{"id":611,"date":"2024-07-12T14:55:02","date_gmt":"2024-07-12T12:55:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pluh2.wordpress.com\/?page_id=611"},"modified":"2026-02-28T13:11:34","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T13:11:34","slug":"ad-acta","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pluh.org\/index.php\/authors\/patrik-ourednik\/ad-acta\/","title":{"rendered":"Ad acta"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(Case Closed)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cRead this novel and get carried away. And after that: read everything by Ou\u0159edn\u00edk.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What a writer!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Literair Nederland<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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About the Book<\/summary>\n
Original Title<\/strong><\/td>Ad acta<\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/strong><\/td>2006<\/td><\/tr>
Publisher<\/strong><\/td>Torst, Prague<\/td><\/tr>
Rerelease<\/strong><\/td>2016<\/td><\/tr>
Publisher<\/strong><\/td> Volvox Globator<\/td><\/tr>
Pages<\/strong><\/td> 153<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n
Rights Sold<\/summary>\n
France <\/strong><\/td>Allia – Paris<\/td><\/tr>
Hungary<\/strong><\/td>Kalligram – Budapest<\/td><\/tr>
USA <\/strong><\/td>Dalkey Archive – Chicago<\/td><\/tr>
Bulgaria<\/strong><\/td>Prozoretz – Sofia<\/td><\/tr>
Serbia <\/strong><\/td>Dereta – Beograd<\/td><\/tr>
Italy<\/strong><\/td>Keller editore – Rovereto<\/td><\/tr>
Egypt <\/strong><\/td>Al Arabi – Cairo<\/td><\/tr>
Latvia<\/strong><\/td>Petergailis – Riga<\/td><\/tr>
The Netherlands<\/strong><\/td>Zirmiri Press – Amsterdam<\/td><\/tr>
North Macedonia<\/strong><\/td>Magor – Skopje<\/td><\/tr>
Romania<\/strong><\/td>Vremea – Bucharest<\/td><\/tr>
Poland<\/strong><\/td>Fundacja Pogranicze – Sejny<\/td><\/tr>
Turkey <\/strong><\/td>Epona – Istanbul<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/details>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Case Closed<\/em> jumps back and forth between a number of characters and storylines (with some overlap), moving quickly across forty short chapters. The first chapter is entirely in what appears to be chess notation — and similarly there’s a lot of quick back-and-forth repartee in the dialogue-heavy book. The novel is also full of games (including some more chess), clues, mysteries, and ambiguity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Case Closed<\/em> is — arguably — ostensibly a mystery\/thriller: some crimes are committed and investigated (arson, rape, a murder from forty years ago), and one of the central characters is a policeman, chief inspector Vil\u00e9m Lebeda. But this very multilayered novel is also a humorous-critical look at the Czech character and nation over the past decades, into the post-Communist present — as well as an entirely literary game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Life in and as fiction, and philosophical quandaries (right down to the question: “Are we real?”): Ou\u0159edn\u00edk piles it on thick and fast. It works — indeed, it’s tremendously appealing — because he shows such a light, deft touch. Case Closed<\/em> is terribly playful, but not quite fatally so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– The complete review<\/em>’s Review<\/sub><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWhen Ou\u0159edn\u00edk has had enough of his characters, he throws them out of the window or kills them in stupid accidents (one of them dies pushing an old washing machine off a cliff), which explains the mocking hysteria of the story in every sense.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Lib\u00e9ration<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe Prague writer Patrik Ou\u0159edn\u00edk, born in 1957 and living in France since 1984, is a master of subversion. His new novel, \u201cClass\u00e9 sans suite\u201d, will delight fans of the genre and plunge others into perplexity, anguish, confusion, dismay and perhaps despair – all for just 9 euros!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Le Monde<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cOu\u0159edn\u00edk offers tantalizing clues in brief chapters and alternating points of view that are endlessly, and humorously, non-intersecting; but the chain of perhaps unrelated events amounts to a gleeful skewering of the Czech national character and a character-rich, dialogue-sassy send-up colored by a lingering Communist legacy\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Publishers Weekly<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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\u201c\u2018Case Closed\u2019 is a portrait of a time and place\u2014post-Communist Prague\u2014through language. Part of this project is showing how the author frames his reader, and in doing so Ou\u0159edn\u00edk shows the same sensibility as narrator-author as the Praguers he portrays in satire. How is it that a man falling from a window, or a girl being interviewed as a rape-victim can be funny? The clue here is in the pithy, irreverent dialogue of the book\u2019s final chapter: spoken, vernacular, ephemeral.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Bomb Magazine<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Translations<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Ad acta<\/summary>\n

Kalligram, Budapest, 2009<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated by G. Kov\u00e1cs L\u00e1szl\u00f3<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

Ad Acta<\/summary>\n

Prozoretz, Sofia, 2009.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated by Yordanka Trifonova<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

Case Closed<\/summary>\n

Dalkey Archive, Chicago, 2010.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated by Alex Zucker<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

Class\u00e9 sans suite<\/summary>\n

Allia, Paris, 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated by Marianne Canavaggio<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

Class\u00e9 sans suite<\/summary>\n

Allia, Paris, 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated by Marianne Canavaggio<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

Ad acta<\/summary>\n

Beograd, Dereta, 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated by Marija and Aleksandar Ili\u0107<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

Lieta ir slegta<\/summary>\n

Petergailis, Riga, 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated by Halina Lapi\u0146a<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

Caso irrisolto<\/summary>\n

Keller<\/strong>, Roverto, 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated by Alessandro Catalano<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

Een afgedane zaak<\/summary>\n

Zirimiri Press, Amsterdam, 2017<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated by Edgar de Bruin<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

\u062d\u0641\u0638\u062a \u0627\u0644\u0642\u0636\u064a\u0629<\/summary>\n

Al Arabi, Cairo, 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated by Khalid El Biltagi<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

Ad acta<\/summary>\n

Vremea, Bucharest, 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated by Helliana Ianculescu<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

Ad acta<\/summary>\n

Pogranicze, Sejny, 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated by Jan Stachowski<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

Dava kapandi<\/summary>\n

Istanbul, Epona, 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated by G\u00f6ktu\u011f B\u00f6rtl\u00fc<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Case Closed) \u201cRead this novel and get carried away. And after that: read everything by Ou\u0159edn\u00edk. What a writer!\u201d \u2014 Literair Nederland Case Closed jumps back and forth between a number of characters and storylines (with some overlap), moving quickly across forty short chapters. The first chapter is entirely in what appears to be chess […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":628,"parent":178,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-611","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pluh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pluh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pluh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pluh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pluh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pluh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1812,"href":"https:\/\/pluh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/611\/revisions\/1812"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pluh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/178"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pluh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pluh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}