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Danny Smiřický #1
Zbabělci
Škvoreckého knižní debut, román Zbabělci, způsobil ihned po svém zveřejnění rozruch. Otevřenost, s níž autor vylíčil konec války viděný očima dospívajících "pásků" na malém městě, přinesla svědectví natolik odchylné od oficiálního výkladu, že se román stal současně knihou plamenně zatracovanou (režimními kritiky) i nadšeně vítanou (čtenáři). Jistě, její hrdina, bývalý gymnazista a jazzový hudebník Danny Smiřický, vykoná během květnového povstání řadu odvážných činů pro vlast, ryzost jeho počínání však částečně kalí skutečnost, že za vším nestojí pouze vznešené ideály, ale také obyčejná mužská touha zalíbit se ženám. Během osmi klíčových jarních dnů stihne Danny zničit německý tank a přivítat Rudou armádu, přesto si najde čas i na milostná dobrodružství. Právě snaha o neschematický, patosu zbavený pohled na historické události je jednou z předností této výjimečné prózy.
V duchu Hemingwayova výroku, že "spisovatelovým řemeslem je mluvit pravdu", které si Škvorecký zvolil jako motto knihy
V duchu Hemingwayova výroku, že "spisovatelovým řemeslem je mluvit pravdu", které si Škvorecký zvolil jako motto knihy
384 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1958
56 people are currently reading
1812 people want to read
About the author
Josef Škvorecký
138 books154 followersJosef Škvorecký, CM was a Czech writer and publisher who spent much of his life in Canada. Škvorecký was awarded the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 1980. He and his wife were long-time supporters of Czech dissident writers before the fall of communism in that country. By turns humorous, wise, eloquent and humanistic, Škvorecký's fiction deals with several themes: the horrors of totalitarianism and repression, the expatriate experience, and the miracle of jazz.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 127 reviews
September 2, 2014
We got to the bridge. I looked up at Irena’s window and hoped she was watching, but she wasn’t. Naturally. She should see me now. But no such luck. I could already imagine fighting the Germans off in the woods and Irena hiding down in the cellar or somewhere. The whole thing lost all its charm if Irena couldn’t see me. Why in hell was I letting myself in for this?
This book could have a lot of titles, among them ‘The Confused’ or ‘Teenage Testosterone’ or ‘Life Goes On’. But ‘The Cowards’ is the subject at the heart of the chaos in this small Czech town at the very end of World War II.
Having just finished reading Ian Buruma’s Year Zero: A History of 1945 I was looking here for the themes that Buruma explored, and they were present in the town of Kostelec in spades. But murkier, all mixed up together, harder to define.
Because Kostelec is still in play. The Germans haven’t totally left, the Communists are sort of already here, there might be a Czech revolution. And while the city fathers who collaborated with the Nazis scurry to leave town, the local dignitaries who only ‘cooperated’ because they have always done what is necessary to maintain the civis talk revolution while keeping people from shooting so the Germans can leave quietly. Not so Kostelec’s subterranean Communists—just one black midnight scene makes it obvious that the local ‘democratic’ amateurs are clueless about what awaits them when the Soviet ‘liberators’ roll into town.
Only when some Germans decide they aren’t going to give up so quietly it becomes clear that the meager weapons the Kostelec civilians have secured are laughable compared to tanks and bombers. Events seesaw back and forth, with periodic comic scenes of citizens breaking out Czech then Russian flags, one after another, and then withdrawing them quickly as armies and rumors surge back and forth through town. Not at all funny is the gruesome revenge taken on captured SS men, meted out by citizens whose wartime chumminess with the Nazis wouldn’t stand up to much inspection.
And in between the shooting, Skvorecky illustrates more of Buruma’s themes. Vast numbers of prisoners of war and displaced gypsies and concentration camp victims, released from captivity, swarm through town needing food and beds. Danny appoints himself provisioner to a squad of Englishmen who have been POWs for five years, scattering them among the homes of lonely middle class women. People are so eager to celebrate peace that they repeatedly start fetes that are broken up by another battle.
But I think that much of Skvorecky’s interest lies in showing that war is so absurd and events so beyond the ability of civilians to learn or comprehend that they deal with it by either doing whatever it takes to keep life stable (as adults) or remaining immersed in their personal worlds (as children). The town leaders are cowards, talking revolution and pompously supervising the equivalent of boy scout patrols in the eye of the storm, then scurrying for cover the moment shooting starts—they don’t want to attack either Germans or Communists in case it might result in a local citizen getting killed. In a sense they are realistic, because amateurs haven’t a chance against real soldiers. Except that a few heroic acts show that an amateur can make a difference. The only effective resistance to either invader comes from renegades acting on their own. Skvorecky’s contempt for the burghers is moderated by his recognition that they are too foolish to expect better of. It’s just clear that the self-satisfied bourgeois accommodators are doomed with the immanent Russian ‘liberation’.
The story takes place over eight days, beginning and ending with teenage jazz band rehearsals. In between the young, saxaphonist narrator Danny has been enrolled in the local militia. He has seen incompetence, duplicity, death, chaos, evil, revenge, class conflict, and has participated in two battles. But as a teenager, sex and music are all that really matter to him at every moment in which his life is not in immediate danger.
