Home » Czech Republic » Vladimir Paral »Katapult Catapult)
Vladimir Paral:Katapult Catapult)
This novel was published in 1967 when Czechoslovakia was very much under communist control. Our hero is Jacek Jost. Things are seemingly going well for him. He is a chemical an engineer with a well paid job in a textile factory. He is seemingly happily married with a young daughter of whom he is very fond and who is very fond of him. However, he is not to be happy with his lot.
We see this immediately as he has to make a train journey, which he frequently does, and he complains about the train. The heating gets too hot but there is still a cold draft. Seats are nominally reserved but no one pays any attention to this and when he gets to his seat, his neighbour.Trost is in his seat so he has to sit in one of the spare seats and hope no one will claim it. It is uncomfortable and as he tries to sleep, he finds it difficult to do so.
Like pretty well every train he will take throughout this book, it is late.
He steps out of the compartment for a breath of fresh air and when returns he finds that Trost has taken his seat in order to be near one of the two young women in the carriage, the and his original seat is available. It is conveniently next to another attractive young young woman called Nada, which reminds him of the Russian name Nadezhda, meaning Hhope. It is a good thing he does not speak Spanish.
He leaves the train with Nada and spends an enjoyable couple of days with her, and gets his his brother to send a telegram to his wife saying that he has been delayed on business.
They go to her flat and fool around, including going swimming together and eating out.
He feels somewhat guilty about his behaviour: WHERE DO WE COME FROM—WHO ARE WE—WHERE ARE WE GOING, but I live here with my wife and we have a child, a hundred times better than I deserve, my love, I have soiled you. However, he is determined that he is fed up with his life and wants to change it somewhat. He rents a flat. He looks like getting a job elsewhere else, but he decides to focus on his love life and puts an anonymous ad in a lonely hearts column in a newspaper and, to his surprise he is swamped with responses from women who are looking for a mate and assume, because he has told them so, that he is divorced and available.
The responses are quite varied, in terms of age, marital status, profession, location and so on.
He arranges to meeet them on neutral ground and is therefore able to determine whether they are suitable. Some of course are too large, some too small some too young and some too old. Of course they have their own point of view. One states I know men too well already —never has one of them had me and none of them ever will. One of them comments, not inaccuratelyWhy did you get divorced— oh, that’s a stupid question! You felt hemmed in, you longed for freedom, air, the sea, distant lands… and women. Your wife became indifferent soon after marriage, only for the sake of the child you kept up the appearance of a happy marriage
The novel has been getting somewhat more farcical, not least because of the complications with his job which he does not like and which like much in the country suffers from its own inefficiencies and the inefficiencies of its suppliers. He has been made various offers and considers his options. He wants them to abolish his job, but they are reluctant to do so.
However, the complications of his job are nothing compared to the complications of his love life. Obviously the whole thing descends into a total farce as, in general, the women see him as a future husband and in some cases their parents see him as a future son-in-law . Keeping up six women, as well as his job and his family is not straightforward.
He feels that he wants to get rid of his wife and even tries gaslighting her, almost literally in that he uses the method of electricity going on and off to make her think she’s going mad though he does, more or less , remain devoted to his daughter.
The whole business gets more complicated as he decides that one way of getting rid of his wife ist o find new man for her and given that his method worked well for him he puts a lonely heart advert in the paper for her. Of course she knows nothing about this. Again, he is swamped with replies. When he produces a dwarf, as you might
imagine things get somewhat comical. What is he to do? Can he cancel all his girlfriends? Fate inevitably takes a hand.
This book had considerable success in Czechoslovakia, not least because it showed the frailties of the communist system but also shows a man struggling, as he sees it to get free. While. it was quite fun to read, I suspect it would make more of an impression on a 1960s Czech reader than a modern day Westerner.
Publishing history
First published by Mladá fronta in 1967
First published in English in 1992 by Catbird Press
Translated by William Harkins
Translated by William Harkins