The dream life of Ernest G.

Josef Kaplan, a Czech doctor of Jewish origin, studies in Paris in the 1930s, survives the war and anti-Semitic fury in Algerian exile, and returns to liberated Czechoslovakia after the fighting ends.

However, he has no idea that even here he will not get much of a taste of freedom and that he will spend almost his entire life under a totalitarian regime. When he admits a certain South American revolutionary for treatment at his sanatorium in 1966, his absurd life path reaches its peak. Living to see his hundredth birthday, he also witnesses the fall of the Iron Curtain and can finally visit France again, where he tries to pick up the pieces of his family life.

***

Just like in The Club of Incurable Optimists, Jean-Michel Guenassia introduces a host of unforgettable characters in his second novel (some of whom we already know from The Club) and weaves a rich tapestry of friendships and love affairs. He explores political and social issues in detail, offering an enriching French perspective on everyday life in communist Czechoslovakia.

***

"The blending of historical facts and the fictional lives of novel characters is the most appealing aspect of Guenassia's books. The sparkling clash of truth and fiction creates a perfectly readable, intelligent world of relationships set against the backdrop of historic milestones."
MF Dnes

"The span of an entire century and the fictional life of Ernesto Guevara in Czechoslovakia are the main factors in the book's potential success. The reader has to accept that they will fly through an entire century with the story, including key events in Czechoslovak history such as the Rudolf Slánský trials, the Soviet occupation, and the Velvet Revolution, and that Che Guevara is presented essentially as a fictional character, in a completely different light to how he is usually depicted – namely as a romantic hero. If the reader accepts Guenassia's game, they will certainly devour page after page until 2010, when Josef Kaplan's epic story ends with many surprising and shocking resolutions. However, some readers may find the narrative too superficial due to its pace and might view the description of Guevara's stay in Prague as false kitsch."
iliteratura.cz