The Stolen Smile

The book Ukradený smích (Stolen Laughter) by Oldřich Šuleř is divided into three parts – An American Beetle, Normally Abnormal, and In Socialist Care. In the first part, which describes the joys of childhood at the turn of the 1960s and 70s, you will learn, for example, that it's not a good idea to smuggle a dog from Siberia, store anti-tank mines in the cellar of a tenement building, bring plum brandy to Year 2B, launch rockets over pensioners, get chickens drunk, go after a bear with a pocket knife, rattle chairs, or fail to acquire hand warmers for harder times. In the second part, you will discover the worries of adolescence under the supervision of the StB (State Security) and find out the monetary value of our lives, how a first party can turn into a route march, what happens to class-conscious paedophiles, the end of the Ku Klux Klan in the Bohemian Paradise region, how 'chrudošiví borolové' they are, why it's better not to be a patient of a heroic counter-intelligence officer or walk under the windows of Cuban comrades, how to deal with salmonella during hop picking, how to destroy an identity card, or how a children's printing set can be used to increase morbidity. In the third part, which deals with the pleasures of adulthood in the 1980s, you will get instructions on how to create a fictitious student, be trained for work in a tunnelling crew, have a chat with Lenin, meet Skutr and the socialist misdemeanour committee, 'jump over the leather', experience the most popular banned football match in the world, drive a general to his grave, go at a tank with a pickaxe, meet a nymphomaniac, hunt for toilet paper and sanitary towels, intimidate NATO with your motorised rifle readiness, fail to create the Ostrava Socialist Republic, and finally, become the sworn enemy of both an StB agent and a Charter 77 signatory.