Christ Is Dancing

Adam Georgiev

Nakladatelství Petrklíč

About this ebook

Christ Is Dancing is the most well-known book of Czech author Adam Georgiev, the best-selling gay author in the Czech Republic. Mariusz Szczygiel, Polish journalist and winner of the European Book Prize, wrote that this book is “the best Czech literary reportage he has read,“ while the Polish daily, Gazeta Prawna wrote “it is as if Almodóvar wrote We Children from Bahnhof Zoo.“ This young gay man‘s journey of self-realization and homosexual experience was likened to Dante’s hell by European critics. The book acheived cult status among some Czech gays, while other gays condemned it. According to one critic, it offers a universal message, a mirror reflecting not only the life of urban gays, but also one reflecting the whole world within a certain slice of time.

Ratings and reviews

One of the best books I have read in years. Really. Mr. Georgiev has a style which is utterly romantic, banal, transcendant - and annoying - all at once! I found myself reading through it twice this week, each time in one sitting. A fascinating voice, this author transcends queer culture and speaks to the heart of contemporary culture; despite the skinny sneaker boy subculture references, we see the mind and heart of a man in search of meaning, entertainment and distraction, but above all, feeling. Highly recommended!

About the author

Adam Georgiev (4 July 1980, Prague) is a Czech poet and author of prose. He is most known as an author of homosexual prose; in 2010 he was declared by Czech Television to be the most sold gay author in the country.

For his book, Básník Trýzeň Kat/Poet Torment Executioner (2007), a collection of verses from 1997-2007, he received two nominations for the Book of the Year 2007 from a professional poll done by the prominent Czech daily Lidové noviny. One of the nominations from this poll was from Eva Kantůrková, the president of the Academy of Czech Literature ("What attracted me was the defiant nature of the text, which resists not only the popular but also the literary mood of our day and age content with banality."); another nomination was from Mariusz Szczygiel, winner of the European Book Prize ("I didn't expect such metaphysics and spirituality after the death of Ladislav Klíma."). Dr. Alexej Mikulášek, literary expert, wrote about the book: "It is one of best to come out of Czech literature this past year."

As an author of prose, he became established with three books known as the "homosexual trilogy": Planeta samých chlapců (2008)/Christ Is Dancing, Bulvár slunce/Boulevard of the Sun (2009) and Zabij mě, Eliso/Kill Me, Elisa (2009). They are characterized by their openness towards homosexuality, unprecedented not only in the Czech literary context, but elsewhere as well. Review of prestigious literary journal Literární noviny captured the trauma of gay society encoded in Georgiev’s texts: "We are led to believe by Georgiev more often than not that homosexuals are not loved, that love is missing, that it is pushed away by sexuality." Excerpts from Boulevard of the Sun are included in the highly successful Czech anthologies, Kniha o čuráku/Book About a Dick and Kniha o mrdání/Book About Screwing (both published in 2009).

Georgiev shifted his later prose away from the statement of his distinctive generation towards works that were in terms of content and style more isolated. Part of these works are the fictitious letters from Paul Verlaine to Arthur Rimbaud in the book Arthure, ty děvko umění/Arthur, You Whore of Art (2010); winner of the Gold Globe, director Agnieszka Holland wrote the forward to this book and the Czech daily Právo wrote, "It is a testimony of bodily passion and literary creation." And above all, a part of these works is the dark and controversial novel about evil in the name of love, Třepetavý zvuk ptačích křídel/Fluttering Sounds of Birds Wings (2011), which deals with the relationship of a soldier and young lad. These texts are characterized by their moderation, and the author himself proudly describes them as literary minimalism.

Georgiev has also been successful in Poland where he was published by Krytyka Polityczna. At Jagiellonian University in Cracow a dissertation came about from his works in 2010. Mariusz Szczygiel wrote in the book, Udělej si ráj/Make Yourself a Paradise,"Georgiev’s books are about values." Georgiev’s works have also been translated into Bulgarian and partly into Dutch. In 2013, the first translation into English was taken up (Planeta samých chlapců, entitled Christ Is Dancing).

During his short career, Georgiev has been compared several times at home and abroad to world-renowned authors. His style has been likened to "Kunderian poetics," "Gutiérrezian naturalism," and to the "fragmentation and rhythm of a later Beigbeder".

In 2012, the Czech media's attention was piqued when Agnieszka Holland backed out from her original promise of christening Georgiev’s social-critical prose Večeře u spisovatelky/ Dinner with the Authoress. The story unfolds on the backdrop of a relationship between a younger male author and an older female author, where the pre-Velvet Revolutionary and post-Velvet Revolutionary literary experience is sharply confronted.


"The famous American gay author Edmund White once said that church dogma is the building block of the myth of the homosexual as a victim. The goal of contemporary gay authors is to change this myth and together with it the dogma. Adam Georgiev – an inhabitant of "kingdom of atheism" which makes up the Czech lands – is one of the few authors fulfilling this goal. He is an author who isn’t held back by sexuality."



Gazeta Wyborcza





"If there are two kinds of books which exist within literature, the good and the bad, then this one is decided idly in its provocative manner good. The universe of Adam Georgiev is so modern with its fears and anxieties that it is necessary to praise his realism. It is a bold novel. The author pulls off a certain rhythm, which we find with such authors like Gutiérrez or Beigbeder. The intentional overstepping of aesthetic and moral norms accentuates the novel’s events and makes it more powerful. It brings about a satisfaction from the reader and also suspense from the blending of certain episodes. Drama and sadness, but in no way superficiality. The right formula for literature. This novel is certainly a success especially during a time when casual and light prose is preferred."



helikon.bg





"An analogy between the myths of European culture and their spiritual heritage comes to mind. The storyteller, like Vergilius, leads the reader through all of the realms of hell and even to it's lowest one. In contrast to the work of Dante, the deeper penetration into Satan's kingdom is not bound up with worse and worse forms of physical suffering, but rather by approaching nothingness and emptiness. Georgiev is building a modern variation of the Divine Comedy in which the body doesn't experience the horror of existence, but on the contrary, the human psyche, intellect, and powers of deduction do."

e-splot.pl




Official presentation and contact: www.facebook.com/AdamGeorgiev