Fu(*n*)k Bomb

Fu(*n*)k Bomb (original title Bomba Funk, 2010) is music critic Karel Vesely's first novel. A 'grotesque mystification' in the grand Czech tradition of dry comedy, which stretches from the Tyrolean Elegies of Karel Havlicek-Borovsky through Jaroslav Hasek's Good Soldier Svejk and the absurdist works of Vaclav Havel and Pavel Kohout, Fu(*n*)k Bomb revolves around the farcical and delightfully humorous idea of saving Czechoslovakia for Communism through the mobilisation of funk music.Set just before the Velvet Revolution in 1989, Jiri, a rather naive true-believer who works at a cultural institution on the outskirts of Prague, is suddenly summoned to the office of President Gustav Husak. The last Communist head of state reveals not only his concern at the growing dissident movement set to topple four decades of Party rule ( This time it s different, he warns young Jiri), but his wild (yet strangely logical) plan of getting the youth of the country back on our side by calling to life a funk band, which will not only captivate music lovers with its irresistible dance-music patterned after the music of oppressed Black America, but also inculcate right-thinking through carefully vetted Socialist lyrics.Accepting the challenge, Jiri sets off on a strange musical adventure, which will not only be the artistic project of his life, but also disabuse him of his childlike naivete in the way things are and the guiding rule of a paternalistic Party. For despite President Husak s support, inter-party scrimmages threaten to undermine the surprisingly successful new pop group, Funky Leninz and by a surprising, yet logical, twist of fate, Jiri and his mates are forced into a dissident position themselves although they are working to preserve the status quo!Vesely s Fu(*n*)k Bomb is not only a witty return trip to late-eighties Prague, complete with tributes to the author s musical heroes, from James Brown and Parliament Funkadelic through Prazsky vyber and Plastic People of the Universe.