Ota Pavels prose flows like the rivers in which he loved to fish. He is a perfect example of what I believe represents his nation. Kind, peace-loving, found of nature and their homes, always going about their business while looking at life with this Czech special wink, that helped create a good soldier Svejk, and keeps to inspire the contemporary Czech comedy.
Stories are autobiographical, some inspired by his eccentric judish father and their family life before and during the second world war, and some inspired by, and mainly about, fish… Since the beauty is in the way they are told, it is impossible to do them justice by talking about them. They are just so incredibly kind-hearted, that there is no way you can not, not love them. You are drawn into this special world, mesmerised by the voice of the storyteller, you grow to love the father, and forgive him his eccentricities, and you grow to love the nature that means so much, and you might even grow to love the fish, since it is so important.
In one of the last stories Pavel quotes a chinese proverb:
”If you want to be happy for an hour, go and get drunk,
If you want to be happy for three days, go and get married,
If you want to be happy for a lifetime, become a fisherman”... and then everything becomes clear... so go and buy a fishing-rod, or if not, get a copy of Ota Pavels short stories, they are bound to make you happy, at least for a while.