Vladimír Kalina: Seven-millionaire crumbs 2

Many people still remember the popular radio series The Seven Horsemen, in which well-known personalities of cultural life told funny stories from their surroundings. Vladimír Kalina was one of the "seven-timers" at that time, and years later he comes up with new stories about people both well-known and unknown, randomly met. Such fleeting encounters with inconspicuous people and their narratives contain that "magic of the unwanted" from which unexpected comedy springs. Kalin's humour is kind, gentle, never a condescending mockery, even if the hero of the story is simple. It is this guilelessness, immediacy and honesty that impresses the author the most; he is enchanted when he discovers the proverbial "pearl at the bottom". The author's predominantly humorous prose is based on a kindly relationship with people and their foibles, a keen sense of punchline and of situational and linguistic paradox, as well as a penchant for the charm of eavesdropping on everyday conversations. These features are also characteristic of his collection of short anecdotal stories, The Seven Millers' Stubs.