And yet he is vaguely aware that his middle class life is about to end. That things will be different. He can’t anticipate how badly it will turn out, so he is just a little melancholy; he thinks music will be all he needs. Music and a girl, in Prague.
Skvorecky is absolutely real in Danny’s endless looping daydreams of obsession with one girl after another, but one in particular, with whom he hasn’t a chance of success. And his instantaneous flip-flops between cowardice and bravery, not for country but for sexual bravado. His contempt for the tactical bumbling of the pseudo militia leaders while missing their overall political naivety. Skvorecky masters the freedom and physical pleasure that playing jazz brought to these teenagers, akin to sexual pleasure but soulful. They can master their instruments, but not the women or the world around them.
I got up, gravely raised my sax to my lips and sobbed out a melody, an improvisation in honour of victory and the end of the war, in honour of this town and all its pretty girls, and in honour of a great, abysmal, eternal, foolish, lovely love. And I sobbed about everything, about my own life, about the SS men they’d executed and about poor Hrob, about Irena who didn’t understand…about our band which wouldn’t even get together like this again…and I raised my glittering saxophone to face it and sang and spoke to that life out of its gilded throat, telling it that I’d accept it, that I’d accept everything that came my way because that was all I could do…
This book could have a lot of titles, among them ‘The Confused’ or ‘Teenage Testosterone’ or ‘Life Goes On’. But ‘The Cowards’ is the subject at the heart of the chaos in this small Czech town at the very end of World War II.
Having just finished reading Ian Buruma’s Year Zero: A History of 1945 I was looking here for the themes that Buruma explored, and they were present in the town of Kostelec in spades. But murkier, all mixed up together, harder to define.
Because Kostelec is still in play. The Germans haven’t totally left, the Communists are sort of already here, there might be a Czech revolution. And while the city fathers who collaborated with the Nazis scurry to leave town, the local dignitaries who only ‘cooperated’ because they have always done what is necessary to maintain the civis talk revolution while keeping people from shooting so the Germans can leave quietly. Not so Kostelec’s subterranean Communists—just one black midnight scene makes it obvious that the local ‘democratic’ amateurs are clueless about what awaits them when the Soviet ‘liberators’ roll into town.
Only when some Germans decide they aren’t going to give up so quietly it becomes clear that the meager weapons the Kostelec civilians have secured are laughable compared to tanks and bombers. Events seesaw back and forth, with periodic comic scenes of citizens breaking out Czech then Russian flags, one after another, and then withdrawing them quickly as armies and rumors surge back and forth through town. Not at all funny is the gruesome revenge taken on captured SS men, meted out by citizens whose wartime chumminess with the Nazis wouldn’t stand up to much inspection.
And in between the shooting, Skvorecky illustrates more of Buruma’s themes. Vast numbers of prisoners of war and displaced gypsies and concentration camp victims, released from captivity, swarm through town needing food and beds. Danny appoints himself provisioner to a squad of Englishmen who have been POWs for five years, scattering them among the homes of lonely middle class women. People are so eager to celebrate peace that they repeatedly start fetes that are broken up by another battle.
But I think that much of Skvorecky’s interest lies in showing that war is so absurd and events so beyond the ability of civilians to learn or comprehend that they deal with it by either doing whatever it takes to keep life stable (as adults) or remaining immersed in their personal worlds (as children). The town leaders are cowards, talking revolution and pompously supervising the equivalent of boy scout patrols in the eye of the storm, then scurrying for cover the moment shooting starts—they don’t want to attack either Germans or Communists in case it might result in a local citizen getting killed. In a sense they are realistic, because amateurs haven’t a chance against real soldiers. Except that a few heroic acts show that an amateur can make a difference. The only effective resistance to either invader comes from renegades acting on their own. Skvorecky’s contempt for the burghers is moderated by his recognition that they are too foolish to expect better of. It’s just clear that the self-satisfied bourgeois accommodators are doomed with the immanent Russian ‘liberation’.
The story takes place over eight days, beginning and ending with teenage jazz band rehearsals. In between the young, saxaphonist narrator Danny has been enrolled in the local militia. He has seen incompetence, duplicity, death, chaos, evil, revenge, class conflict, and has participated in two battles. But as a teenager, sex and music are all that really matter to him at every moment in which his life is not in immediate danger.
And yet he is vaguely aware that his middle class life is about to end. That things will be different. He can’t anticipate how badly it will turn out, so he is just a little melancholy; he thinks music will be all he needs. Music and a girl, in Prague.
Skvorecky is absolutely real in Danny’s endless looping daydreams of obsession with one girl after another, but one in particular, with whom he hasn’t a chance of success. And his instantaneous flip-flops between cowardice and bravery, not for country but for sexual bravado. His contempt for the tactical bumbling of the pseudo militia leaders while missing their overall political naivety. Skvorecky masters the freedom and physical pleasure that playing jazz brought to these teenagers, akin to sexual pleasure but soulful. They can master their instruments, but not the women or the world around them.
