Novel
Dlhý čas čakania
Not translated into English
Vladimír Mináč · 1958
Synopsis
The first part of a trilogy that the author later brought together under the title Generácia, and which covers the years 1943 to 1948: the atmosphere of the Slovak State, the outbreak of the national uprising, then the coup of February 1948. At the centre is the intellectual development of the hero, Marek Uhrín, around which digressions and short tales follow one another and make up the portrait of an era. The characters mostly embody opposed ideological positions, and history clearly marks their destinies.
Context
The novel appeared in 1958; Živí a mŕtvi followed in 1959 and Zvony zvonia na deň in 1961, and only afterwards did the author give the whole the name Generácia. The trilogy also seeks to rehabilitate the image of the uprising, distorted by the Stalinist trials. Until 1989, it ranked among the major works of socialist literature and was used in schools; critics reproached it for a rational construction that outweighs spontaneity, and it has been read as a sharp opposition of black and white, which makes the uprising a Communist victory.
Who it is for
A novel of ideas, with little action and much reflection, the first step of a long fresco.
Prizes and reception
Opens its author's trilogy, one of the most discussed works on the war and the uprising.