Dragon on a Dirt Road

Reviews

"Hájíček’s Dragon on a Dirt Road raises more pessimistic questions than ever, presenting the modern-day village, “South Bohemianism” and the peasant temperament in darker shades, together with the dose of melancholy and nostalgia that is simply part and parcel of the author’s style. He presents believable characters and a socially important theme, while maintaining his unique signature and artistic standard."

Anna Šidáková Fialová, Tvar

 

"A substantial work has come into our hands...

(…)

Finance shapes characters, but what matters most to Hájíček is what it does to the village itself. He has the ability to build his characters’ personalities very solidly in one or two paragraphs, but most importantly, he has the skill to portray the character of the entire community. He’s a true master at that. Unspoken relationships, forgotten situations, furtive glances, all this creates a mixture of contradictions called the South Bohemian countryside.

Dragon on a Dirt Road is at its strongest the moment it ceases to be dominated by its chief characters’ bonding as partners, and the reader – like Tomáš – understands that the usurpers are not going to give up their little morsels in the shape of the local agricultural company. Hájíček doesn’t need to complicate the situation with plot structure and he fully immerses himself in the organism that is the countryside. He is able to analyse it without dissecting it. He is also able to like it without ceasing to criticize it. And above all, he is able to depict it perfectly, perhaps even bring it to life."

Aleš Palán Právo Salon

 

"Jiří Hájíček does not have an easy position. He has won almost every literary award that can be collected in the Czech Republic. Some of them even more than once, though he did turn down the 2018 State Prize for Literature. His readers and literary critics have praised him for his careful mapping of the South Bohemian countryside, writing so poetically and universally that his stories from this little world of small villages have travelled the length and breadth of the land. They are about the breakdown of relationships, ecological disasters (caused by man), loneliness and isolation.

(…)

[In this new novel,] rural unrest is being stirred up by big capital. Big Dragon is buying up shares in a large estate, which essentially means it is pitting the inhabitants of a single village against each other. This can’t be helped – they may always have had damaged relations.

Hájíček may seem repetitive at first glance, but it cannot be said that he is writing about a long-exhausted topic. Dragon on a Dirt Road seems to be a very topical book. The writer’s quiet, poetic style may give the impression that this new prose work is somehow for relaxation – but it isn’t. Beneath the crust of the quiet rural landscape, there lurks a threat. And Hájíček takes a bold approach towards it."

Jonáš Zbořil, Seznam zprávy

 

"In particular the swan song of vanishing traditions resounds strongly as a backdrop to this story."

Kryštof Eder, Host

 

"It may seem unfair to compare anything to Vojtěch Jasný’s famous film All Good Countrymen / Všichni dobří rodáci, as this is a gem that is hard to follow. However, if we were to give the new novel by the České Budějovice novelist Jiří Hájíček a label, then we could say that it is a new version of All Good Countrymen. Dragon on a Dirt Road shows that the problems of the Czech countryside did not end with the fall of the communist regime. After the collectivization and dekulakization in which communist illiterates destroyed local agriculture, we now have a phenomenon called the “hostile takeover”, which is mostly performed by former secret police agents and communists who feathered their nest because they were more ready to do so than anyone else... And they have no moral scruples to boot."

Ondřej Horák, Playboy

 

"The author also reflects on how difficult it is sometimes to combine the different worlds of two people living together. How to age well when the joy of life is fading, and how important it is to feel grounded – in a particular place and in life itself. (…)

Hájíček knows how to tell a story without any grand stylistic or other gestures, and he succeeds this time again. The story and drama slowly emerge from the seemingly humble, calm narration. Without formal mannerisms, he portrays the characters, their way of thinking and behaving in a cogent but unspectacular manner.

Occasionally he gives the reader a “view” of the South Bohemian landscape, with which he has a personal relationship, but he does not drown in lyrical passages. The main driving force behind the novel remains the plot, hand in hand with natural and lively dialogue. Hájíček’s language is civil, but when the situation calls for it, he embellishes it with subtle poetic imagery. (...)

Actually, Dragon on a Dirt Road does not particularly deviate either thematically or formally from the author’s main body of work. South Bohemia is still there, as are the countryside and the marvellous psychology of the local inhabitants and the main character with the rather autobiographical traits, who is struggling on several fronts in his life."

Petra Smítalová, Denník N

 

"Is the latest novel by Jiří Hájíček Dragon on a Dirt Road the finest fruit of our literary autumn?

(…)

The novel (...) confirms that the author’s strengths continue to include a deep knowledge of the South Bohemian region and the workings of the rural community, as well as the ability to come up with a multi-layered protagonist and endow his personal story with an interesting social overlay."

Peter Nagy, Reflex

 

"Dragon on the Dirt Road has two main characters, Tomáš and Vlasta. In their relations the author has managed to extremely well portray the mutual human and work-related trust that will withstand every test, even if these Lhotec farm workhorses do not emerge victorious from their duel with Big Dragon. It has been a long time since contemporary Czech literature has seen a working and neighbourly relationship, a strong friendship between two mature men, portrayed so unspectacularly, believably, without irony or any other winking or relativizing.

One can see from the text what an experienced, accomplished fiction writer Hájíček is. Craftwise, he’s very well-versed, shaping the narrative into short images."

Josef Chuchma Respekt

 

"When I want to look inside myself, I turn to Hájíček. His books, like Dragon on a Dirt Road, are about the areas of friction between different worlds and finding a home within oneself. They are about inner integrity and the polarization of society.

And that’s why I see them as timeless. The readers already know that they will find themselves in the South Bohemian countryside in a locals’ cottage, with a middle-aged chief protagonist looking for one last chance. But Hájíček brings new symbols to these tried-and-tested basics, this time “men from the big wide world who are buying up the local land and uprooting everyone. And a girl from the city”. But the line between change, consistency and rigidity is not sharp. And time is running out."

Martina Břeňová, Open Society Fund Foundation Director, Denník N Book of the Year survey