I got up, gravely raised my sax to my lips and sobbed out a melody, an improvisation in honour of victory and the end of the war, in honour of this town and all its pretty girls, and in honour of a great, abysmal, eternal, foolish, lovely love. And I sobbed about everything, about my own life, about the SS men they’d executed and about poor Hrob, about Irena who didn’t understand…about our band which wouldn’t even get together like this again…and I raised my glittering saxophone to face it and sang and spoke to that life out of its gilded throat, telling it that I’d accept it, that I’d accept everything that came my way because that was all I could do…
April 26, 2016
Reviewing this book was not easy. Not that the prose is difficult. It is a simple narrative style and easy to follow. The genre of this book is not very clear. It could pass off as historical fiction, satire or comedy.
A little background knowledge is required. This is a semi-autobiographical work of Josef Skvorecky. The town of Kostelec in the story is based on his home town of Nachod. It was written in 1948, a few months after the Communist coup d’état, but it was not published till 1958 and banned soon after. Victory in Europe Day, marking the formal acceptance of the surrender of the German forces, was on 8 May 1945. The Prague Spring and Warsaw pact invasion occurred much later in 1968.
The story spans a short eight days from Friday 4 May 1945 to Friday 11 May 1945. Each day has its own adventure. Although it revolves around a particular protagonist and it seems to go full circle and end off on the same note ie playing jazz (pun intended), a main plot joining all the narrative segments together is lacking.
The story is told from the perspective of Danny Smiricky, who is twenty one years old. Danny has a very simplistic view of life: Jazz and pretty girls. Could this be a reflection of the youth of that time? Even greater than his love for music, is his obsession with a girl called Irena. His infatuation surfaces repeatedly throughout the book. If it is not Irena, he will lust after any pretty girl that comes along. Much of his involvement in the local uprising and dissension was motivated by his desire to impress Irena. All this makes him seem rather horny, shallow and juvenile. Yet we are compelled to follow him intimately on his adventures.
The story is unusual in that it deals with the aftermath of the German occupation. It is unique in its presentation of how the German soldiers react. They still occupy conquered territory but with their leaders imminent surrender overshadowing over them. They make threats but dare not retaliate for fear of reprisals. The story is also unique in describing the newly released prisoners of war from different countries. Rather than describe their suffering, it focuses on how they wandered through the town and were sheltered by the locals.
The local, bourgeois leaders are presented as spineless and compliant. Rather than turning the tables on their oppressors, they try to negotiate some kind of peaceful handover. Rather than breaking out, they were waiting expectantly on the arrival of either British or Russian troops to liberate them. Talk of “communism” and “revolution” was bandied about but did not materialize in the course of events. Danny and his friends had a disdainful view of these leaders. In one ominous event, Danny and his friends were ordered to surrender their hard-earned arms to a common pool in the name of their leaders and country.
The local, common people were more incensed by the occupying forces, but they lacked proper organization and efficiency. Their resistance efforts were insignificant and laughable, one group conducting patrols in their traditional mountain outfits. The way they kept changing the flags they displayed reflected their vacillating allegiance.
The following sums up each day:
In the end, it made more sense to me to interpret the story as absurdist fiction. It seems like a study of human behaviour without any explicit morals. It just about scrapes a 4 star rating. As any other genre, it would be a 2 or 3 star.
And just who are the cowards?
A little background knowledge is required. This is a semi-autobiographical work of Josef Skvorecky. The town of Kostelec in the story is based on his home town of Nachod. It was written in 1948, a few months after the Communist coup d’état, but it was not published till 1958 and banned soon after. Victory in Europe Day, marking the formal acceptance of the surrender of the German forces, was on 8 May 1945. The Prague Spring and Warsaw pact invasion occurred much later in 1968.
The story spans a short eight days from Friday 4 May 1945 to Friday 11 May 1945. Each day has its own adventure. Although it revolves around a particular protagonist and it seems to go full circle and end off on the same note ie playing jazz (pun intended), a main plot joining all the narrative segments together is lacking.
The story is told from the perspective of Danny Smiricky, who is twenty one years old. Danny has a very simplistic view of life: Jazz and pretty girls. Could this be a reflection of the youth of that time? Even greater than his love for music, is his obsession with a girl called Irena. His infatuation surfaces repeatedly throughout the book. If it is not Irena, he will lust after any pretty girl that comes along. Much of his involvement in the local uprising and dissension was motivated by his desire to impress Irena. All this makes him seem rather horny, shallow and juvenile. Yet we are compelled to follow him intimately on his adventures.
The story is unusual in that it deals with the aftermath of the German occupation. It is unique in its presentation of how the German soldiers react. They still occupy conquered territory but with their leaders imminent surrender overshadowing over them. They make threats but dare not retaliate for fear of reprisals. The story is also unique in describing the newly released prisoners of war from different countries. Rather than describe their suffering, it focuses on how they wandered through the town and were sheltered by the locals.
