Sudeckie linie życia. O »Grandhotelu« Jaroslava Rudiša

The novel Grandhotel is a work by Jaroslav Rudiš, the Czech writer of young generation. The main protagonist of the novel is Fleischman, whose portrait, together with other characters, is presented against the historical background of twentieth-century Liberec and the Sudeten Mountains. By describing Fleischman’s complicated personality and identity, Rudiš attempts to evaluate social spirit of contemporary Czechs. Out of the novel Grandhotel two main dimensions emerge: the first is existential and presents individuals who with their complicated “life lines” and personal dramas look for their own place in the world; the second presents a community in the historical, social and cultural context. In addition, the latter dimension is filled with complicated twentieth-century stories and relations between two nations living in the Sudeten Mountains: the Czechs and the Germans. The twentieth-century world created by Rudiš in the novel does not imply optimism, but it is not deprived of humor and irony, either.