Edition Domesticum

Pectus publishing house, Košice 2014

Seldom does a poet succeed in burying his head in the clouds yet staying firmly on the ground with his feet. Klohn's poetry, apparently under the influence of the Beat generation with strong existentialist undercurrents, is hovering in its own myths both cautiously as well as soberly. Many a time with irony which enables one to cope with suffering more like a defensive reaction than a cynical attitude. Signs of resignations in the context testify to a struggle. Fortunately, the author does not pose himself as a servant to his work or penitent to the spirit nor compels one to take another positive thinking course. He depicts the snapshots in a sensitive and candid manner, refraining from sentiment, affectation or flirting with fashion experiments. The author also relies on a holistic approach of oriental philosophies; already stoics connected cosmology with ethics. Transcending things despite the devotees of the Enlightenment who poked fun at poetry-making as if a new-born baby did not fit in this world, is an urgent part of mental experience.

Pectus publishing house, Košice 2013

The author with a sense of experiment draws on everyday situations which he many a time poses as a play with the reader. The problems are a result of bureaucratic obstacles, overcome by backstage acts as well as phenomena of deep psychology, as presented by the short story Balcony. This may be perceived as not only an allusion to a Borgesian symbol of the sole author. In all these works of fiction the contradictions become disentangled, fused and knotty perhaps more in the comic than tragic way: in the street, in the flat or in the military environment or Academia. This is materialized by means of references to the by-gone times of socialism, being continued in the intentions of well-known movies or works of fiction where pitiable little characters, self-illuminating irony or a little bit of literature about literature are not missing. Even though the narrator is not a neutral one, but in varied forms does not pull any punches, the overall impression of these works of fiction remains cultivated. Even if he passes a judgement, the willingness to cope with the shortcomings of the other person is palpable.

Pectus publishing house, Košice 2013

Poetry of Hudák is about seeing the crazy music, about restless, torturing nights, desperate night phone calls with an unknown voice, about searching for water in times of greatest thirst as well as about boozing, so that nothingness as a first-hand experience could get a man out of lethargy, so that it would be somehow possible to experience the happiness. Poet as an observer turns everything upside down, and even if he paralyzes the readerʼs expectations, he leads him to catharsis just like Kahloʼs paintings, in which the modifications of particularly pessimistic backgrounds show the innocence of likeliness, inability of having a sovereign control of own inside – and in this way the poetry par excellence is created.

Pectus publishing house, Košice 2013

The author does not perceive charm as an old-fogyish prop. This is even more important and urgent under the pressure of frequent disappointment. A woman, who perceives sensuality with disapproval, but also often succumbs to it, must defend herself – authentically by bitter irony related to things, which are losing the meaning in their cycle. Revelation of ancestors, vision of what has already disappeared and mysterious sense of sadness, as if the past indicated the gratitude for ongoing acts, signalizing desire of living individual to rediscover the lost, desire to tell what has not been said before, to come up to ideas, for which we have not found the courage. The sacred and secular belongs to the intimacy in the unity of the spiritual and material, to the love affair continuously disturbed by concerns that things, which are being created, disappear before anything comes into existence.

Pectus publishing house, Košice 2012

Novella Love in the Time of Plague offers a story of two main characters, professor Cyril Médeus and female student Silvia Atanasevová. By placing the story to the well-known period of real socialism in the 1970s the author explores the boundaries between two phenomena in a literary way. One of them relates to the individual paranoia as a sick form of conviction on the basis of inner motives, second applies to non-psychotic form resulting from the network of social relations, when it comes to real feeling of loss of privacy because of State Security practices. Narration is sometimes characterized by situational irony or marked return of symbols appearing in unexpected connections and new meanings. Without providing a definitive answer, it tries to look into apparent dichotomy between psychology and sociology – to what extent is an individual responsible for his actions? Will two lovers manage to overcome the difficulties regardless of whether they are caused by themselves or by someone else? Another book from this author will certainly attract the reader by new questions.