The local, bourgeois leaders are presented as spineless and compliant. Rather than turning the tables on their oppressors, they try to negotiate some kind of peaceful handover. Rather than breaking out, they were waiting expectantly on the arrival of either British or Russian troops to liberate them. Talk of “communism” and “revolution” was bandied about but did not materialize in the course of events. Danny and his friends had a disdainful view of these leaders. In one ominous event, Danny and his friends were ordered to surrender their hard-earned arms to a common pool in the name of their leaders and country.
The local, common people were more incensed by the occupying forces, but they lacked proper organization and efficiency. Their resistance efforts were insignificant and laughable, one group conducting patrols in their traditional mountain outfits. The way they kept changing the flags they displayed reflected their vacillating allegiance.
The following sums up each day:
In the end, it made more sense to me to interpret the story as absurdist fiction. It seems like a study of human behaviour without any explicit morals. It just about scrapes a 4 star rating. As any other genre, it would be a 2 or 3 star.
And just who are the cowards?
September 18, 2011
Oh well, it seems like after being done with Czechoslovakia as seen by Marius S. I had to go straight to a Czech novel wrote by an author mentioned several times in Gottland.
But this is just a coincidence. For The Cowards was already with me for a few months.
This novel is written in a very impulsive and passionate style with that sort of boyish impetuosity which is explained by the fact Skvorecky was only 24 when he delivered it. The fact that it took 12 years more for this novel to get published just in time for being immediately banned takes us back to what Czechoslovakia used to be: a country of obnoxious and obsessive censorship.
Quoting Gottland this was a nation «where planes cannot fall down».
And perhaps reassured by the fact that a plane couldn't fall over Prague, Josef Skvorecky himself fled to Canada in the early 1970s leaving his homecountry behind. This decision he took was not an act of cowardice but in fact quite the opposite. While abroad, Skvorecky became a publisher of Czechoslovakian books banned by the communit regime and an opinion leader for all the Czech and Slovakian dissidents and ex-pats. He kept on writing novels too.
That said, who are The Cowards here?
Not the main narrator, the youngster Danny Smiřický and his friends playing in a jazz band and dreaming of New Orleans rather than Prague. Jazz music and Satchmo Armstrong for them may certainly look like mere escapism from the daily trouble of a Nazi occupation but are also a sort of moral and cultural resistance to any restriction given by the occupants.
Danny and his band are waiting for something to happen in their sleepy Bohemian town, but at the same time they wish to take part in that something which many around them call "the Revolution".
Unfortunately, Danny & company are stepped over by history and politics, despite themselves.
Perhaps the cowards are the German forces running away from Bohemia when hearing about the Russians advancing from eastern front?
Or maybe these cowards are the local "revolutionary people" jumping out of the frying pan to fall into fire without even noticing it? And what about the Russians looting a whole country that addressed them as liberators?
Personally, I think that Skvorecky left this question unanswered on purpose. As for him, the Nazi occupation, the "socialist" liberation and the institution of a communist regime are all farce wrapped up in different flags, uniforms and anthems.
The reason why it took me that long to review this book is very easy:
it was surprisingly hard reaching the end of The Cowards. And I cannot really say why it took that long as this novel deals with topics I was interested in.
It could be that The Cowards insists a bit too much on dialogues among its characters rather than going straight to the point and this led me to get distracted quite often.
Borrowing a jazzy metaphor, I would say that Skvorecky played a notable jam session of a book, but could have made it even better with less solos from its favourite instruments.
Nevertheless, this novel deserves to be recorded. And I will come back to its tracks.
But this is just a coincidence. For The Cowards was already with me for a few months.
This novel is written in a very impulsive and passionate style with that sort of boyish impetuosity which is explained by the fact Skvorecky was only 24 when he delivered it. The fact that it took 12 years more for this novel to get published just in time for being immediately banned takes us back to what Czechoslovakia used to be: a country of obnoxious and obsessive censorship.
Quoting Gottland this was a nation «where planes cannot fall down».
And perhaps reassured by the fact that a plane couldn't fall over Prague, Josef Skvorecky himself fled to Canada in the early 1970s leaving his homecountry behind. This decision he took was not an act of cowardice but in fact quite the opposite. While abroad, Skvorecky became a publisher of Czechoslovakian books banned by the communit regime and an opinion leader for all the Czech and Slovakian dissidents and ex-pats. He kept on writing novels too.
That said, who are The Cowards here?
Not the main narrator, the youngster Danny Smiřický and his friends playing in a jazz band and dreaming of New Orleans rather than Prague. Jazz music and Satchmo Armstrong for them may certainly look like mere escapism from the daily trouble of a Nazi occupation but are also a sort of moral and cultural resistance to any restriction given by the occupants.
Danny and his band are waiting for something to happen in their sleepy Bohemian town, but at the same time they wish to take part in that something which many around them call "the Revolution".
Unfortunately, Danny & company are stepped over by history and politics, despite themselves.
Perhaps the cowards are the German forces running away from Bohemia when hearing about the Russians advancing from eastern front?
Or maybe these cowards are the local "revolutionary people" jumping out of the frying pan to fall into fire without even noticing it? And what about the Russians looting a whole country that addressed them as liberators?
Personally, I think that Skvorecky left this question unanswered on purpose. As for him, the Nazi occupation, the "socialist" liberation and the institution of a communist regime are all farce wrapped up in different flags, uniforms and anthems.
