Gottland by Marius Szczygiel

I never knew my mother's birthplace was so strange! Written by a journalist from neighbouring Poland, these are snappy, true and anecdotally sort-of-true tales from the Czech half of the Czech Republic. The introductory timeline is essential. Czechoslovakia went from being a mittel-europa kingdom to a Hitlerite state in 1939 then a Stalinist state from the 50's until the Velvet Revolution in 1968.(this is not to be confused with the Velvet Underground although many of the revos liked the music) Compare and contrast with modern England. I know we have a secret police who infiltrate tree-protester and peacenik groups but the Czech secret police was so unsecret it was terrifying. Anyone in the public eye could be crushed by media libel. Scientists and publishers who fell out of favour did not land up on the dole, the Czech fall from grace led to a job for life washing windows or plucking chickens in a remote smalltown factory.

We learn all sorts from the story of the Bata shoe factory to the tale of popular fiction. Back in the late 50s all 'brak', regular genre fiction was removed from the library shelves and the authors had to apologise! One hapless novelist, best known for 'the Hungry Heart', which I imagine was a  Mills and Booner atoned for her 'literary sins' and never wrote another word. Only tales where factory workers achieved production targets were allowed.

These days it's all changed again, probably for the better although I have yet to visit as I have never been on a stag night from England. 'Gottland' is the themepark home of Karel Gott, the Czech Elvis. Some of Prague is almost a Kafka themepark but it is modern stuff, built around 2003. The synagogue which my mother's family would have attended had they been more religious is now a burger bar. Or maybe that was my father's synagogue in Poland; the other one became a car park.