I am almost finished with this book, which I stumbled across quite at random in the library stacks. It’s a military satire set in the Austro-Hungarian army in World War I, written by a Czech soldier in the early ’20s (and cut short, unfortunately, by his untimely death).
The main character, Švejk, is “an idiot” who ends up conscripted and eventually becomes a batman to several officers. Cleverer than he presents himself to his officers, he spends considerable time sitting cheerfully in military prisons, commiserating with the other brutalized misfits as he prepares to winsomely liberate himself, often with the help of a kind or befuddled officer.
The book, which was originally published as brief newspaper installments, is a bit uneven, especially for the first third or so. But once the narrative hits its stride and the chapters get longer, the book, and especially the characters, really get a chance to shine. Even throwaway or gimmick characters have are the right combination of life-like and over-the-top, and there were many occasions where I cheered at a character’s reappearance or at their failure to learn from their own mistakes (allowing them to create a whole new mess to get out of).
The version I read, printed in the ’70s, is accompanied by some of the (hundreds of) original illustrations by Josef Lada. These really served to ground me in the narrative; often I’d be reading about soldiers who could have been drawn from any army or war, and just as I’d pictured them as, say, *M*A*S*H* characters there would be an illustration to remind me of their grandiose Habsburg facial hair. It was good to be shocked back into the actual context of the story, though military satire has a timelessness that (when combined with the quality of the humor) makes the book of more than just historical interest. Would definitely recommend to anyone who finds the description appealing.
by Roland_D_Sawyboy