Alexandra Berková
Alexandra Berková
(1949)
Novelist, journalist, author of TV screenplays and radio dramas
Author of tales which cascade with emotion and concentrate largely on feminine themes. Her somewhat delayed first literary work (published in 1986) caused quite a stir among lovers of literature. For several years before her first book came out, she was enchanting audiences at venues throughout the country with her series of readings. When her Book with the Red Cover was finally published, it sold 60,000 copies immediately. Its readers already knew it very well...
The leading personality of contemporary Czech feminine literature.
Selected bibliography:
Knížka s červeným obalem (The Book with the Red Cover, 1986, 1986, 2003, short stories)
When this collection of short stories first came out, it was published in 60,000 copies that vanished from the bookshops in one morning: such was the reaction of readers hungry for non-commercial, impartial and authentic writing. Such also was the intensity of the author’s need to be heard by the public. These stories, in which the author contemplates various feminine topics, have lost none of their power, even17 years after their first publication.
Review:
“Berková gives herself up to a continuous statement; her sentences are broken in the middle and she quickly alternates short speeches from many of the book’s large cast of characters. The humdrum of everyday life changes abruptly into a totally absurd, even comical strangeness. Her scenes are almost surreal; fantastic situations are followed by nursery rhymes and a large dose of irony. Her story does not let the reader rest, but demands attention and co-operation with unusual vigour. Berková uses deftly the tool of authorial commentary that resembles director’s notes in a screenplay; she inserts stories into stories to create a multi-storey literary dome, which moves about with freedom within levels of time and the story. This is complicated writing at its best, a clearly constructed and well-thought-out literary achievement.”
(Marta Ljubková, iliteratura)
Magorie aneb Příběh velké lásky (Magoria: or a Tale of Great Love, 1991, novella)
A parable about life, history and motives of a grotesque “country under a flat rock”; a crystal clear allegory of Czechoslovakia before the Velvet Revolution. It is the story of a “land of pure absurdity”, where “laws are in force only sometimes ”, and where “Bellies” and “Corpses” rule. The author paints an expressively distorted picture of her own country, by means of an illusion-breaking lyric mosaic. The book also contains some feminist themes and thoughts, but is dominated by other topics, like the future role of messiahs in this “strange world”.
Foreign editions:
Taifuuni, Finland, 1997
Panorama, Bulgaria, 2003
Awards:
Egon Hostovský Prize (1991)
Review:
“This novella is a modern and highly topical work, but it also has much in common with timeless and everlasting world literature: it harks back to the expressionist poetic of the 1920’s and even bears signs of the unique Joyce tradition... (...) This book is one of those novels that make Czech literature move forward.”
(Vladimír Novotný, MF Dnes)
Utrpení oddaného Všiváka (The Sufferings of a Devoted Scoundrel, 1993, novella)
This short work is a pleading interpretation of the author’s uncertainty and the chaos of the modern world , a world which demands to be lived in, but which every day can bring a fresh cause of pessimism: it is not just that human suffering can never really disappear, but that the reasons for it are ever more absurd and grotesque. The book is a general reflection on the human condition, and its numerous biblical motifs and indirect references to the mystery of Creation give it something of the nature of contemporary apocrypha. Berková handles her story on two levels that differ even in graphic form so as to be clearly visually distinguishable. One level tells the stories of the Knave and the other deals with experiences, opinions and comments of a girl who is “just fine, just over forty”. It has to be said, though, that these worlds are not at all easy to penetrate...
Foreign editions:
Taifuuni, Finland, 1997
Panorama, Bulgaria, 2003
Apokalipsa, Slovenia, 2004
Review:
“The Suffering of a Devoted Scoundrel is a story written on the lush meadow of the Czech language, full of faith and poetry as well as hopelessness and the rudest words. It is a challenge to stop and look over one’s shoulder.”
(sv, Knihy)
Temná láska (Dark Love, 2000, novella in three parts)
This is the most open excursion into the author’s private life so far. She has not abandoned the sound and well-tried weapons that are so typical of her style – sarcasm, an emphasis on the absurd sides of reality – or the distorted glass through which she looks. The individual sections of the text are handled in various ways (the hyperbolised metaphor of living with a partner, social allegory, a paraphrasing of Dante’s Divine Comedy, to mention a few instances only...). All three segments have one thing in common and that is the psychotherapeutic dialogue between the main character – the ageing narrator Kateřina – and her doctor.
In Czech literary circles, this book is often considered the best home-produced prose work of the past ten years.
Foreign editions:
Bassarai, Spain, 2004
Review:
“The narrator persistently reminds the reader of the unpleasant atmosphere of numbness within a family, the hell of relationships between partners, each with an ‘indefeasible’ claim on the other. Berková must have experienced these phenomena to the full, suffering thereby long and painfully, and her books bring out the essence of it all.”
(Josef Chuchma, MF Dnes)
Presentations abroad – a selection:
The author has taken part in numerous literary readings, e.g. in Finland, Austria, Germany, Slovenia, England and Slovakia.
Notes:
A substantial part of Magoria: or a Tale of Great Love has been translated into French (by Jasna Kohoutová). This French translation is available from the Petrov publishing house upon request.
Many translations have been published in various anthologies of Czech literature and in magazines all over the world, most notably in English and German, but also in other languages such as Hungarian. Extracts from the translations can be obtained from the Petrov publishing house.
Utrpení oddaného Všiváka / The Sufferings of the Devoted Scoundrel
Temná láska / Dark Love
Knížka s červeným obalem / The Book with the Red Cover (3rd edition, 2003)
