Rivers of Babylon

The novel was one of the first responses to the state of Slovak society after the fall of communism, the “fine life” amidst a suddenly acquired freedom, which offers equal opportunities for anyone who can find them and take his chance. The story is based on a tangle of affairs, as follows: the man who becomes the owner of the luxury Ambassador hotel, as well as all apartment houses in the vicinity, is a boilerman who one day becomes angry with the general manager. He switches off the heating, and gradually, by his calculating peasant hard-headedness, turns himself into an indispensable figure in the city and the state, while the former general manager freezes in his office... The boilerman, a pseudohero, is a warped individual with a comics-type character mix, who is prepared at any time to adapt himself to circumstances. The novel is in places deliberately kitschy, vulgar to the point of perversion, psychologically savage. It includes much truth, but also much detachment, expressed via the ironic gesture. The author is not didactic. His mockery and satire are in-your-face, equally sharp against all who may deserve them.