The reason why it took me that long to review this book is very easy:
it was surprisingly hard reaching the end of The Cowards. And I cannot really say why it took that long as this novel deals with topics I was interested in.
It could be that The Cowards insists a bit too much on dialogues among its characters rather than going straight to the point and this led me to get distracted quite often.
Borrowing a jazzy metaphor, I would say that Skvorecky played a notable jam session of a book, but could have made it even better with less solos from its favourite instruments.
Nevertheless, this novel deserves to be recorded. And I will come back to its tracks.
September 30, 2014
Although Skvorecky has written half a dozen novels that I like more than the Cowards, it still has tremendous merits. Nothing is more dangerous for civilians than a retreat which involves a moving front. The retreating army is nervous and trigger happy which results in civilian deaths. The advancing army is also scared and armed which means that civilians get killed. Individuals on both sides of the conflict use the confusion to settle scores.
In the Cowards, Skvorecky looks at one type of the nastiness; the that of civilians who realize that a retreating army will not be around to retaliate against their relatives if they decide to start taking pot shots at their departing occupiers. Skvorecky lived through such a retreat and writes a fabulous account of it.
I can think of other treatments about life on a rapidly moving front. Roberto Rossellini's Open City is one. Open City is a term from the middle ages which refers to the situation when the occupier or previous government has left a city open to the invader. A dangerous state of lawlessness exists because there is no authority to enforce law. Rossellini's movies examines the cruelties committed by the fascists in Rome which became an open city on August 14, 1943. Skvorecky addresses the gratuitous crimes that the "cowards" of Kostelec commit against the members of the retreating army. You need both Skvorecky and Rossellini to see the whole picture.
My favourite treatment of the "open city" topic is Puccini's opera Tosca in which Scarpia the police chief of the royal regime kills Tosca the soprano and Cavardossi the painter in an act of pure spite as the royal forces vacate Rome while Napoleon's army approaches. Read Skvorecky's Cowards then make a trip to the opera to see Tosca. You will regret neither.
December 20, 2022
he's so me (shallow) (no respect for authority) (not being able to take anything seriously) (yearning for approval from someone i am hopelessly in love with but they dont give a fuck about me) (thinking about girls all the time) but as our lord and saviour taylor swift once said: you're on your own kid, you always have been but !!! My God Why The Sexism (again?!?) why isn't his love 'i will throw my body over a barbed wire so she can climb over me to safety' but is instead 'women are only good for one thing so might as well pick one that'll look good while doing it' imagine how TIRED WE ARE !
January 16, 2018
Young people at the edge of history. A week in May 1945: Hitler is dead, the war is winding down, so it's last chance to be a hero, at comparatively low risk, as the Germans are exhausted and just want to get home. We see how occupations end, with the collaborators hastily trying to reinvent themselves as resisters, apprehensive about whether the communists or the old regime will assert themselves afterwards. Meanwhile Danny is just as obsessed with sex and fantasies of ideal women, immature ideas about girls as pliant playmates. The word "teenager" hadn't even been coined in the West at this point, but this is a book about youth and the possibilities of youth culture, excited by its own music and references (jazz, not rock'n'roll at this time, but quite as exotic in provincial Bohemia), desperate to get away to the capital and explore a wider world. In some ways this is a weird mirror image of western Youth Rebellion and even punk fiction, from an alternative angle of boys who really are bumping up against the Nazis, instead of longing for a battlefield 30 years later. And it shows they are just as immature as the later generations.
July 2, 2025
Takie 4,5/5.
Świetna odtrutka na polski wojenny patriotyzm i jego wszystkie kamienie rzucane na szaniec.
Językowo nowoczesna, trochę wulgarna ale dzięki temu prawdziwa, bo bohater ma jakieś 20 lat i bardziej mi zależy żeby dziewczęta widziały go z karabinem niż żeby miał z niego strzelać.
Wybitność tej pozycji polega właśnie na tym antypatriotyzmie w teoretycznie patriotycznych zachowaniach oraz na fakcie, że jesteśmy serio w głowie głównego bohatera i znamy jego wszystkie myśli, łącznie z tymi, których ludzie nie powinni ujawniać.
Niestety momentami się dłuży.
Przyczepić się trochę muszę jednak do polskiego wydania. Skoro ingerowano w pierwsze tłumaczenie to czemu nie przetłumaczono wszystkich niemieckojęzycznych fragmentów?
Świetna odtrutka na polski wojenny patriotyzm i jego wszystkie kamienie rzucane na szaniec.
Językowo nowoczesna, trochę wulgarna ale dzięki temu prawdziwa, bo bohater ma jakieś 20 lat i bardziej mi zależy żeby dziewczęta widziały go z karabinem niż żeby miał z niego strzelać.
Wybitność tej pozycji polega właśnie na tym antypatriotyzmie w teoretycznie patriotycznych zachowaniach oraz na fakcie, że jesteśmy serio w głowie głównego bohatera i znamy jego wszystkie myśli, łącznie z tymi, których ludzie nie powinni ujawniać.
