Pavel Hrúz belongs to the most unusual manifestations in Slovak prose in recent decades. His debut had surprised with its dispassionate expression, with its interest in the social class on the periphery of society and the maximum concentration of utterance. Although he was unable to publish for almost twenty years these qualities of his prose with the addition of autobiographical elements matured to a literary perfectionism, which has no equal in Slovak literature.
The biting humour, striking dialogue, tight form, the many-layers in style and expression and multiple meanings touch the deep, underground currents in the individual and in society rejecting myth, ideology and false ideals. The people in Hrúz's stories and novellas create a bizarre, active, non-intellectual world where the motivation for their actions unquestionably is affected by a principle of self-preservation or self-advancement, which does not protect them from selfishness, thoughtlessness and exploitation yet it is a state of desire to preserve oneself and not succumb to convention. With these qualities, the bizarre figures of castaways in Hrúz's prose confront a stagnating society and in fact give lessons in morality, feeling and authenticity. Hrúz's magical storytelling reaches the deepest layers of the human psyche and also a global atmosphere as significant stories occur in different times and at different stylistic levels. Hrúz's prose has in this way become a modern expression of a world without ideology and the existential problems of the world at the end of the rational 20 th century.
Alexander Halvoník
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