The end of the nylon age

Oh, glory be, it's the end of swinging. And making love... It's a wonder the ball is even being held at the House of Representatives. Although it is hosted by the American Institute in Prague and taffeta gowns glitter everywhere, the date suggests that this ball of futility marks the end of a brief episode of regained freedom. In the pre-spring of 1948, the steps of the dancers and the notes of the jazzmen do not go in rhythm with the forced reveries out there - and in addition to this, their unhappy loves, minds or just a simple desire to break the tuberosity echo. Irene Hillman remains unavailable to the dapper Sam Gellen when she foolishly marries careerist Robert, who is determined to have a Bolshevik turn with his lover. Monty Bartos is sick of the fact that on Monday he will be going to a small classroom in the Erzgebirge. And there is also Jiřka Kočandrlová, a nasty, vinegary farm girl, who has no choice but to knit vengefully in the foyer... The novella about the last blues of the former "belts" and "Christies", who before were so happy to swing in spite of the Nazis, is brilliantly syncopated. The chronicler of this lost generation, Josef Škvorecký, gathered inspiration for it directly from the tenor saxophone player's console and even then he noticed that the golden youth was giving in to falsehood, if not collaborating, because only in this way would life in the supposed "happy tomorrows" be easier. No one is born into an ideal time and the loss of illusions about ourselves will always come regardless of the regime. Of course, after the February coup, it makes one even more down, even if they're still playing Glenn Miller for now. "Because jazz has always been a dude up the ass of all the ultra-poppies, from Hitler to Brezhnev, who have successively ruled my home country. They told me: 'But jazz is decadent bourgeois music,' because the Soviet press drilled it into their heads. I said: 'It's my music, and I wouldn't give it up for a world revolution! '" - Josef Škvorecký: Red Music "The recent upheaval reveals the different natures of the individual characters, some of whom do not hesitate to embrace the trappings of communist ideology, others opportunistically collaborate with the nascent regime, and still others are still searching for their own appropriate stance. But they all sense that the coming times are bringing tragic changes and seek short-term oblivion in entertainment and casual conversation." - irozhlas.cz "Short, painful and to the point, with sadness and nostalgia for times undeveloped. The 1950 text could only be published in 1967 with the proviso that it faithfully depicts 'Prague's golden youth, playing English for the big world, in the years of class replacement'. Without the Bolshevik ideological glasses, however, it is much more a clash between 'pretty ordinary guys who want money and women' and the uptight, sweaty pawns of the new regime." - from reader reviews on databazeknih.cz Only the factory was a working relationship hopefully circumscribed by the coming end of the war. What will begin from Monday to drag on the destructive uncertainty of peace will be a different and worse slavery, a servitude without hope of the sweet freedom of liberty. There's only one freedom left. The one consisting in understanding the necessity. (...) - excerpt from text