Niestety momentami się dłuży.
Przyczepić się trochę muszę jednak do polskiego wydania. Skoro ingerowano w pierwsze tłumaczenie to czemu nie przetłumaczono wszystkich niemieckojęzycznych fragmentów?
January 18, 2015
Škvorecký zjevně není mým šálkem čaje. Nebavilo mě to číst, i když to nebylo tak hrozné, jak jsem se bála. Pár scén bylo fajn (nejakčnější scéna předposlední den, ubytovávání Angličanů, některé civilní momenty s Dannyho slečnami), něco mě docela vtáhlo do knihy. Ale jako celek nic pro mě. Nevím proč, proud myšlenek mi většinou nevadí. Možná mi nesedly postavy (přitom Danny byl docela fajn a Pápen/Benno taky)? Styl vyprávění? Téma? Fakt nevím. Rozhodně se mi ale do dalších Škvoreckého próz zrovna dvakrát nechce.
Trochu mě nicméně uklidnilo, když mi pár holek ze třeťáku včera na semináři potvrdilo, že se jim Zbabělci taky nelíbili. Aspoň nejsem úplně divná :D
Ale co Škvoreckému odpustit nemůžu je fakt, že nikde není žádný překlad cizojazyčných pasáží.
Trochu mě nicméně uklidnilo, když mi pár holek ze třeťáku včera na semináři potvrdilo, že se jim Zbabělci taky nelíbili. Aspoň nejsem úplně divná :D
Ale co Škvoreckému odpustit nemůžu je fakt, že nikde není žádný překlad cizojazyčných pasáží.
October 15, 2023
Nejraději bych Dannyho Smiřického vzal z knížky, uškrtil ho a nacpal mu do prdele jeden výtisk tohoto skvostu. Tak nepříjemnou, protivnou, jednoduchou postavu jsem snad v životě nenašel, a to bylo umocněno tím, že kniha byla vyprávěna v ich-formě.
Dávám dvě hvězdy za dialogy (byly sice připitomělé, ale uvěřitelné) a stylistické zpracování (sice nesnáším dlouhé táhlé odstavce, ale šlo vidět, že některé byly psané technikou stream of consciousness, někdy byly daleko víc promyšlené s krátkými údernými větami, a to dodávalo vyprávění balanc).
Dávám dvě hvězdy za dialogy (byly sice připitomělé, ale uvěřitelné) a stylistické zpracování (sice nesnáším dlouhé táhlé odstavce, ale šlo vidět, že některé byly psané technikou stream of consciousness, někdy byly daleko víc promyšlené s krátkými údernými větami, a to dodávalo vyprávění balanc).
July 15, 2022
Great book about the freeing of a small Czech town from Nazis in May 1945.
I like the style of swift, dialogue heavy story repleted with sometimes short sometimes a bit longer streams of consciousness.
I very much related to the main character in terms of love. Loving one person persuading oneself it is the One, yet the meet the protagonist meets someone pretty and vaguely nice, he immediately starts flirting with that person doubting and sometimes fully forgetting the One true love.
Comparable to Kunder, but with civility, lack of "let me tell you how peopler/world/politics works". Therefore in a sense better than Kundera. On the other hand it may not be as original as Kundera's work.
Anyway, I very much recommend this to anyone ready for personal drama in days of political and historical significance.
I like the style of swift, dialogue heavy story repleted with sometimes short sometimes a bit longer streams of consciousness.
I very much related to the main character in terms of love. Loving one person persuading oneself it is the One, yet the meet the protagonist meets someone pretty and vaguely nice, he immediately starts flirting with that person doubting and sometimes fully forgetting the One true love.
Comparable to Kunder, but with civility, lack of "let me tell you how peopler/world/politics works". Therefore in a sense better than Kundera. On the other hand it may not be as original as Kundera's work.
Anyway, I very much recommend this to anyone ready for personal drama in days of political and historical significance.
Want to read
September 23, 2024Having discovered 'I served the King of England' by Bohumil Harbal and 'Mendelssohn is on the Roof' by Jiří Weil (both of which are beyond wonderful) in recent years how could I not have this novel at the top of my TBR list?
April 28, 2023
Že začátku trochu nuda, ale pak se to zvrtlo ve srdceryvné drama v pozadí osvobozování
June 10, 2025
nechci bejt dramaticka ale treba top 10 knih za me
January 28, 2022
Written by a well known alumni of my uni, banned by the Soviets immediately on release... Frankly, it seemed like a must-read.
I'll be honest though, the first half of the book disappointed me. It mostly took place in the main character's thoughts, which wasn't great because I didn't like the main character.
I didn't like Danny because he seemed like a narcissist, although who am I to judge, and he kept on thinking about Irena and having lewd fantasies about her, and Irena was dating that Zdeněk guy, and Danny only cares about Irena and music, but he's always flirting with different girls and lying to all of them about his undying love for them and only them, and half the book is written in run-on sentences like this one, and if you don't like how I'm writing this part of the review then you wouldn't like the book because this is how it is, and Danny loves Irena, and i just did really bad on a test because I read this book instead of studying, but that was okay because it gets way better at the end and I started to respect Danny more even though he was a bit annoying in some regards, and he kept thinking about Irena and his future and hoping Zdeněk would die, and the last 3 days in the book make the whole book worthwhile, and then Danny thinks about Irena again, and looks at the stars, and dozes off until he falls into a dreamless sleep.
