of people that the German occupiers do not like.
Of course the Russians invade and drive the Germans out and Jan follows that in some detail, not least because like everything else in this book it is not straightforward. The Russians, of course are not an improvement.

Jan has two uncles- Olin and Bonek. After the world, they both try to set up in business but Olin decides cto take over the brewery business and that is not a good thing to do in the communist era and he pays a heavy penalty for it. Bonek goes into the much with that risky business of chocolate.

One of the key events of Jan’s life in the early days is when he meets Erna. The pair are immediately taken with one another and decide to marry. This last for a short while and they have a falling out. They will continue this on/off relationship for sometime. When they get older.Erna is more cautious snd says she will wait till she is eighteen to be kissed. To see more of her Jan takes up piano lessons with Mrs. Klahn. Erna’s mother, who is the piano teacher. At this point Jan has become a fine strapping your man and their relationship moves well beyond the piano.
Mr. Vostarek , the brewmaster, invents an orthopter, a flying machine that is intended to mimic the flapping of wings of birds. Sadly, it does not work out very well.

During the course of the book and his adventures, Jan is in constant constant , one-sided conversation with Comrade Pavlenda. He will point out various of issues to the comrade, some of which are irrelevant to his application He will refer to a specific question, only giving the number of the question, and show how what he has been doing is relevant. But he also comments on variety of other things as are clearly irrelevant, such as as the pleasure of kissing.Erna. We suspect that. Pavlenda will have long since given up reading the answers to his questionnaire.

We also followed the stories of other people who are close to Jan, including, in particular his parents, who come out very well and get a sympathetic portrait. Indeed, most of the ordinary people come out well while those in officialdom do not.

We learn more about Jan such as his interest in painting which tends to focus on decidedly grim subjecst and we also follow his compulsory military service where we learn, to no surprise, that the military is in a state of chaos.

Together with his uncle Olin who had recently been released from prison, he takes up cat breeding. Their first cat is called.Ma Fille but it all goes a bit wrong when they discover that she has testicles. However, this does not stop them from founding theFeline Protection Society of Chlumec.

However, once again it goes wrong when he has confrontation with some soldiers and he is shot dead. As with his conception and birth his death does not deter him from carrying on filling out the questionnaire and telling us his story so we learn what happens after his death. He seems to be very much involved with people even though he is dead.

If yoa’re looking to read a book with a straightforward plot this is not it. It is chaotic, an anarchic often very funny. Not surprisingly, he was not able to publish it in Czechoslovakia and was even sent to prison for it, though international pressure got him released. It was published abroad both in Czech and German but only circulated in Czechoslovakia in.samizdat form. It is enormous fun, even if at times it is not clear what is going on and isaconsidered one of the important Czech novels of the period.

Publishing history

First published in samizdat in 1975
First published in1982 by Sixty-Eight Publishers
First published in English in 1982 by Farrar , Straus and Giroux
Translated by Peter Kussi