The Apartment. A Two-hander Novel

Reviews

"An abode where you’d like to abide: This joint novel was a risk that paid off

This joint novel by Jana Šrámková and Jan Němec was a long-awaited event in the Czech literary world, or at least that part of it which is not on the look-out for a traditional romance set against the backdrop of the Holocaust or the dark Sudetenland, but for a work that manages to leave the beaten track and intrigue not only with its plot, but also with its thoughtful form, language and questioning. (…)

Both Daniel and Zuzana struggle with complicated family relationships and their own loneliness and sensitivity. Both have similar worldviews, intelligence and millennial habits; both are also shaped by the social situation: the pandemic, anti-vaxxers and the war in Ukraine. Tension and conflict are brought into their lives not only through their cautious bonding, but in particular by their relationships with their immediate families.

(…)  Both Šrámková and Němec are literary professionals who knowingly work with the thematic structure of the novel, with leitmotifs and allusions. Without making any grand gestures, they play with language, composition and narrative perspectives without making it difficult for the reader to understand. For example, palindromes, expressions and sentences reading the same both forwards and backwards, constantly enter the narrative, echoing the ‘two-headed’ form of the novel, the two protagonists’ journeys from and to each other, a life bounded by birth (of Susan’s child) and death (of Daniel’s father).

The novel is powerful not only at the moments when the characters are dealing with their own wounds and doubts, but in particular when it touches on the crucial moments of human existence among the banalities of everyday life.

(…)

The language of both characters is sophisticated, reflecting their nature and internal make-up, as well as the authorial style of both writers: Zuzana’s is colourful, rich, lively, full of emotions, metaphors and quotations. Daniel’s is rational, civil, almost detached, venting his emotions through painful memories and ironic, caustically funny passages in which he comments on the world around him and his father’s character. In this way, they both work their way towards the main thing: reconciliation, acceptance of themselves and their past, and perhaps a new beginning, whatever that may be.

Dual construction of a text is a risk taken by authors, but it works out in the case of Zuzana and Daniel’s story. The Apartment is a novel that encourages the reader to keep coming back to both characters’ perspectives, to explore and question them, and to look for intersections and new meanings in the texts. To dwell here and not just to leave."

Alena Šidáková Fialová, Respekt

 

"The novel as a palindrome of experimental coexistence

The authors offer us two stories, one told from the perspective of Daniel (Jan Němec), the other from the standpoint of Zuzana (Jana Šrámková), whose fates eventually entwine, and the individual moments of the events they experience are seen from their different points of view.

(…) Němec’s writing is incisive, there is no lack of witty and ironic quips, and his narrative flows as well as that of Scandinavian crime fiction. However, the cynical veneer of his protagonist’s daringly written and stylistically polished pose cracks at times, and his acknowledged emotions and vulnerability ooze through the cracks. (…)

Šrámková’s language is lyrical, interspersed with quotations from poetry, while the disjointed chronology obscures the events, claiming the reader’s attention and reinforcing the impression of a tired mother’s brain, a position somewhere on the edge of life, an instinctiveness compelling her character to deal primarily with her basic needs and her child. Vivid images emerge here from the mind of the protagonist, who, additionally, sometimes mistakenly inserts her own defective knowledge of the realities, thus raising the question whether this lack of understanding is not to some extent a take-away from the book, namely that for a full understanding of the whole and the Other there is always something missing. (…)

The probably unintended theme of generational reconciliation resonates particularly strongly. Two fragile millennials go over their past and lick their deeper wounds, coming to terms with the role models of their parents, whose footsteps they did not wish to follow, but because life’s buffets have bounced them into positions they did not intend to find themselves in, they find that they are sometimes sinking into those footsteps as if into mud.  This reflection and reassessment of relationships between generations is accompanied by a search for what is at the heart of a partnership, what and who makes us (un)happy. (...) In these respects, the novel is a powerful generational confession with a bittersweet ending."

Aneta Mladějovská, Tvar

 

"Uncertainty mirrored precisely

You can start reading the book from either side, but it’s not as easy as with a “double-sided notebook” (...) The text always runs on the right side, with its own pagination, while on the left side the story unfolds in a counter-current, upside-down. The fact that the reading flows smoothly is no doubt down to the discreet work of typographer Martin Pecina, who had to create a perfect balance in the design and layout of the page and other graphic elements, as well as to the two authors, who needed to arrive at the same text length. (…)

The Apartment is a dual novel that is surely going to be talked about again and again (...) It was written by two authors who know how to write, each in their own distinctive style. (...) What for me was the most positive aspect of the prose is the overall structure of mirroring and uncertainty that is firmly embedded in both of its most important levels, i.e. its composition and its characters. It is this uncertainty, inconsistency and (emotional) opacity, into which the narrative dives with a very questionable claim to catharsis, that makes The Apartment not just literarily interesting but also generationally accurate: this is what adulthood often looks like at the time we are left with a frequently-invoked individual responsibility but few resources to shoulder it."

Jan M. Heller, Tvar

 

"The Apartment is not an experiment, but an accurate record of empathy

Both texts (...) would also work independently – as testimony to male and female solitude, both existential and subsistential. It is up to the reader to decide whether this loneliness is multiplied or divided by Daniel’s and Zuzana’s meeting."

Jonáš Zbořil Seznam Zprávy

 

"A brilliant literary game that can be read from both sides

This unusual experiment by Němec and Šrámková has been a success. The two separate parts do not compete with each other. Quite the reverse, little by little they form an enjoyable jigsaw puzzle. After finishing the first half, you are not tempted to put the book down, but you are encouraged to search for answers to the questions that the other author left open.

A strong motif here is the family, who these authors consider to be an overrated community of people that rarely share more than their genes. They are often dominated by hypocrisy and a desire to control others, albeit with the supposedly pure intention of seeking their happiness.

There is a remarkable synergy between the two distinctive literary styles. They are united by clarity of language without falling into banality. In addition to the witty palindromes with which the protagonists regale each other, the writers show a considerable flair for imagery and detailed observation of relational nuances."

Kristýna Skalníková, Právo