I'll be honest though, the first half of the book disappointed me. It mostly took place in the main character's thoughts, which wasn't great because I didn't like the main character.
I didn't like Danny because he seemed like a narcissist, although who am I to judge, and he kept on thinking about Irena and having lewd fantasies about her, and Irena was dating that Zdeněk guy, and Danny only cares about Irena and music, but he's always flirting with different girls and lying to all of them about his undying love for them and only them, and half the book is written in run-on sentences like this one, and if you don't like how I'm writing this part of the review then you wouldn't like the book because this is how it is, and Danny loves Irena, and i just did really bad on a test because I read this book instead of studying, but that was okay because it gets way better at the end and I started to respect Danny more even though he was a bit annoying in some regards, and he kept thinking about Irena and his future and hoping Zdeněk would die, and the last 3 days in the book make the whole book worthwhile, and then Danny thinks about Irena again, and looks at the stars, and dozes off until he falls into a dreamless sleep.
April 15, 2021
The story takes place at the end of WWII in a Czech town called Kostelec and follows a young man in his late teens named Danny who plays sax in a jazz band. The Germans are in the process of leaving the town because the Russians are closing in and the Germans want to go west in order to surrender to the Americans. Danny is emboldened by the situation and becomes involved in the resistance against the Germans. It sounds like a great premise for a book but, unfortunately, I didn't think Skvorecky presented it that well. There were endless passages of useless narration that really didn't contribute much to the story and things that could have been expressed in a paragraph or two that went on for pages. The book was occasionally broken up with some action but for the most part it was pointless narration.
December 3, 2021
Well...
If you find an old Penguin edition and you assume it's good, because of the publishing company, but you've never heard of it, and even though you're an avid collector of lists of the greatest literature, the book doesn't seem to appear on any of those lists of great books, but you think to yourself; "This must be a great book, because it's about WW2, Czechoslovakia, Jazz," but then when you check on Goodreads, almost all the reviews are 3 stars, you persist in your foolish optimism, even though 413 dense and tiny typescript pages is going to be quite a burden if it's not great...
Then you've only got yourself to blame when you discover that it is not a particularly great novel, middling at best, and that it is quite tediously similar to Catcher In The Rye.
If you find an old Penguin edition and you assume it's good, because of the publishing company, but you've never heard of it, and even though you're an avid collector of lists of the greatest literature, the book doesn't seem to appear on any of those lists of great books, but you think to yourself; "This must be a great book, because it's about WW2, Czechoslovakia, Jazz," but then when you check on Goodreads, almost all the reviews are 3 stars, you persist in your foolish optimism, even though 413 dense and tiny typescript pages is going to be quite a burden if it's not great...
Then you've only got yourself to blame when you discover that it is not a particularly great novel, middling at best, and that it is quite tediously similar to Catcher In The Rye.
June 20, 2019
Mým problémem bylo, že tento semestr jsem četla nebo probírala knihy, jejichž hlavní hrdinové byli muži. Nemám problém s hlavními mužskými postavami, ale někdy je toho už příliš. A bylo toho dost v případě Zbabělců. Četba byla příjemná, ale nedokázala jsem se vžít do postavy Danyho a prožít s ním několik dní v Kostelci. Neuměla jsem porozumět jeho touze po Ireně, když zároveň pádil za každou jinou sukní.
Dokážu si však představit, jaké haló musela kniha vyvolat v době vydání. Dany vlastně není žádný hrdina, je to jenom kluk, co prožívá svoje v mládí ve špatné době.
Dokážu si však představit, jaké haló musela kniha vyvolat v době vydání. Dany vlastně není žádný hrdina, je to jenom kluk, co prožívá svoje v mládí ve špatné době.
March 17, 2023
Danny Smiřický je definicí slova "kokot".
October 18, 2018
Strahopetci so kot nalašč za Moderne klasike. Intenzivno branje, v katerem se spopadeta mladostna, malodane neverjetna sproščenost osmišljanja sveta in družbe ter zgodovinske situacije, ki od te sproščenosti terja drugačne pristope. Strahopetci so lahko zgodovinsko branje o zadnjih dnevih vojne v Kostelcu in stopnjevanju pričakovanja tega, kako bo končno prišel konec svetovne vojne; hkrati so lahko tudi parodično slikanje prenarejanja, političnih akcij mestnih oblasti in duhovitih pogledov na gosposko revolucijo skozi oči mladega protagonista. Seveda, konec koncev predvsem to, pogled mladega Dannyja Smiřickýja, skozi iskrive, boječe, neizkušene besede v dialogih s prijatelji, ki jih Škvorecký piše z lahkotnostjo pogovornega vsakodnevja, njegove ljubezenske nedorečenosti, strasti do glasbe in pogostih refleksijah tega, kar se dogaja. Roman o začetku nove dobe.
https://kon-teksti.blogspot.com/2018/...
https://kon-teksti.blogspot.com/2018/...
