Review
Ján Koška
07.08.2013

Vincent Šikula - Menuet prez posti

(Lenten Minuet)

With four well-received books to his credit the Slovak writer Vincent Šikula (b. 1936) is an established name among foreign writers in Bulgaria. His first work to appear in Bulgarian was Holidays with Uncle Raphael (Prázdniny so strýcom Rafaelom) in 1968, translated by Ganka Kalcheva. This was followed by Moistness (Vlha) in 1980, translated by Matilda Beracha. The third transaltion appeared in 1983 and comprised the two novellas With Rozarka and Hazels (S Rozarkou a Liesky) and took its title from the former. The fourth is Lenten Minuet (Pôstny menuet), published in 1999 and translated by Dimitar Stefanov.

            In addition to the title story the volume contains a further six, as well as comments on the writer's works by Andrej Červeňák, Pavol Števček, Vincent Šabík and Viliam Marčok and the translator's afterword. Stefanov characterises Šikula as follows: "He does not tell of himself, of his heroes, the place where he was born. He tells himself, his heroes, the place where he was born. He is an exceptional storyteller. From the twelve childhoods in the family (Vincent has five brothers and six sisters), he has retained the child's curiosity and purity of vision and his eternal childhood in his books. The destinies of his unexceptional characters are so close to him that we can hardly distinguish where they are in him and he is in them. He knows so much truth about himself and others that his sadness from knowing is only natural. He does not force truth, it cleanses us sadness and not with rational constructs. I have tried to preserve the purity of detail and the coloured word of Vincent Šikula, the truth which brings sound and light."