Klima, Ivan

(Czech, 1931– )

A popular playwright and novelist, active in the Prague Spring of 1968 during which his country challenged Soviet domination, Klima's works were published worldwide, but not in Czechoslovakia until Communism fell. In Love and Garbage (1986) a Kafka-obsessed writer wanders the streets of Prague as a binman, tormented by his adulterous love of Daria, helplessly musing on the body and soul. The narrator speculates on affairs of the heart and the nature of reality. Klima writes with intellect and imagination, sweeping a decaying regime into history's dustbin. In Waiting for the Dark, Waiting for the Light (1993) Klima returns to the internal monologue to explore dissatisfaction with the external world—this time after the collapse of Communism. My Merry Mornings (1989) is a collection of the smart, lyrical short stories for which Klima is renowned; a typical Czech mixture of the essayistic and fictional.

Milan Kundera, Josef Škvorecký, Jaroslav Hašek, Franz Kafka  AM