July 25, 2017
Naprosto přesně si pamatuju, kdy jsem se s touhle knížkou setkala poprvé, co za úryvek jsme tehdy četli. A trochu se stydím, že jsem se k dílu vrátila až teď. Ale je to pořád lepší než nic. Danny Smiřicky mi není nikterak blízký, přesto mě oslovil. A pak je tu samozřejmě to důležité historické pozadí, které se dostalo do popředí Dannyho života. Květnová revoluce, příjezd Rudé armády, konec války.
https://vysvobozena.blogspot.cz/2017/...
https://vysvobozena.blogspot.cz/2017/...
May 22, 2020
A rather disappointment for a book that was touted as an Eastern European Classic. Early on the story went from a slow start to full throttle, only to drop back again with what seemed a repetitive string of hormonal cravings of a young man. This book was written in 1948-49 and released around 1958, and just doesn't stand the test of time. The general plot was good, the end of WWII in an occupied town in Czechoslovakia, where some of the residents take up arms against the remaining Germans, and the uncertainty of what the Russian army will do once they arrive.
The Cowards is the story of an uncomplicated, talented youth caught up in momentous historic events who refuses either to be bored to death by politics - or to lie down and die without a fight.
The Cowards is the story of an uncomplicated, talented youth caught up in momentous historic events who refuses either to be bored to death by politics - or to lie down and die without a fight.
May 21, 2022
Another foray into czech literature! This book is easy to read but not a page turner. It gave an interesting insight into life in a czech town during the WW2 liberation in May 1945. Danny the narrator lives for his jazz band and is in love with Irena. She consumes his thoughts but she is in love with Zedenek. The story tells of the Germans fleeing and killing on their way. It also tells of the liberation by Russia. The youth of Dannys town Kostelec are skeptical about the older generations who are conservative. They also pay no attention to politics and whilst they talk of a revolution, nobody has any idea of the regime that will be imposed on Czechoslovakia.
April 27, 2024
Ci troviamo in una piccola città cecoslovacca, Kostelec, alla fine della Seconda guerra mondiale, esattamente nel mese di maggio del 1945. Questo paesino è nel caos perché i tedeschi non se ne sono andati del tutto, i comunisti sono già presenti e potrebbe nascere una rivoluzione ceca. Se non bastasse, vi sono anche un gran numero di prigionieri di guerra (zingari sfollati e vittime dei campi di concentramento liberati dalla prigionia) i quali si diffondono a sciami per la cittadina alla ricerca di cibo e letti.
Il protagonista che ci narra la sua storia in una sorta di diario giornaliero (otto giorni) è un giovane sassofonista, Danny, che ha solo due pensieri: la sua cotta per Irena (non corrisposta perché lei già è impegnata con un altro) e il jazz, infatti fa parte di una piccola banda jazz. Danny ci guiderà nella sua vita quotidiana fatta di prove musicali, paura che arrivino i russi, pattugliamenti e innamoramenti.
L'autore, Josef Škvorecký, in questo romanzo ci mostra quanto la guerra sia una bestia assurda e difficile da capire e da affrontare dalle persone normali: i capi della città sono dei codardi, parlano di rivoluzione e poi al momento del bisogno hanno paura di attaccare i tedeschi o anche i comunisti (è anche vero che non sono soldati quindi rischierebbero di rimetterci la pelle!).
Il protagonista che ci narra la sua storia in una sorta di diario giornaliero (otto giorni) è un giovane sassofonista, Danny, che ha solo due pensieri: la sua cotta per Irena (non corrisposta perché lei già è impegnata con un altro) e il jazz, infatti fa parte di una piccola banda jazz. Danny ci guiderà nella sua vita quotidiana fatta di prove musicali, paura che arrivino i russi, pattugliamenti e innamoramenti.
L'autore, Josef Škvorecký, in questo romanzo ci mostra quanto la guerra sia una bestia assurda e difficile da capire e da affrontare dalle persone normali: i capi della città sono dei codardi, parlano di rivoluzione e poi al momento del bisogno hanno paura di attaccare i tedeschi o anche i comunisti (è anche vero che non sono soldati quindi rischierebbero di rimetterci la pelle!).
April 2, 2022
Na to, že jsem Zbabělce četla jako povinnou četbu, jsem si je vlastně docela užila. Čtivé to bylo hodně, to jsem nečekala, a i když tam byly nudnější pasáže a pomalejší, mám z knížky dobrý pocit.
December 26, 2024
Đã có bản dịch Những Kẻ Hèn Nhát
August 12, 2025
3* na szynach
October 14, 2024
Tyjo to se četlo jedna báseň. Ale ti kluci jsou nemožný a z těch jejich rozhovorů mi občas bylo blbě (jestli takhle mladí muži doopravdy myslí tak se nemusíme divit proč je svět jaký je...)
January 29, 2025
Týpek je samá Irena, klidně i na celou stranu v jedné větě.
March 28, 2025
Strasne chci za par let umrit v nejakym zakopu u zlina
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