Michal Viewegh  is a Czech writer. He is the most published Czech author of all time, with over a million books sold. In 1993, he earned the prestigious Jiří Orten award for Czech writers 30 years old or younger.

Viewegh survived a traumatic aortic rupture in 2012.

Life

Michal Viewegh was born in Prague on 31 March 1962. His mother is a lawyer. His father was a chemical engineer, and then the mayor of Sázava.

Viewegh graduated from Benešov Gymnazium in 1980. He suffered from depression and memory loss during his rehabilitation and was unable to write. However, it also helped him gain a new perspective on the relative importance of some of his problems before the accident. Viewegh said that when he thinks about the fact that 90% of people with a ruptured aorta do not survive, he does not worry about criticism, the tabloids, or politics anymore.

He has lived most of his life in Sázava, a village in central Bohemia. He sells around 50,000 copies per book and has sold over a million books total, making him the most published Czech author of all time. His works have been translated into 23 languages. He publishes at a much slower rate than before the injury. The general consensus is that the quality of his writing has also declined; however, some argue that his works are less successful due to poor promotion from his publisher.

Relationship with tabloid newspapers

For years, Viewegh has fought Czech tabloids in the court system, and criticized them publicly, accusing the tabloids of invading his privacy and of publishing false information about him. In 2009, Viewegh and actor Marek Vašut started a petition Vzkaz bulváru a výzva kolegům (A Message to the Tabloids and an Appeal to Colleagues) criticizing Czech tabloid tactics. Many influential artists, including actress Jiřina Bohdalová, signed the petition.

Political views

Viewegh's 1992 novel Báječná léta pod psa uses humor to criticize conditions in Czechoslovakia under communism.

Viewegh was unhappy as a writer under communism, but likes the liberties of post-communist Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic. Viewegh has said that "in the eighties I wrote two novels and neither of them were published. They were banned from being printed for the normal ideological reasons. After the revolution came absolute freedom. I was able to write just how I wanted, and to publish whatever I wanted."

Viewegh is also opposed to right-wing former Czech president Václav Klaus. This attitude is most notably displayed in his 2002 novel Báječná léta s Klausem (The Wonderful Years with Klaus), which is a loose continuation of Báječná léta pod psa.

Scandals

In his column for Lidové noviny (Czech newspaper and online news site) published on 1 October 2018, Viewegh criticised Christine Blasey Ford's allegations of sexual assault against Brett Kavanaugh on the grounds that "putting her in an empty room, groping her, covering her mouth while trying to undress her" was an "innocent high-school petting" and that he thanks God that he, as a pubescent, was free to grope his female schoolmates without endangering his future career, without any "North-American cow" complaining about it. He has been criticised in turn by criminologist Pavel Houdek in a published open letter, that his views are what makes victims of sexual abuse keep it to themselves.

Bibliography

  • 1990 Názory na vraždu ("Opinions on a Murder")
  • 1992 Báječná léta pod psa ("Bliss Was It In Bohemia") - humorous bestseller about the Communist era; adapted to film as Those Wonderful Years That Sucked in 1997 (co-scripted by Jan Novák)
  • 1993 Nápady laskavého čtenáře ("Thoughts of a Loving Reader") - collection of literary parodies
  • 1994 Výchova dívek v Čechách ("Bringing Up Girls in Bohemia") - translated by A. G. Brain (pseudonym of Gerald Turner) in 1996, ; made into a film in 1997
  • 1996 Účastníci zájezdu ("Tourists on an Excursion") - made into a film in 2006, successful at Tribeca Film Festival
  • 1998 Zapisovatelé otcovský lásky ("Notes on Fatherly Love")
  • 1999 Povídky o manželství a sexu ("Tales of Marriage and Sex") - adapted to film as Shameless in 2008 (co-written with Jan Hřebejk)
  • 2000 Nové nápady laskavého čtenáře ("New Thoughts of a Loving Reader") - second collection of literary parodies
  • 2001 Román pro ženy ("A Woman's Novel") - made into a film in 2005
  • 2002 Báječná léta s Klausem ("Wonderful Years with Klaus") - loose sequel to the first Wonderful Years criticising Václav Klaus before the Czech legislative election, 2002
  • 2003 Případ nevěrné Kláry ("The Case of Unfaithful Clara") - the 2009 film of the same name is loosely based on the novel
  • 2004 Vybíjená ("Dodgeball")
  • 2004 Tři v háji – with Halina Pawlowská and Iva Hercíková
  • 2006 Lekce tvůrčího psaní ("The Creative Writing Lesson") - novella
  • 2006 Báječný rok ("Wonderful Year") - a diary of 2005
  • 2007 Andělé všedního dne ("Angels of the Everyday") - novella with experience about his father's death
  • 2008 Román pro muže ("A Man's Novel")
  • 2009 Něco na těch Vánocích být musí ("What's So Special About Christmas, Anyway?") - short story collection published in 2010 by Garamond (Czech/English parallel text)
  • 2010 Biomanželka ("Eco-Wife")
  • 2011 Mafie v Praze ("The Mafia in Prague")
  • 2012 Mráz přichází z Hradu ("The Big Freeze from Prague Castle")
  • 2013 Můj život po životě ("My Life After Life")
  • 2015 Biomanžel ("Eco-Husband")

Collections of newspaper columns:

  • Švédské stoly aneb Jací jsme (2000)
  • Na dvou židlích (2004)

References

  • Michael Viewegh at the Dana Blatná Literary Agency
  • Michal Viewegh at Czechoslovak book network Baila.net

Works online in English

  • Hooter(short story), with a photo and brief biography
  • The Blissful Years of Lousy Living - translated excerpt from Báječná léta pod psa
  • Another Mournful Joke - parody of Milan Kundera