Pectus publishing house, Košice 2010

Author's prosaic debut Give the Elevator to Sisyphus! brings the inexorably realistic stories of various characters – from homeless man through soldier in love or peculiar opera lover to the drug addict model. World in which the heroes of short stories are living does not always look kind and happy. Author does not sermonize; he rather states the merciless facts in a dry manner. References to the everyday life are evident, fitting and appropriate – it is not possible to escape the reality or to keep out of it. Experienced narrator tells the real catchy short stories, mature in style. He lets his characters walk by their own ways, often to the end with a tragic form. Although majority of people would rather avoid the depicted situations, these stories can drag into their nets anyone.

Pectus publishing house, Košice 2010

Collection of poems Origami was not written, but whispered. It is a pure crystal and realistic record of the feeling's genesis which is said not to last for a long time. These verses were created during sleepless nights and gloomy days, in the morning with the dawn's light and first ray during awakening. Author offers a reader the poems written in blood, poems about searching, finding, loosing, experiencing and enchanting the most genuine feeling. Poems about a woman with the secret of silence accompanied by angels. About a being which we'll meet only one time during the whole life in order to light us up for a while.

Pectus publishing house, Košice 2009

Peter Karpinský represents his second book for adults Antisumption after 12 years since the debut Notice for all owners of graves (1997). It was worth waiting for so long. Antisumption is a mature and conceptually sophisticated prose collection. Comparing to his debut, in Antisumption author manifestatives the sense of irony, comical elements interfere into the tragical situations. Indubitable refinement of this book related to author erudition, is shown in Allusion to the Bible, myths and world literature. The multiple plans are interacted and blended together in his stories, reality with the irreal, transformed myth with the story from today. The difficult is also the semantics of his latest prose, cause Karpinský can create and keep the secret until the end of text. In everyday situations in block of flats, hospital, newspaper stand, city and odd contryside too, the strange things begin to happen, as the author's characters often have the supernatural power – some phenomena (of our lives either) we cannot understand. Antisumption is an attractive, but not a vacantion book, in which the open conclusions of the stories leaves Karpinský to the reader's concretization.

Pectus publishing house, Košice 2009

Far away from home, in Canada, Karol Manik has completed his memories of the childhood spent in the region of Upper Šariš, memories of the First World War and Italian front line, coup d'état and emigrant anabasis. He has never met with Anuška, author's grandmother, with his grandfathers or father, protagonists of the second narrative line, despite this; similar experience binds them together. The family chronicle begins in summer 1914 and it includes the transformations that the history has undergone from this moment: both World Wars, first and second Czechoslovak Republic, Slovak State between them, short period of relative democracy after the war and its dissolution after February 1948. Petraško draws from other people's and his own memories, from the press of that time and documents of the State Security. National oppression during the Austro-Hungarian Empire, national tension in the Czechoslovak Republic, Jews deportations and uprising, deportations into the Soviet Union and persecution of the political adversaries after the war – this period was evidently not loaded selflessly in favour of the man. He tried to conform, but finally didn't avoid the confrontation. Talking about the turning points in the flow of the time does not sometimes avoid the risk of political incorrectness. Because the history is not the chorale, it is a mixture of voices where everybody has his own place and right – sometime polyphony, another time cacophony.

Pectus publishing house, Košice 2008

As to the motivation, the latest poetry collection from Anna Valcerova Summer snow, brings the miscellaneous poems reflecting another piece of author's life. Anna's life is mercilessly touched by her husband's death. The lyrical actress brings back the moments spent with him before he died. She appreciates his care of the closest one's, which is representing by a wood and stone handmade log cabin as a symbol of their common home-place. With a decent thankfulness, she recapitulates the husband's importance in her life. An interest about the other human destinies, especially about the women, acquires a different taste in this poetry collection. The author emphasizes the power of women, their ability to cope with difficult living situation, which the loss of their man definitely is...